Saxo Grammaticus: The History of the Danes, Books I-IX: I. English Text; II. Commentary

If you think the Prose Edda is the authentic 'gospel according to Snorri', then I challenge you to read this! No, this is not a smooth little pleasure read, not compared to Snorri's free-handed storytelling and liberal use of the poetic license. But, written at virtually the same time in Denmark that Snorri was writing in Iceland, Saxo delivers a couple of radically different versions of the Viking Age pre-christian stories to compare and contrast with Snorri's. It is dense reading, and you will encounter battle after battle in a tome full of unfamiliar names of legendary Danish leaders and even women warriors from around the Scandinavian lands. And ('spoiler alert') you actually will witness a battle fought by the Danes and their allies...against the gods of Asgard! Those who like early medieval battle tactics, and those who are looking for a more thurse (Jotan)-friendly view of the ancient world, and those of an innate contrarian spirit should expect to find a happy home here. I thoroughly enjoyed this treasure. Hail Saxo!

This is a work of underrated importance, translated and annotated in brilliant teamwork.Saxo Grammaticus's work, "The History of the Danes" attempts to trace Danish culture from its origins through the middle ages. Book 9 ends in the time of Gorm the Old, during the Viking age. Because written records were largely unknown, this is drawn in large part from oral tradition and from other early histories based on such traditions. Following the approach of his day, he traces the culture to the near east, presumably suggesting, like Snorri, that the gods came from Troy. He further euhemerizes them to portray them in a more Christian way. The result is thus unreliable history mixed with myth and legend, and thus Saxo's works have often been set aside.This being said, I found that I learned a great deal about Norse mythology, legend, and more from reading his work. In particular there were some expressions I hadn't seen elsewhere that did a lot to clarify the text of the Old Norwegian Rune Poem.This translation covers the portion most of interest to individuals studying Norse myth and legend, is translated well and is annotated by Hilda Davidson. The annotations take more than a third of the book and are often interesting to read as she links the portions of the work to other existing sources.On the whole, this is THE translation to get. Highly recommended.

No problems with reading this English translation but the notes and commentary in this edition were not as thorough as the product description led me to believe.

Liked book very much. Using it for research.

Fantastic buy! The translation is a very readable English and each book is prefaced by an introduction which analyses the upcoming text. Only way this could be better is if it was in a smaller format which could fit in a large pocket

I have actually read the old copy of Saxo. Huge book in old Danish language , very difficult reading I might add.Have looked and read some in this, and it's kind of easier to read and understand, it gathers the stories together and seems more understandable.

There is so much wrong with this book, I feel like it is not worth reading. First of all you have a devout Christian who didn't want to write this book in the first place and it is plain to see that it's full of cruel attacks on all the gods. He takes the stories of gods and twists and weaves them into mortals and then he tells it all wrong. For instances he says Baldur was killed on the battlefield with a sword and slammed to the ground, and died three days later from his wound. He makes stuff as so many of his sources can not be verified. I stayed angry and upset so much I just could not read much at a time. I finally gave up and simply could not finish the book.

Very hard book to read, more like a text book. Did find what I was looking for though.

This is a great book for anyone interested in history and also for pagans like myself

An excellent critical edition by Hilda Ellis Davidson, and Peter Fisher's new translation is also top-notch. I strongly recommend it to anyone who can't read Latin but is still interested in the original work, especially for scholarly pursuit.

Good book if you want to learn about the history of ancient Europe and north!