But a number of Saxos present themselves in the same surroundings with whom he has been from time to time identified.All he tells us himself is, that Absalon, Archbishop of Lund from 1179 to 1201, pressed him, who was "the least of his companions, since all the rest refused the task", to write the history of Denmark, so that it might record its glories like other nations.Absalon was previously, and also after his promotion, Bishop of Roskild, and this is the first circumstance giving colour to the theory --which lacks real evidence -- that Saxo the historian was the same as a certain Saxo, Provost of the Chapter of Roskild, whose death is chronicled in a contemporary hand without any mark of distinction.It is unlikely that so eminent a man would be thus barely named; and the appended eulogy and verses identifying the Provost and the historian are of later date.Moreover, the Provost Saxo went on a mission to Paris in 1165, and was thus much too old for the theory.Nevertheless, the good Bishop of Roskild, Lave Urne, took this identity for granted in the first edition, and fostered the assumption.Saxo was a cleric; and could such a man be of less than canonical rank? He was (it was assumed) a Zealander; he was known to be a friend of Absalon, Bishop of Roskild.What more natural than that he should have been the Provost Saxo? Accordingly this latter worthy had an inscription in gold letters, written by Lave Urne himself, affixed to the wall opposite his tomb.
Even less evidence exists for identifying our Saxo with the scribe of that name -- a comparative menial -- who is named in the will of Bishop Absalon; and hardly more warranted is the theory that he was a member, perhaps a subdeacon, of the monastery of St.Laurence, whose secular canons formed part of the Chapter of Lund.It is true that Sweyn Aageson, Saxo's senior by about twenty years, speaks (writing about 1185) of Saxo as his "contubernalis".Sweyn Aageson is known to have had strong family connections with the monastery of St.Laurence; but there is only a tolerably strong probability that he, and therefore that Saxo, was actually a member of it.
("Contubernalis" may only imply comradeship in military service.)Equally doubtful is the consequence that since Saxo calls himself "one of the least" of Absalon's "followers" ("comitum"), he was probably, if not the inferior officer, who is called an "acolitus", at most a sub-deacon, who also did the work of a superior "acolitus".This is too poor a place for the chief writer of Denmark, high in Absalon's favor, nor is there any direct testimony that Saxo held it.
His education is unknown, but must have been careful.Of his training and culture we only know what his book betrays.
Possibly, like other learned Danes, then and afterwards, he acquired his training and knowledge at some foreign University.
Perhaps, like his contemporary Anders Suneson, he went to Paris;but we cannot tell.It is not even certain that he had a degree;for there is really little to identify him with the "M(agister)Saxo" who witnessed the deed of Absalon founding the monastery at Sora.
THE HISTORY.
How he was induced to write his book has been mentioned.The expressions of modesty Saxo uses, saying that he was "the least"of Absalon's "followers", and that "all the rest refused the task", are not to be taken to the letter.A man of his parts would hardly be either the least in rank, or the last to be solicited.The words, however, enable us to guess an upward limit for the date of the inception of the work.Absalon became Archbishop in 1179, and the language of the Preface (written, as we shall see, last) implies that he was already Archbishop when he suggested the History to Saxo.But about 1185 we find Sweyn Aageson complimenting Saxo, and saying that Saxo "had `determined' to set forth all the deeds" of Sweyn Estridson, in his eleventh book, "at greater length in a more elegant style".
The exact bearing of this notice on the date of Saxo's History is doubtful.It certainly need not imply that Saxo had already written ten books, or indeed that he had written any, of his History.All we call say is, that by 1185 a portion of the history was planned.The order in which its several parts were composed, and the date of its completion, are not certainly known, as Absalon died in 1201.But the work was not then finished; for, at the end of Bk.XI, one Birger, who died in 1202, is mentioned as still alive.
We have, however, a yet later notice.In the Preface, which, as its whole language implies, was written last, Saxo speaks of Waldemar II having "encompassed (`complexus') the ebbing and flowing waves of Elbe." This language, though a little vague, can hardly refer to anything but an expedition of Waldemar to Bremen in 1208.The whole History was in that case probably finished by about 1208.As to the order in which its parts were composed, it is likely that Absalon's original instruction was to write a history of Absalon's own doings.The fourteenth and succeeding books deal with these at disproportionate length, and Absalon, at the expense even of Waldemar, is the protagonist.
