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 SAXO

497

SAXONY

Board are effected through the medium of the Im- mediatkommission for the Catholic Church and Catho- lic Schools.

Kronfeld, Landeskunde des Grossherzogtums Sachsen (2 vols., Weimar, 1878-79); Freisen, Die bischdfliche Juriadiktion ilber die Katholiken im Grossherzogtum Sachsen- Weimar-Eisenach (.Stutt- gart, 1910).

Hermann Sacher.

Saxo Grammaticus, Danish historian of the

thirteenth century, author of the "Gesta Danorum". The scanty information we have concerning his Ufe is based chiefly on statements in his work, especially in the preface. His father and grandfather took part in the campaigns of Waldemar I of Denmark (1157- 1182). He him.self was a cleric ; a layman of that time would hardly have had his knowledge of theology and classic lore. No doubt, he studied at foreign universities, probably in Paris. In the eleventh book of his history he speaks of the funeral of Bishop Asker (Esger) as having taken place in his own time. As that event happened in 1158 we may conclude that Saxo was born about 1150, but we do not know where; from the favour shown to Zealand, it has been in- ferred that that was his birthplace.

Saxo's history was written at the suggestion of Archbishop Absalon of Lund, who died in 1201 before the work wa.s finished, whereupon the historian addressed himself to Absalon's successor Anders, who held the see until 1222. There is some doubt as to Saxo's po.sition. In his preface he modestly refers to himself as the least among the followers of Absalon, but it is not likely that the bishop would have entrusted to an obscure and unimportant man the important task of writing a history of his native land. It is much more probable that Saxo held a high office, possibly a secretaryship, and that he enjoyed the bishop's intimate acquaintance. More than this we do not know. Attempts to identify him with a provost at llo.skilde, a subdeacon in the monastery of St. Luurentius at Lund, or with a scribe named in Absalon's will, are purely conjectural and cannot be verified. The date of his death is also uncertain. The writing of the; history- occupied the greater part of Saxo's life. About the year 11S5 the chronicler Swen Aggeson refers to the history aa already i)l:uined, and the preface was not written until Waldemar II (1202-41) had "encompassed the ebbing and flowing waves of the Elbe". This seems to refer to events of 1215 (or 1208?). Originally the work was to be a history of Absalon's own time, but it grew to be a complete history of Denmark from the earhest mythical period to the year 11S7. It is written in an elegant, highly ornate Latin which excited the admiration of Erasmus of Rotterdam. The style is carefully modelled on that of the Latin authors of the "Silver Age", especially Valerius Maximus and Martinus Capella.

The work is divided into sixteen books, of which the first nine contain mainly mythological and legendary material, which is presented in uncritical fashion. The last seven, however, relating the events nearer to Saxo's time, are historical, and are believed to have been written first. For these he relied on oral com- munication, especially on Absalon's own reports which, so Saxo tells us, he accepted like a Divine revelation. For the first nine books dealing with Northern antiquity the sources are old Danish poems. Runic inscriptions, and Norwegian-Icelandic sagas. These books possess a special interest for us on ac- count of the ancient legendary material preserved therein, much of which has come down to us in no other form. Among the famous legends found here may be mentioned those of Balder and Ilother (Book III), of Amleth (ibid.), the basis of Shake- speare's Hamlet, and of the archer Toko or Palnatoki (Book X), the prototype of the Tell of Swiss legend. No complete MS. of Saxo's history is extant. Even XIII.— 32

in his own time the work received scant attention, partly, no doubt, because it was written in such difficult Latin. An epitome was made by an anony- mous writer in 1431 and here the epithet "Gram- maticus" (the lettered one) was first used. The first printed edition, made from a MS. since lost, appeared in Paris in 1514 and has been the basis of all subse- quent editions. The first critical edition was given by Stephanus Johannes Stephanius (Soro, 1644). The best modern editions are those of Miiller-Velschow (3 vols., Copenhagen, 1839-58) and of Alfred Holder (Strasburg, 1886). The latter contains also a careful bibUography. Translations were made into Danish by Anders Soffrinson Vedel (Copenhagen, 1575), by Grundtvig (Copenhagen, 1818) and by W. Horn (Christiania and Copenhagen, 1898). The first nine books have been translated into English by O. Elton, with notes by F. York Powell (London, 1894); into German by H. Jantzen (Beriin, 1900) and Paul Herrmann (Leipzig, 1901).

Con.sult the introductions to the works of Elton and Powell; MuLLf;R-VKLsrHOw; Jantzen; see also Herrmann, op. cit., 400-470; Olrik, Kilderne til Sakses Oldhistorie (Copenhagen, 1892 and 1894); Pineau, Saxo Grammaticus (Tours, 1901); Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsguellen, II (6 ed., 1893),

Arthur F. J. Remy.

Saxony. — I. The Saxon Tribe. — There arose in Germany during the third and fourth centuries after Christ the great tribal confederations of the Alamanni; Bavarians, Thuringians, Franks, Frisians, and Saxons, which took the place of the numerous petty tribes with their popular tribal form of government. With the exception of the Saxons all these confederations were ruled by kings; the Saxons were divided into a number of independent bodies under different chiefs, and in time of war they elected a duke. The Saxons (Lat., Saxones) were originally a small tribe living on the North Sea between the Elbe and Eid(>r Rivers in the present Holstein. Their name, (k^ived from their weapon called Sax, a stone knife, is first men- tioned by the Roman author Claudius Ptolemiius (about 130 A. D.). In the third and fourth centuries the Saxons fought their way victoriously towards the west, and their name was given to the great tribal confederation that stretched towards the west exactly to the former boundary of the Roman Empire, con- sequently almost to the Rhine. Only a small strip of land on the right bank of the Rhine remained to the Frankish tribe. Towards the south the Saxons pu.shed as far as the Harz Mountains and the Eichs- feld, and in the succeeding centuries absorbed the greater part of Thuringia. In the east their power extended at first as far as the Elbe and Saale Rivers; in the later centuries it certainly extended much far- ther. All the coast of the German Ocean belonged to the Saxons excepting that west of the Weser, which the Frisians retained. The history of the powerful Saxon tribe is also the history of the conversion to Christianity of that part of Germany which lies be- tween the Rhine and the Oder, that is of almost the whole of the present Northern Germany. From the eighth century the Saxons were divided into the four sub-divisions: Westphalians, between the Rhine and Weser; the Engern or Angrians, on both sides of the Weser; the Eastphalians, between the Weser and Elbe; the Transalbingians, in the present Holstein. The only one of the.se names that has been preserved is Westphalians, given to the inhabitants of the Prus- sian Province of Westphalia.

In company with the German tribe of Angles a part of the Saxons settled on the Island of Britain from which the Romans had mthdrawii, where as Anglo- Sa.xons, after having accepted Cliristiaiiity about 600, they laid the foundation of Anglo-Saxon civilization and the present Great Britain. In attempting to reach Gaul by land the Saxons came into violent