Today "The Danish history Books I-IX" by Saxo Grammaticus. His chronicle of the kings of Denmark, as I understand it, is at least as propagandistic as Snorri's of the kings of Norway, but a very different flavor of propaganda. Snorri was a Scandinavian, Grammaticus a European. He wrote in Latin, and aimed to portray the Danish kings as embodying Roman virtues. It should be interesting to compare Grammaticus and Snorri covering the same events.
By the first day of summer, I intend to bid the Viking era a wistful farewell, and to move into the Scandinavian medieval period. It contributed far fewer outstanding individuals to history; and yet and the same time, they are among the most extraordinary of my extraordinary Scandinavians. I'm eager, and daunted, in particular, to tackle the subject of queen Margreta. She united Scandinavia, for the first and only time in history, under her sceptre, as much by popular acclaim as military conquest. I cannot find evidence of a biography about her in English; a Swedish historian claimed that there hasn't been one in Swedish. This amazing woman deserves to be far better known than she is, a situation that I hope, by means of the Scandinavian 81, to do my part to rectify.
Grammaticus!!!!????? Oh my god, why wasn't I born with that name?! I love it!
ReplyDeleteThis is some seriously cool stuff you are delving into. If you need any help on sources for Queen Margreta, or any of your Scandinavians, I can read in Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian (they are all very similar, though the Swedes have very different spelling of words), so just let me know! I would REALLY, REALLY love to help you!
I'm pretty sure "Gramaticus" was self-applied, a Latinization in the tradition of European scholars from the middle ages until, I believe, relatively recently. I wish that tradition would return, by the way.
ReplyDeleteWhy would a Romophilic Euro scholar want to show Denmark as having Roman values? Christianity?
ReplyDeleteI'd say in this case "Christendom."
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