SOURCE: Friis-Jensen, K. “Saxo Grammaticus (1140-1206).” In History of European Literature, edited by Annick Benoit-Dusausoy and Guy Fontaine, translated by Michael Woolf, pp. 80-83. New York: Routledge, 2000.

In the following essay, Friis-Jensen offers background information on the Gesta Danorum, summarizes its books, and discusses the development of Saxo's popularity in Europe.

I prefer to go to Denmark which has given us Saxo Grammaticus, the man who was able to bring to life the history of his people in all its splendour and magnificence.

Erasmus, Colloquies

An idealised and dramatised version of Danish history, the Gesta Danorum (Chronicle of the Danish People, c. 1200) by Saxo Grammaticus is one of the founding texts of Danish literature. Saxo restored the tales, myths and legends handed down from pagan times in Scandinavian countries with the consummate art of a storyteller, and its fame spread beyond Denmark's frontiers. Since the Renaissance, his tales...