References
Facsimile [PDF, 838k]TEI

Under the Signo of Saxo - History, Identity and Nation in the History of the Danes

  • Sous le signe de Saxo – histoire, identité et nation dans la Geste des Danois
  • Im Zeichen Saxos – Geschtichte, Identität und Nation in der Taten der Dänen

Peter Andersen, Frédérique Harry, Simon Lebouteiller, Caroline Olsson, Christian Bank Pedersen and Jules Piet

DOI : 10.57086/sources.922

p. 17-26

Translated from:
Sous le signe de Saxo – histoire, identité et nation dans la Geste des Danois

    Abstracts

    This introduction summarises the aims of the colloquium held in Caen on June 23 and 24, 2023, and briefly presents the proceedings, which contain eleven contributions based on papers – six in French and five in English –, as well as the first critical edition of the Reges Daniæ, a collection of distiches composed in 1602 by Jon Jacobsen alias Venusinus. These distiches, closely following the History of the Danes, and written at the request of King Christian IV, were intended to decorate 100 new guns. The papers of the colloquium thus cover many aspects of Saxo Grammaticus’ monumental work, completed in the early 13th century and printed in Paris in 1514 – studying important features of the original version without neglecting its reception in contemporary literature and cinema.

    L’introduction résume les objectifs du colloque organisé les 23 et 24 juin 2023 à Caen et en présente succinctement les actes (onze contributions issues des communications, six français et cinq en anglais), ainsi que la première édition critique des Reges Daniæ, un recueil de distiques composés en 1602 d’après la Geste des Danois par Jon Jacobsen dit le Vénusin à la demande du roi Christian IV et destinés à décorer 100 nouveaux canons. Les communications abordent donc de nombreux aspects de l’œuvre monumentale achevée au début du xiiie siècle par Saxo Grammaticus et imprimée en 1514 à Paris. Elles portent à la fois sur la version originale et sa réception jusque dans la littérature et le cinéma contemporains.

    Die Einleitung fasst die Ziele der Tagung zusammen, die am 23. und 24. Juni 2023 in Caen stattgefunden hat, und stellt kurz den Tagungsband vor: elf Beiträge auf der Grundlage von Vorträgen – sechs auf Französisch und fünf auf Englisch – sowie die erste kritische Ausgabe der Reges Daniæ, einer Sammlung von Distichen, die 1602 von Jon Jacobsen alias Venusinus verfasst wurden. Diese Distichen, die sich eng an die Taten der Dänen anlehnen und auf Wunsch von König Christian IV. verfasst wurden, sollten 100 neue Kanonen schmücken. Die Tagungsbeiträge decken somit viele Aspekte des monumentalen Werks von Saxo Grammaticus ab, das im frühen 13. Jahrhundert fertiggestellt und 1514 in Paris gedruckt wurde. Dabei werden wichtige Merkmale der Originalversion untersucht, ohne die Rezeption in der zeitgenössischen Literatur und im Kino zu vernachlässigen.

    Outline

    Text

    In most European countries, the formation of national identity is a phenomenon whose birth is traditionally situated between the 18th and 19th centuries. This is also the case for Denmark where the loss of Norway in 1814 and the defeat to Prussia and Austria in 1864 are of particular importance. The premises of this phenomenon are however already perceptible in the Middle Ages, and the History of the Danes plays a major place in this respect.

    Archbishop Absalon instigated this work that Saxo Grammaticus, Canon of Lund, began around 1180, and completed around 1210. The History of the Danes offers a monumental history of Danish sovereigns over more than 2,000 years. Saxo begins with a preface including a geographical description of the North, and then devotes the first part of his work to the mythical kings of Denmark, starting the story with the ascension to the throne of Dan, the eponymous founder of the Danish nation. In a second section, he approaches the successive reigns of historical sovereigns, from Harald Bluetooth, considered in traditional historiography to be the unifier and evangeliser of Denmark, to Valdemar the Great.

    This immense Latin fresco, which attained only a limited circulation in the Middle Ages, benefits from a major revival of interest from the beginning of the modern era onwards. Thanks to Saxo, Denmark acquires a glorious past and, in certain respects, the History of the Danes appears as a founding text like the Iliad in Greece, the Aeneid in Italy, the Song of Roland in France and the Song of the Nibelungs in Germany. With the first edition from 1514, the History of the Danes became an essential reference for Danish historiography until the Age of Enlightenment, while it provoked a more hostile reading on the Swedish side. If current historians are more cautious about the veracity of the accounts, the History of the Danes remains today a central source for studying medieval Denmark and is therefore perceived as the great classic of the Danish Middle Ages. However, it is still a relatively unknown work abroad, even if it inspired several famous rewritings, such as the legends of William Tell in Switzerland and Hamlet in England.

    The History of the Danes was the subject of our international colloquium held on June 23 and 24, 2023, in the Auditorium of the Caen Castle. The scientific committee brought together eight specialists from six universities: Peter Andersen (Strasbourg), Ingvil Brügger Budal (Bergen), François Émion (Paris), Frédérique Harry (Paris), Simon Lebouteiller (Caen), Caroline Olsson (Lyon), Christian Bank Pedersen (Caen) and Jules Piet (Strasbourg). It was financially supported by the research groups ERLIS (UR 4254, Caen), LCE (UR 1853, Lyon 2), ARCHE (UMR 3400, Strasbourg) and REIGENN (UR 3556, Paris). It benefited also from grants from the University of Caen Normandy, the urban community Caen la Mer, and Undervisnings- og Forskningsministeriet (Danish Ministry of Education and Research).

    Image

    The colloquium intended to study the constitution of a Danish national identity by focusing on Saxo and his work, albeit not exclusively. Some contributions dealt with texts prior to the History of the Danes – for example to compare Saxo’s account with the different historiographical traditions –, and his reception before the 1514 edition. Other contributions addressed the period during which this work was considered as a national “Bible”, especially during the conflicts with Sweden, and its role during the birth of modern Danish historiography. The contemporary reception of Saxo was also discussed, notably through the numerous translations and the re-appropriation in literature and audiovisual production.

    The colloquium included twelve lectures, six in French and six in English, as François Émion, Senior Lecturer in Scandinavian Studies at Sorbonne-University, Paris, had to cancel his planned contribution on George Dumézil’s works on Saxo. Keynote speaker Mia Münster-Swendsen, Professor at the University of Roskilde, opened the conference with a lecture entitled (Re)constructing the Past – Saxo and Contemporary European Historiographies. For personal reasons as well, she could not publish her lecture. The present volume organises the contributions thematically following the order of their presentation. The eleven conference contributions are followed by a critical edition of the Reges Daniæ, distiches composed in 1602 after the History of the Danes by Jon Jacobsen, known as Venusinus.

    The first contribution is a general introduction to Saxo’s work, presented jointly by Jules Piet, PhD in Nordic Studies at the University of Strasbourg and author of a thesis on euhemerism in Saxo’s and Snorri’s works (2023), and Peter Andersen, Professor of Germanic Studies at the University of Strasbourg and author in 2012 of Nordens Gotiske Storhedstid (The Gothic Glory Days of the North), with a princeps edition of Petreius’ Umbra Saxonis (Saxo’s Shadow) (1579). The contribution of Piet and Andersen describes the proven sources of the History of the Danes, the testimonies related to the poet and his name since the 12th century, as well as the 1514 princeps edition and the four fragments that partially correct the edition. It finally summarises the content of the 16 books that make up the work.

    In the second contribution, Caroline Olsson, Senior Lecturer in Scandinavian Studies at the University Lumière Lyon 2 and specialist in the Viking era in historical novels, discusses Saxo’s topicality as a primary source for Michael Hirst’s series Vikings (2013-2020). On a global scale, the fame of this History channel production exceeds the work that was one of the sources of inspiration for the 89 episodes of the various seasons.

    The following three contributions, by Francesco Sangriso, Victor Frans and Simon Lebouteiller, primarily deal with the question of Saxo’s supposed Norse sources. First, Francesco Sangriso, Honorary Fellow in Germanic Philology at the University of Genoa and specialist in the Heimskringla traditionally ascribed to Snorri Sturluson, discusses the importance of Odin in Saxo’s and Snorri’s historiographical works and compares the role of this mythical figure in the History of the Danes and the Heimskringla. Next, Victor Frans, PhD scholar in Scandinavian Studies at the University of Oslo working on Norse poetry in the sagas, looks at the runes that Saxo claims to use and analyses their possible influence on the History of the Danes. In the final contribution to this section, Simon Lebouteiller, Senior Lecturer in Nordic Studies at the University of Caen Normandy and author in 2016 of a thesis on forms of pacification and peace rituals in Scandinavia from the Viking period to the 13th century, analyses the History of the Danes from this angle by questioning the models of the peace-making ruler that Saxo puts forward in his work, examining the legendary figure of Skioldus and the historical one of Erik Evergood, who took power in 1095 after a period of unrest in Denmark according to Danish historiographical traditions.

    The following thematic section includes three contributions on Saxo and his vision of Europe. In the first of them, Jules Piet focuses on the south-east of the continent, analysing Saxo’s representation of Greece and the Greeks. Aleksandr Musin, formerly Director of Research in History at the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, currently member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and hosted by the University of Caen as part of the Pause program for exile researchers, looks further north, examining Saxo’s vision of the space inhabited by Eastern Slavs. The section concludes with a contribution by Jonas Wellendorf, Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and specialist in Norse and Latin literature, in which he focuses on the Chronicon Lethrense (Chronicle of Lejre). This text, generally considered to predate the History of the Danes, indeed has structural similarities with Saxo’s work, despite its brevity.

    The final section focuses on the Amlethus legend, and also includes three contributions. The first is a joint study by Victor Barabino, PhD in medieval history, with a thesis on warrior cultures in medieval Scandinavia, defended at the University of Caen Normandy in 2023, and Alban Gautier, Professor of Medieval History at the same university and specialist in Anglo-Saxon England and Northern Europe in the High Middle Ages. Barabino and Gautier analyse the reception of the Amleth legend and Saxo’s contribution to Robert Eggers’ recent film success, The Northmen (2022). Next, Peter Andersen surveys the evocations of Amlethus, a figure that he considers to be the fruit of Saxo’s imagination, from the History of the Danes to the prince’s incarnation as the protagonist of Shakespeare’s play. The contribution includes reproductions of the ten earliest illustrations of the prince, two xylographs and eight drawings, four of them in colour.

    The final contribution is by Christian Bank Pedersen, Senior Lecturer in Nordic Studies at the University of Caen and former Head of Department. As a specialist in modern and contemporaneous Scandinavian literature, he examines Per Olov Enquist’s historical novel Livläkarens besök (1999), translated as The Visit of the Royal Physician (2001). The novel follows the itinerary of King Christian VII whose reign was profoundly marked by his mental instability. As Pedersen reveals, Christian VII had attended a performance of Hamlet during his trip to England in 1768. From a psychological, if not psychoanalytical perspective, Pedersen examines the links between the prince of the English play and the king who, according to Enquist, saw his double on stage.

    The volume’s final contribution is a critical edition of Latin poems which summarise the History of the Danes in a hundred monologues. They were composed in 1602 by the Danish humanist Jon Jacobsen Venusinus, then Professor of Physics at the University of Copenhagen. These poems were commissioned by King Christian IV and intended to adorn 100 guns produced in Copenhagen and Elsinore between 1603 and 1608. Only seven survived after spending several decades at the bottom of Køge Bay south of Copenhagen, where they sank with the ship Dannebroge during a battle against Sweden. The poems of the lost guns are known thanks to several manuscript copies and a 1646 edition. For the first time, the present edition brings together all the text witnesses, which contain a total of 135 monologues with 542 different verses. Only 400 of these verses decorated the first series of guns, the remaining ones being variants composed by either Venusinus himself or other later poets. In the monologues, each of the Danish monarchs since Dan, the founder of the Danish nation, recounts his reign. The critical edition is accompanied by an English translation.

    This critical edition is the result of extensive research that began almost twenty years ago. It has gradually brought together most of the manuscripts that more or less faithfully preserve the verses of the lost guns. Despite the help of a multitude of people, this research is unfortunately still incomplete and future studies may one day (re)discover further material in various Scandinavian archives under new shelf-marks. Living at a great geographical distance from the locations of these manuscripts and the seven preserved guns, the editor of the poems expresses his deep gratitude to all the Danes, Germans, Norwegians and Swedes who helped him in his research by investigating their respective archives and providing digitisations. Many thanks to Ivo Asmus (Greifswald, Universitätsbibliothek), Robin Böckerman (Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket), Ole Louis Frantzen (Copenhagen, Statens Forsvarshistoriske Museum), Magnus Hill Rasmussen (Copenhagen, Krigsmuseet), Mia Jensen (Copenhague, Krigsmuseet), Julie Kofod Hansen (Køge, Museum Sydøstdanmark), Tyge Krogh (Copenhagen, Rigsarkivet), Synnøve Midtbø Myking (Copenhagen, Det Kongelige Bibliotek), Palle Nielsen (Køge, Marineforening), Signe Pagh Milling (Copenhagen, Det Kongelige Bibliotek), Claus Rohden Melin (Copenhagen, Nationalmuseet), Emil Sorknæs (Copenhagen, Statens Forsvarshistoriske Museum), Ingeborg Ane Støen Lund (Hurum, Asker kulturskole), Anders Toftgaard (Copenhagen, Det Kongelige Bibliotek) and Rauno Vaara (Stockholm, Armémuseum). Without the support of all these people, some of whom also contributed to the same author’s article on Amlethus, a critical edition of Venusinus’ poems would not have been possible.

    As a Germanist of Danish origin with no Latin training, the editor of the Reges Daniæ would also like to thank several people for their help locally in Strasbourg, notably Jean-Yves Bart (Maison Interuniversitaire des Sciences de l’Homme Alsace, MISHA) for proofreading the English texts, and especially Cannelle Dieu and Laure Petelot, Master students in Classical Philology and Ancient Studies respectively, and their teacher Frédéric Chapot, professor of Latin and director of the Institute of Latin, for proofreading the Latin transcriptions of the poems and their English translations. Thanks to Cannelle Dieu’s and Laure Petelot’s brilliant mastery of Latin metrics and their keen understanding of the subtleties of Horace’s language, many misunderstandings were avoided.

    Finally, the six co-editors of this volume would like to thank their respective research groups, and also the University of Caen Normandy, the urban community Caen la Mer, and Undervisnings- og Forskningsministeriet, as well as the review Source(s) for hosting these proceedings in a voluminous special issue. We especially thank Nicolas Bourguinat, editorial director, André Gounot, editor-in-chief, and Guillaume Porte, editorial secretary.

    As mentioned in the first contribution to this volume, the History of the Danes is known primarily from the 1514 princeps edition. Apart from this printed version, only four manuscript fragments exist. To date, Saxo’s work has been reissued eleven times in Latin in its entirety and translated into ten languages, at least up to Book IX. Unless otherwise indicated, the contributions are based on the reference edition and translations, namely the Latin and English texts by Karsten Friis-Jensen and Peter Fisher (2015) and the French text by Jean-Pierre Troadec (1995). They are cited with the abbreviation GD, followed by the book, chapter, and section. In the lists of manuscripts, editions, and translations below, as well as in the twelve different contributions, the validity of the links was checked at the close of editing on 15/10/2024.

    * * *

    Manuscripts

    An: Copenhagen, Det Kongelige Bibliotek, NKS 869 g 4° (« Angers fragment »), parchment, 4 leaves, 1200/1210, GD I.3.1-4.8.

    B1: Copenhagen, Det Kongelige Bibliotek, NKS 570 2° (« fragment de Lassen »), parchment, 1 leaf, c. 1300, GD VI.5.5-5.17.

    • Online: <http://www5.kb.dk/permalink/2006/manus/527/dan>

    B2: Copenhagen, Det Kongelige Bibliotek, NKS 570 2° (« Kall Rasmussen »), parchment, 2 pieces of the same leaf, c. 1300, GD VII.1.2-2.3.

    E: Copenhagen, Det Kongelige Bibliotek, NKS 570 2° (« Plesner fragment »), parchment, 1 fragmentary leaf, c. 1300, GD XIV.35.4-36.4.

    Latin Editions

    Danorum regum heroumque historiae a Saxone Grammatico conscripta, Christiernus Petri (ed.), Paris, Josse Basse, 1514.

    Saxonis Grammatici, Danorum historiae libri XVI, Johannes Oporinus (ed.), Basel, Bebelius, 1534.

    Danica historia libris XVI conscripta auctore Saxone Grammatico, Philippus Lonicerus (ed.), Frankfort/Main, Wechelius, 1576.

    Saxonis Grammatici, Historiae Danicae libri XVI, Stephanus Johannis Stephanius (ed.), Sorø, Crusius, 1644.

    Saxonis Grammatici, Historiae Danicae libri XVI, Christian Adolph Klotz (ed.), Leipzig, Hollius, 1771.

    Saxonis Grammatici, Historia Danica, Peter Erasmus Müller & Hans Mathias Velschow (eds.), 2 Vol., Copenhagen, Gyldendal, 1839.

    Saxonis Grammatici, Gesta Danorum, Alfred Holder (ed.), Strasbourg, Trübner, 1886.

    Saxonis, Gesta Danorum. Primum a C. Knabe & P. Herrmann recensita, Vol. I, Jørgen Olrik & Hans Ræder (eds.), Copenhagen, Levin & Munksgaard, 1931.

    Saxo Grammaticus, History of the Danes, Book I–IX, 2 Vol., Hilda Ellis Davidson (ed.) & Peter Fisher (transl.), Cambridge, Brewer / Totowa, Rowman and Littlefield, 1979-1980; reedition: Woodbridge, Boydell and Brewer, 1996.

    Saxo Grammaticus, Danorum regum heroumque historia, Books X–XVI. The text of the first edition with translation and commentary in three volumes, Eric Christiansen (ed.), Oxford, BAR, 1980-1981.

    Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum. Danmarkshistorien, Karsten Friis-Jensen (ed.), Peter Zeeberg (transl.), 2 Vol., Copenhagen, Gad, 2005.

    Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum. The History of the Danes, Karsten Friis-Jensen (ed.), Peter Fisher (transl.), 2 Vol., Oxford, Clarendon, 2015.

    Danish Translations (without taking into account modern rewritings of varying fidelity)

    Den Danske Krønicke som Saxo Grammaticus screff, halfffierde hundrede Aar forleden, nu først aff Latinen udsæt, flittelige offuerseet oc forbedret, Anders Sørensen Vedel (transl.), Copenhagen, Stöckelmann, 1575; reedition: Caspar Frederik Wegener (ed.), Copenhagen, Luno 1851; facsimile: Copenhagen, DSL, 1967.

    Adskillige poëtiske Sager, ved adskillige Lejligheder udgivne, og tillige med de Vers som dend berømmelige Saxo Grammaticus udi de danske Kongers Krønike paa Latiin, Laurids Thura (transl.), Copenhagen, Schmidtgen, 1721 [only the verses, translated in alexandrines].

    Historia danica, paa Dansk, eller den Danske Historie Saxo [...], [Sejer Schousbølle] (transl.), Copenhagen, Godiche, 1752 [with Laurids Thura’s alexandrines].

    Danmarks Krønike af Saxo Grammaticus, Nikolaus Frederik Severin Grundtvig (transl.), 3 Vol. Copenhagen, Schultz, 1818-1822; reeditions with the title: Danmarks Krønike af Saxe Runemester, Copenhagen, Thiele, 1855; Ibid., Michaelsen & Tillge, 1865; Ibid., Juersen, 1873.

    Saxo Grammaticus, Danmarks Krønike, 2 Vol., Fredrik Winkel Horn (transl.), Copenhagen / Oslo, Christiansens Kunstforlag, 1898; reeditions in 1907, 1911, 1975, 1977, 1994, 1995, 2003.

    Sakses Danesaga, 4 Vol., Jørgen Olrik (transl.), Copenhagen, Gad, 1908-1912; reedition: Ibid., Gad, 1925.

    Saxos Danmarkshistorie, Peter Zeeberg (transl.), 2 Vol., Copenhagen, DSL, 2000; text updated in 2015: see editions.

    English Translations

    The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus, Oliver Elton (transl.), Londres, Nutt (Folklore Society, XXXIII), 1894; reedition: Nendeln, Kraus, 1967.

    Peter Fisher, 1979-1980 (I–IX): see editions.

    Eric Christiansen, 1980-1981 (X–XVI): see editions.

    Peter Fisher, 2015 (I–-XVI): see editions.

    French Translation

    Saxo Grammaticus. La History of the Danes. Gesta Danorum. Livres I-IX, Jean-Pierre Troadec (transl.), Paris, Gallimard, 1995.

    German Translation

    Saxo Grammaticus. Die ersten neun Bücher der dänischen Geschichte, Hermann Jantzen (transl.), Berlin, Felber, 1900.

    Italian Translation

    Sassone Grammatico, Gesta dei re e degli eroi danesi, Ludovica Koch & Maria Adele Cipolla (transl.), Torino, Einaudi, 1993; reedition: Milano, Res Gestae, 2019.

    Japanese Translation

    サクソ・グラマティクス. デンマーク人の事績 [(Sakuso Guramatikusu. Denmakujin no jiseki [Saxo Grammaticus, the History of the Danes], Tōkyō, Tōkai Daigaku Shuppankai, 1993

    Polish Translation

    Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum, kronika Danii, Jan Wołucki (transl.), Sandomierz, Armoryka, 2014.

    Russian Translation

    Саксон Грамматик. Деяния данов [(Sakson Grammatik. Deâniâ danov) Saxo Grammaticus, the History of the Danes], Andrey Sergeyevich Dosayev (transl.), 2 Vol., Moscow, SPSL, 2017.

    Spanish Translation

    Saxo Gramático, Historia Danesa, Santiago Ibáñes Lluch (transl.), Valencia, Tilde, 1999.

    Swedish Translation

    Gesta Danorum. Saxo Grammaticus. En del av Sveriges historia [a part of the history of Sweden], Daniel Palmqvist (transl.), [without place], Cultura Ætatis, [2021].

    Illustrations

    References

    Bibliographical reference

    Peter Andersen, Frédérique Harry, Simon Lebouteiller, Caroline Olsson, Christian Bank Pedersen and Jules Piet, « Under the Signo of Saxo - History, Identity and Nation in the History of the Danes », Source(s) – Arts, Civilisation et Histoire de l’Europe, HS1 | 2024, 17-26.

    Electronic reference

    Peter Andersen, Frédérique Harry, Simon Lebouteiller, Caroline Olsson, Christian Bank Pedersen and Jules Piet, « Under the Signo of Saxo - History, Identity and Nation in the History of the Danes », Source(s) – Arts, Civilisation et Histoire de l’Europe [Online], HS1 | 2024, Online since 27 décembre 2024, connection on 23 avril 2025. URL : https://www.ouvroir.fr/sources/index.php?id=922

    Authors

    Peter Andersen

    Author resources in other databases

    • IDREF
    • ORCID
    • ISNI
    • BNF

    By this author

    Frédérique Harry

    Author resources in other databases

    • IDREF
    • ISNI

    By this author

    Simon Lebouteiller

    Author resources in other databases

    • IDREF
    • ORCID
    • HAL

    By this author

    Caroline Olsson

    Author resources in other databases

    • IDREF

    By this author

    Christian Bank Pedersen

    Author resources in other databases

    • IDREF
    • ORCID
    • ISNI
    • BNF

    By this author

    Jules Piet

    Author resources in other databases

    • IDREF
    • ORCID

    By this author

    Copyright

    Licence Creative Commons – Attribution - Pas d’Utilisation Commerciale - Partage dans les Mêmes Conditions 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)