''Gesta Danorum'' ( English: "Deeds of the Danes"), called ''Gesta Danorum på danskæ'' ("Deeds of the Danes in Danish") to distinguish it from the better known ''

Gesta Danorum ("Deeds of the Danes") is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th-century author Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Literate", literally "the Grammarian"). It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essentia ...

'' by

Saxo Grammaticus Saxo Grammaticus (), also known as Saxo cognomine Longus, was a Danish historian, theologian and author. He is thought to have been a clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, the main advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author ...

, is a Danish historical chronicle written in

Old Danish The Danish language developed during the Middle Ages out of Old East Norse, the common predecessor of Danish and Swedish. It was a late form of common Old Norse. The Danish philologist Johannes Brøndum-Nielsen divided the history of Danish in ...

Lund Lund (, ;"Lund"
(US) and ) is a city in the provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, southern Swed ...

around the year 1300.Anders Leegaard Knudsen,
Saxostudier og rigshistorie på Valdemar Atterdags tid
', Kopenhagen 1994, p. 17-19. ''Gesta Danorum på danskæ'' recounts the history of Danish kings from the legendary King Dan to the reign of Eric Menved.

History

Source material

''Gesta Danorum på danskæ'' covers much of the same legendary and historical material as ''

Chronicon Lethrense ( Danish: English: ''Chronicle of Lejre/Leire'') is a small Danish medieval work from the late 12th century, written in Latin. Themes Unlike '' Chronicon Roskildense'', which deals primarily with information presented as real historical facts ...

'' and Saxo's ''

'', which were earlier works (released in the second half of the 12th century and the first years of the 13th century respectively) and written in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

. It is not a direct translation or abbreviation of either work, and includes material from both along with alterations that appear in neither. For example, the tale of the dog king of Denmark who precedes the reign of Rolf Kraki, and how Snyo won the throne after the dog's death, appears in ''Gesta Danorum på danskæ'' (in which it was put on the throne by Hakon) and the ''Chronicon Lethrense'' (in which it was put on the throne by Athisl), but not in Saxo's ''Gesta Danorum''. However, the story of the mortal king Hother slaying divine Balder is included in ''Gesta Danorum på danskæ'' and Saxo's ''Gesta Danorum'', but not in ''Chronicon Lethrense''. It uses the line of kings from the Codex Runicus and the Stockholm law manuscripts (C 67 and B 72). It is unrelated to the ''

Annales Ryenses Ryd Abbey or Rüde Abbey (; ; ) was a Cistercian monastery in Munkbrarup that formerly occupied the present site of Glücksburg Castle in Glücksburg on the Flensburg Fjord in the Schleswig-Flensburg district of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. His ...

'' (''Rydårbogen''), except indirectly as both are based on the ''Chronicon Lethrense''.

Manuscripts

''Gesta Danorum på danskæ'' survives in two manuscripts, B 77 and C 67, both of which are medieval law codes referred to as a Codex Holmiensis E. V. Gordon,
An Introduction to Old Norse
', 1927, p. 146-149, 2nd ed. by A.R. Taylor, 1957, p. 165-168. (that is, a "Stockholm book", or manuscript from the

National Library of Sweden The National Library of Sweden (, ''KB'', meaning "the Royal Library") is Sweden's national library. It collects and preserves all domestic printed and audio-visual materials in Swedish, as well as content with Swedish association published ab ...

). They are archived at the Royal Library (Det kongelige bibliotek) in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

.Marijane Osborn,
Princess Freawaru and Hamlet's Other Uncle
, in: ''Medium Ævum'' 89 (2020), p. 356-373. The manuscripts are: *Cod. Holm. B 77 is a code of

Scanian Law Scanian law (, ) is the oldest Danish provincial law and one of the first Nordic provincial laws to be written down. It was used in the geographic region of Danish Skåneland, which at the time included Scania, Halland, Blekinge and the isla ...

. It was written in the first half of the 15th century. This manuscript goes up to year 1295. *Cod. Holm. C 67 is a code of

Zealand Zealand ( ) is the largest and most populous islands of Denmark, island in Denmark proper (thus excluding Greenland and Disko Island, which are larger in size) at 7,031 km2 (2715 sq. mi.). Zealand had a population of 2,319,705 on 1 Januar ...

ic Law. This manuscript goes up to year 1305. These manuscripts were edited and published by Marcus Lorenzen in the book ''Gammeldanske Krøniker'' (Old Danish Chronicle).

Translations

''Gesta Danorum på danskæ'' was translated into Swedish shortly after being written. This early translation survives in the manuscript Cod. Holm. D 4, from around the year 1500. There are also a couple of post-medieval copies. The philologist E. V. Gordon included an extract of the Old Norse text of the ''Gesta Danorum på danskæ'' (as published by Lorenzen) as an example text in his book '' An Introduction to Old Norse''. The extract covered the portion of the work from the reign of Haldan to the reign of Offa the Strong, and was chosen because it contained material from ''Chronicon Lethrense'' that did not appear in Saxo's ''Gesta Danorum'', and which therefore must have originated in a tradition that predated Saxo's work. This extract was subsequently translated into English by Peter Tunstall as an appendix to his translation of the '' Saga of Hrolf Kraki''. This translation was erroneously given the title "The Chronicle of the Kings of Lejre (Chronicon Lethrense)", although that is an unrelated work.

References

{{reflist

External links

Gesta Danorum pa danskæ. cod. Holm. B 77 og C 67
, in: ''Gammeldanske Krøniker'', ed. Marcus Lorenzen, Copenhagen, Samfund til udgivelse af Gammel Nordisk Litteratur, 1887–1913, part 1, p. 1-60.
English translation
of the ''Gesta'' by Peter Tunstall, als

(both titled incorrectly as "The Chronicle of the Kings of Lejre"). Chronicles about Denmark 14th-century history books Danish non-fiction books