Saxo, etching by the Danish-Norwegian illustrator Louis Moe (1857—1945) Saxo Grammaticus (estimated. 1150 - 1220) was a Danish medieval historian of whose life practical nothing is known.
The sixteen books of Danish history of this time, known as the Gesta Danorum, are attributed to him, and also contribute our principal evidence of his own existence.
We know he was a follower of Archbishop Absalon, which probably means he worked in the Archbishops administration; his exact status is not determined. He might have been a clerk.
In Absalons will, one clericus named Saxo is forgiven a debt of 2 1/2 marks and is enjoined to return two handwritten manuscripts he has borrowed to Sorø monastery.
We read in the preface of Gesta Danorum Saxos own words that his Father and Grandfather both served under King Valdemar I as warriors and that he himself would like to serve King Valdemar II, though in a more spiritual way.
It is thought he was born in Zealand, as later sources claim. His elegant Latin and Roman knowledge, used in Gesta Danorum, makes it nearly certain that he was educated outside of Denmark, maybe in one of the big church-schools in France.
Saxo Grammaticus was not his real name. He received the appellation Grammaticus, the Latin word for a teacher of letters, in the Compendium Saxonis of Chronica Jutensis, around 1342, to express delight in his use of words. With the printed press publication of Christiern Pedersen's version of Gesta Danorum, the term Grammaticus has stuck to Saxo as being part of his name.
The only name given to him is found in the Zealand chronicle (Sjællandske Krønike), which names him Saxo, cognomine Longus, translating roughly to something like Saxo, named (or called) the long.
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