the extensive Icelandic written literature touching the ninth and
tenth and eleventh centuries; the noble, if fragmentary remains of Old
Northern poetry of the Wickingtide; and lastly, the mass of tradition
which, surviving in oral form, and changing in colour from generation to
generation, was first recorded in part in the seventeenth, and again in
part, in the present century; and all these yield a plentiful field for
research. But their evidence gains immensely by the existence of Saxo's
nine books of traditional and mythic lore, collected and written down in
an age when much that was antique and heathen was passing away forever.
The gratitude due to the Welshman of the twelfth century, whose garnered
hoard has enriched so many poets and romances from his day to now, is
no less due to the twelfth-century Dane, whose faithful and eloquent
enthusiasm has swept much dust from antique time, and saved us such a
story as Shakespeare has not disdained to consecrate to highest use. Not
only Celtic and Teutonic lore are the richer for these two men, but
the whole Western world of thought and speech. In the history of modern
literature, it is but right that by the side of Geoffrey an honourable
place should be maintained for Saxo, and

"awake remembrance of these mighty dead."


--Oliver Elton



ENDNOTES:
(1) A horn and a tusk of great size are described as things of
price, and great uroch's horns are mentioned in Thorkill's
Second Journey. Horns were used for feast as well as fray.