The Danish History, Books I-IX | Page 4

wonder "how a Dane at that day could have such a force of
eloquence" is a measure of the rarity both of the gift and of a public
that could appraise it. The epitome (made about 1430) shows that Saxo
was felt to be difficult, its author saying: "Since Saxo's work is in many
places diffuse, and many things are said more for ornament than for
historical truth, and moreover his style is too obscure on account of the
number of terms ("plurima vocabula") and sundry poems, which are
unfamiliar to modern times, this opuscle puts in clear words the more
notable of the deeds there related, with the addition of some that

happened after Saxo's death." A Low-German version of this epitome,
which appeared in 1485, had a considerable vogue, and the two
together "helped to drive the history out of our libraries, and explains
why the annalists and geographers of the Middle Ages so seldom
quoted it." This neglect appears to have been greatest of all in Denmark,
and to have lasted until the appearance of the "First Edition" in 1511.
The first impulse towards this work by which Saxo was saved, is found
in a letter from the Bishop of Roskild, Lave Urne, dated May 1512, to
Christian Pederson, Canon of Lund, whom he compliments as a lover
of letters, antiquary, and patriot, and urges to edit and publish "tam
divinum latinae eruditionis culmen et splendorem Saxonem nostrum".
Nearly two years afterwards Christian Pederson sent Lave Urne a copy
of the first edition, now all printed, with an account of its history. "I do
not think that any mortal was more inclined and ready for" the task.
"When living at Paris, and paying heed to good literature, I twice sent a
messenger at my own charges to buy a faithful copy at any cost, and
bring it back to me. Effecting nothing thus, I went back to my country
for this purpose; I visited and turned over all the libraries, but still
could not pull out a Saxo, even covered with beetles, bookworms,
mould, and dust. So stubbornly had all the owners locked it away." A
worthy prior, in compassion offered to get a copy and transcribe it with
his own hand, but Christian, in respect for the prior's rank, absurdly
declined. At last Birger, the Archbishop of Lund, by some strategy, got
a copy, which King Christian the Second allowed to be taken to Paris
on condition of its being wrought at "by an instructed and skilled graver
(printer)." Such a person was found in Jodocus Badius Ascenshls, who
adds a third letter written by himself to Bishop Urne, vindicating his
application to Saxo of the title Grammaticus, which he well defines as
"one who knows how to speak or write with diligence, acuteness, or
knowledge." The beautiful book he produced was worthy of the zeal,
and unsparing, unweariable pains, which had been spent on it by the
band of enthusiasts, and it was truly a little triumph of humanism.
Further editions were reprinted during the sixteenth century at Basic
and at Frankfort-on-Main, but they did not improve in any way upon
the first; and the next epoch in the study of Saxo was made by the
edition and notes of Stephanus Johansen Stephanius, published at

Copenhagen in the middle of the seventeenth century (1644).
Stephanius, the first commentator on Saxo, still remains the best upon
his language. Immense knowledge of Latin, both good and bad
(especially of the authors Saxo imitated), infinite and prolix industry, a
sharp eye for the text, and continence in emendation, are not his only
virtues. His very bulkiness and leisureliness are charming; he writes
like a man who had eternity to write in, and who knew enough to fill it,
and who expected readers of an equal leisure. He also prints some
valuable notes signed with the famous name of Bishop Bryniolf of
Skalholt, a man of force and talent, and others by Casper Barth,
"corculum Musarum", as Stephanius calls him, whose textual and other
comments are sometimes of use, and who worked with a MS. of Saxo.
The edition of Klotz, 1771, based on that of Stephanius, I have but seen;
however, the first standard commentary is that begun by P. E. Muller,
Bishop of Zealand, and finished after his death by Johan Velschow,
Professor of History at Copenhagen, where the first part of the work,
containing text and notes, was published in 1839; the second, with
prolegomena and fuller notes, appearing in 1858. The standard edition,
containing bibliography, critical apparatus based on all the editions and
MS. fragments, text, and index, is the admirable one of that
indefatigable veteran, Alfred Holder, Strasburg, 1886.
Hitherto the translations of Saxo have been into Danish. The first that
survives, by Anders Soffrinson Vedel,