One of the central texts of the Danish Middle Ages are the Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1200). About half of the sixteen books of the work describe the legendary prehistory of Denmark.
The lecture will focus on the use of the Gesta Danorum in later Danish medieval historiography. The focus will be on the Annales Ryenses, which occupy a special place in Danish annalistics. This work exists in four different versions, as well as in Latin and Danish, and influenced later historiography in Sweden, Iceland, and northern Germany. It will be discussed what part of Saxo's monumental work found its way into the much shorter annals and to what extent a changed interest in Danish prehistory can be detected.
