Quote:
Originally Posted by beppe
Yuppee! That is the book that an Icelander, friend of mine told me years ago!
Please advice. I do not read Dane!
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Are you sure it was an Icelander? I'm kidding a little bit, but I would assume an Icelander would talk about their own ancient literature rather than Danish - their feelings toward Denmark are less warm than toward the other Scandinavian countries.
You shouldn't worry about Danish language as
Gesta Danorum is written in medieval latin
I'm afraid I only know Danish translations - and I don't read Latin. One of the stories is the first known source for the story of Shakespeare's
Hamlet;
Amled. I don't know any English translations - and given what I've seen of public-domain, English translations of other old Scandinavian texts, such as the Icelandic sagas, I'm not even sure I'd recommend looking for it. The style of those late 19th century texts are a bit over the top, it sounds silly IMO.
Equivalent Icelandic works are
Snorre Sturlason's Poetic edda and
Prose edda. Some of the same stories are recounted in both - but Saxo's history focus more on Denmark and it's more thoroughly Christianised. There's a curious bit of etymology; Saxo had to explain the old gods in some other way than gods, and since they were called the "Aesir" or "Asa" gods, well, they must obviously have been a powerful family immigrating from
Asia 