The Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus

Book excerpt: Saxo Grammaticus, who's believed to have lived from 1150 until 1220 (though the dates are uncertain), wrote a sixteen-volume history of the Denmark that he lived in. Volumes X through XVI (oddly -- or perhaps not so oddly -- written first) are a conventional history of Saxo's day and age. But the first the volumes are the stuff of myth and legend, delightful tales of mythic Norse persons and circumstances. This book is comprised of those mythic volumes, and it's special stuff indeed.