A tale of two Swens

        Huggery-muggery
        Saxo Grammaticus

        - James Michie

Scholars dealing with Old Norse subjects rarely have kind words to spare for Saxo Grammaticus. Supposedly enigmatic, hateful and confused, Latinate, lengthy and ecclesiastical, he is in essence the evil version Snorri Sturluson. Unfamiliar with secondary literature and even unfamiliar with the work itself, much scholarly discourse often results in predictable absurdities and bad takes. Haki Antonsson's 2010 article "Traditions of Conversion in Medieval Scandinavia: A Synthetis" from Saga-Book XXXIV, goes the extra mile:

        The notion that apostates deserve harsh punishment is naturally not confined to the West Norse
        textual corpus. For example, Saxo Grammaticus, in his famous description of the conquest of
        Rügen in the late 1140s, maintains that King Sven Forkbeard had donated an exquisite cup to
        Arcona’s pagan temple, ‘preferring to cultivate an alien religion rather than his own, and for this
        impiety he later paid the penalty of a miserable death’ (Saxo Grammaticus 1980–81, 2: 496).
        The apostate thus receives his just reward. In this case Saxo’s willingness to draw exempla from
        most things leads to a rather glaring inconsistency. Earlier in the Gesta Danorum he had narrated
        how Sven, having finally embraced Christianity, died and ‘departed in the glory of a most
        perfect life’ (Saxo Grammaticus 1980–81, 1: 26).
        (Antonsson, p. 52-53).

A glaring inconsistency indeed! Maybe the references will provide a clue to this mystery. Antonsson refers to the three volume Danorum Regum Heroumque Historia. Books X–XVI. The Text of the First Edition with Translation and Commentary edited by Eric Christiansen. The earliest passage Antonsson brings up is Swen departing in "the glory of a most perfect life" in volume 1, page 26. But how can Saxo Grammaticus then describe Swen dying miserably due to his cultivation of an alien religion, only one entire book + 470 pages later? It simply 𝖇𝖔𝖌𝖌𝖑𝖊𝖘 the mind!

They are not the same Swen.

Glaring inconsistency? Talk about throwing stones while living in a glass house. Swen Forkbeard kicks the bucket in book 10, Swen III Grathe appears in book 13 and 14. Just how Antonsson arrived at his reading is impossible to tell, but he should stay away from Eyrbyggja saga in order not to have an apoplectic fit.

Read the book, Haki!

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