AN ENGLISH HISTORY OF A DANISH HISTORY
A SURVEY OF ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF
SAXO GRAMMATICUS’S GESTA DANORUM
Joseph S. Hopkins for Mimisbrunnr.info, December 2019—ongoing
The present ongoing survey consists of the first in-depth survey of its kind of English translations of Saxo Grammaticus’s Gesta Danorum (Latin ‘Deeds of the Danes, History of the Danes’), likely authored in Latin in the 13th century and claimed by Saxo to be a history of the Danish people, precursors to the inhabitants of the modern state of Denmark. (For a very brief overview with a wider scope, see for example Fisher & Friis-Jensen 2015: lxii)
While made internationally famous as the earliest source to mention a narrative that would later develop into 17th century English playwright Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Gesta Danorum also holds a particular place in medieval history due to mention of otherwise poorly attested places and peoples, and especially due to the mention of motifs, themes, and entities from Norse mythology in its first nine volumes.
If you’re diving into ancient Germanic studies and simply looking for the ideal first edition of Gesta Danorum for that purpose, Mimisbrunnr.info recommends starting with David Fisher & Hilda Davidson’s Saxo Grammaticus: The History of the Danes, Books I-IX, published by Boydell & Brewer.
Fisher & Davidson’s edition is to date the most reasonably priced, approachable, and relevant modern translation of the first nine volumes of the poem for students of ancient Germanic studies.
ABOUT THE TEXT
In ancient Germanic studies, Gesta Danorum often receives mention alongside crucial source texts such as the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, both compiled in the 13th century in Iceland and both drawing form much earlier traditional material. It appears that Saxo drew from similar source material—oral tradition or, perhaps, an earlier manuscript collection—but Gesta Danorum differs from the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda in crucial ways.
First and foremost, it appears that Saxo’s accounts do not faithfully reflect the Old Norse material from which he draws, and Saxo instead heavily modifies and edits material that he claims to present faithfully: While it is often difficult to reconcile Saxo’s narratives with the broader Old Norse framework, when scholars are able to identify Saxo’s sources with confidence and compare them to the material he records, it becomes clear that Saxo has altered them to fit his narrative and ideological needs.
A notorious example occurs in Saxo’s treatment of a pair of famous stanzas found otherwise only in Gylfaginning (23), there stemming from an otherwise lost eddic poem known to the Prose Edda’s primary author(s). In Saxo’s version of this poem, the author transforms the ferocious, relentless, and domineering jǫtunn goddess Skaði into a one-dimensional, largely helpless princess by the name of Regnilda. The goddess’s husband Njǫrðr, one of the earliest attested deities in the ancient Germanic record, becomes a human hero by the name of Hadingus, who rescues the damsel Regnilda from distress. Various elements of narratives concerning the deities, wherein Skaði plays a domineering role and in fact chooses Njǫrðr as her husband, see the goddess transformed into a passive and weak princess who disappears from Saxo’s narrative without explanation as soon as the author deems her no longer necessary.
Despite their place in the broader ancient Germanic record, neither Skaði nor Njǫrðr receive any mention in Gesta Danorum, and Saxo inserts figures from the Germanic folklore record into narratives seemingly at whim, evidently inspired by a fondness or familiarity for Old Norse legendary sagas intermixed with a medieval Christian understanding of Classical culture.
This process of ‘rationalizing’ narratives from myth is known as euhemerization, after the Greek 4th century BCE Greek atheist Euhemerus, who sought to ‘ground’ narratives about gods and subsequently employed in the medieval period by Christian authors to explain away any of the competition with invented histories. Saxo’s approach is in ways typical of other examples of Old Norse euhemerism, but he goes further than most other authors of the era. He appears to see no problem in inserting facets of his personal ideology, such as a pronounced misogyny, while simply deciding not to mention figures for which he no doubt held particular distaste, such as the goddess Freyja.
While Saxo is not a reliable source for narratives from Old Norse mythology, Gesta Danorum is still more than a simple curiosity for scholars. For example, Saxo happens to mention various topics that receive little mention otherwise beyond Norse myth. Consider the following description:
It was a custom of the ancients to consult the oracles of the Fates concerning the future lives of their children. Fridlef intended to investigate the fortunes of his son by this ritual, and having offered solemn vows approached the goddesses’ temple in prayer; here, peering into the shrine, he recognized the three maidens sitting in their respective seats. The first indulgently bestowed on the boy a handsome appearance and a plentiful share of men's good-will. The second presented him with abundant generosity. The third, a woman of rather petulant and jealous disposition, spurned the unanimous favors of her sisters and, in a wish to mar their blessings, planted the fault of meanness in the boy’s future character. (Fisher & Davidson 2008 [1996]: 169 I)
This description strongly resembles later archaeological finds of shrines found primarily among the continental Germanic peoples (especially along the Rhine) that depict three women seated and holding items that imply an association with fate, such as diapers. These figures are generally known among scholars as the Matres and Matronae, and are generally held to be connected to a broader complex of fate-associated supernatural women among the ancient Germanic peoples who often appear in threes, such as the norns and valkyries among the North Germanic peoples. While readers are wise to not take Saxo’s narratives at face value, material found in Gesta Danorum such as the description of the shrine above ensure that Gesta Danorum remains an important source for scholars of ancient Germanic studies.
To date, three editions of the first nine volumes of Gesta Danorum have seen publication. All editions but one, that of Fisher and Friis-Jensen (2015), focus solely on the first nine volumes of the poem. Each edition has independent value for students of the text, as they all contains unique commentary and observations.
Like many authors of his era, most of Saxo’s life is a mystery, but the historical record does present some facts about who Saxo was and why he wrote Gesta Danorum. For a brief overview of the works and days of Saxo, see Fisher’s Saxo biography for the Oxford University Press blog (2014). The most influential work on the topic of euhemerism and Saxo is probably that of philologist Georges Dumézil which has subsequently influenced the work of many scholars who have analyzed this material since (including the present article). Perhaps the most approachable material from Dumézil on the topic of euhemerism, Saxo, and comparable sources is Dumézil’s From Myth to Fiction: The Saga of Hadingus published in 1973 by the University of Chicago Press.
Translation Entries
PETER FISHER & KARSTEN FRIIS-JENSEN, 2015
Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes, volumes I & II.
Oxford Medieval Texts
Vol. I: 880 pages, Vol. II: 704 pages (1,584 pages total)
Publisher websites: Vol. I & Vol. II
Contents:
Volume I
Genealogical Tables xi
Maps xix
Abbreviated References xxiii
Introduction xxix
I. The Author and his Background xix
II. The Gesta Danorum xxxiii
Time of Composition xxiii
The Title of the Work xxxv
Structure of the Work xxxvi
Important Themes xl
Language and Models xlvi
Poetry and Poets xlvii
Sources, Latin and Vernacular xlviii
Influence of the Text l
III. The Textual Transmission li
The Direct Textual Tradition lii
The Direct Textual Tradition: Conclusion lvii
Christiern Pedersen’s Translation lvii
The Indirect Textual Tradition lvii
IV. Previous Editions lxii
V. This Edition lxiii
‘Intrinsic’ Analogy Criticism lxiv
‘Extrinsic’ Analogy Criticism lxvii
Conjectural Criticism lxxv
The Register of Parallels lxxviii
Principles of this Edition lxxix
Translator’s Introduction lxxxi
Key to the Meters lxxxiv
Sigla lxxxviii
Gesta Danorum, the History of the Danes
Preface 1
Book One 2
Book Two 18
Book Three 78
Book Four 142
Book Five 200
Book Six 354
Book Seven 446
Book Eight 532
Book Nine 626
Book Ten 678
Volume II
Book Eleven 786
Book Twelve 862
Book Thirteen 896
Book Fourteen 970
Book Fifteen 1444
Book Sixteen 1494
Register of Parallels 1541
Bibliography 1667
Index of Quotations and Allusions 1689
General Index 1703
Observations
In 2015, British classicist Peter Fisher followed up his 1970s translation of the first nine volumes of Gesta Danorum to translate all books of Gesta Danorum, this time edited by Danish historian Karsten Friis-Jensen. This translation marks the first time all 16 books of Gesta Danorum have come to be available together in English. Quite handily, Fisher’s English translation appears paired with an edition of Saxo’s Latin text. The edition’s supplementary material only contribute to this landmark edition’s great utility. Unfortunately, due to the price points of these volumes (as of 2019, together they cost several hundred dollars), they are likely to be encountered by few but specialists with access to university libraries.
PETER FISHER & HILDA ELLIS DAVIDSON, 1979
Saxo Grammaticus: The History of the Danes, Books I-IX.
528 pages (combined volumes edition)
Boydell & Brewer
Publisher website
Contents:
(Please note that this translation was originally published as two separate volumes. It later took the form of a combined edition, although its original division into two volumes remained in place.)
Volume I: English Text
Preface 1
Book One 11
Book Two 37
Book Three 65
Book Four 91
Book Five 113
Book Six 159
Book Seven 197
Book Eight 235
Book Nine 275
Volume II: Commentary
Acknowledgments
Maps by Tony Carter
Genealogy of Saxo’s Kings
Introduction 1
Translator’s Introduction 15
COMMENTARY 17
Bibliography 167
Errata in Volume One 178
Index 179
Observations
In the 1970s, Fisher and iconic British folklorist Hilda Ellis Davidson together produced what is now generally considered the standard edition of the first nine volumes of Gesta Danorum. From a quality, availability, and—especially—price standpoint, Fisher and Davidson’s edition makes for the obvious choice for readers interested in the first nine books of Gesta Danorum. Davidson’s approach to the ancient Germanic corpus would shift over the years, and her opinions on certain topics she discusses in her Gesta Danorum commentary would no doubt differ were she to have discussed them later in life, but her comparative discussion remains a valuable contribution and solid foundation to build from when discussing topics.
OLIVER ELTON & FREDERICK YORK POWELL, 1894
The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus
436 pages
David Nutt
This translation is in the public domain. Download it from Archive.org.
Contents:
(Please note that some publishers of this translation divide it into two volumes and later additions may contain additional supplementary material.)
Translator’s note vii
Introduction
Saxo’s position ix
Life of Saxo x
The History xiv
Literary History of Saxo’s Work xvi
MS. Fragments xix
Saxo as a Writer xxi
Folk-lore Index xxii
Saxo’s Materials and Methods xcvii
Saxo’s Mythology cxv
Names in this Book cxxvii
Text of Translation
Book I 1
Book II 45
Book III 83
Book IV 118
Book V 148
Book VI 212
Book VII 260
Book VIII 309
Book IX 361
Appendix I: Passage’s from Saxo’s Later Books 391
Appendix II: Note on Saxo’s Hamlet 398
Appendix III: Genealogies of Kings 414
Appendix IV: Last News of Starcad 418
Indices
I. Persons and Places 422
II. Norse Poems cited 433
III. Sagas, etc., cited 434
IV. Modern Students cited 434
V. Classics, etc., cited 435
Additions and Corrections 436
Observations
The first English language translation of Gesta Danorum, British classicist Oliver Elton and folklorist and British philologist Frederick York Powell’s discussion of Saxo Grammaticus provides a Victorian era look at the text. Elton and York Powell’s edition may be most valuable for modern readers for the supplementary material it contains (such as a section dedicated to the development of what would become Shakespeare’s Hamlet), a feature unfortunately absent from subsequent editions to date.