Absalon first appears in Saxo Grammaticus's contemporary chronicle Gesta Danorum at the end of the civil war, at the brokering of the peace agreement between Sweyn III and Valdemar at St. Alban's Priory, Odense.

He was also interested in history and culture, and commissioned Saxo Grammaticus to write Gesta Danorum, a comprehensive chronicle of the history of the Danes.

Saxo Grammaticus ' Gesta Danorum was not finished until after the death of Absalon, but Absalon was one of the chief heroic figures of the chronicle, which was to be the main source of knowledge about early Danish history.

* Saxo, Gesta Danorum, ed.

Tales concerning the Skjöldungs, possibly originating as early as the 6th century, were later used as a narrative basis in such texts as Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus and Hrólfs saga kraka.

Some scholars see Beowulf as a product of these early tales along with Gesta Danorum and Hrólfs saga kraka.

The battle of Högni and Heðinn is recorded in several medieval sources, including the skaldic poem Ragnarsdrápa, Skáldskaparmál ( section 49 ), and Gesta Danorum: king Högni's daughter, Hildr, is kidnapped by king Heðinn.

The first is found in Christiern Pedersen's " Danske Krønike ", which is a sequel to Saxo ’ s Gesta Danorum, written 1520 – 23.

The Danish flag from the front page of Christiern Pedersen ’ s version of Saxo ’ s Gesta Danorum, 1514.

* Gesta Danorum

Saxo Grammaticus wrote in his Gesta Danorum another story about Frigg:

In Saxo's Gesta Danorum, however, the gods and goddesses are heavily euhemerized, and Saxo's view on pagan deities is extremely biased, therefore most stories related to pagan gods written in it might not exist in ancient lore.

Gesta Danorum ( Angers Fragment ), page 1, front.

Gesta Danorum (" Deeds of the Danes ") is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th century author Saxo Grammaticus (" Saxo the Literate ", literally " the Grammarian ").

Consisting of sixteen books written in Latin on the invitation of Archbishop Absalon, Gesta Danorum describes Danish history and to some degree Scandinavian history in general, from prehistory to the late 12th century.

In addition, Gesta Danorum offers singular reflections on European affairs in the High Middle Ages from a unique Scandinavian perspective, supplementing what has been handed down by historians from Western and Southern Europe.

When exactly Gesta Danorum was written is the subject of numerous works ; however, it is generally agreed that Gesta Danorum was not finished before 1208.

It is also in this summary that the name Gesta Danorum is found.

With the help of printer Jodocus Badius, Gesta Danorum was refined and printed.

* Alfred Holder, published 1886, title: Saxonis Grammatici Gesta Danorum

* Jørgen Olrik & Hans Ræder, published 1931, title: Saxonis Gesta Danorum

The main sources available for discussion of this period include Gildas's De Excidio Britanniae and Nennius's Historia Brittonum, the Annales Cambriae, Anglo Saxon Chronicle, William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum Anglorum and De Antiquitate Glastoniensis Ecclesiae, along with texts from the Black Book of Carmarthen and the Red Book of Hergest, and Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum as well as " The Descent of the Men of the North " ( Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd, in Peniarth MS 45 and elsewhere ) and the Book of Baglan.

They are the version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle written at Peterborough Abbey ( ASC ), the Domesday Book ( DB ), the Liber Eliensis ( Book of Ely ) and, much the most detailed, the Gesta Herewardi ( Gesta ).

There seems to be some foreshadowing in Beowulf that Hroðulf will attempt to usurp the throne from Hroðgar's sons Hreðric and Hroðmund, a deed that also seems to be referred to in Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum ( Book 2 ), where we find: "... our king, who laid low Rorik, the son of Bok the covetous, and wrapped the coward in death.

One of the sources where the story of Hagbard appears is in Gesta Danorum, Book 7, which relates the love between Hagbarthus son of Hamundus and Signe daughter of King Sigarus despite Hagbarthus having slain her brothers.

Though Icelandic sources make this Fróði a very early Danish king, in Gesta Danorum ( Book 5 ), Saxo puts him late in his series of rulers, though including the chronological equation with Augustus and mentioning the birth of Christ.

The main sources available for discussion of this period include Gildas's De Excidio Britanniae and Nennius's Historia Brittonum, the Annales Cambriae, Anglo Saxon Chronicle, William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum Anglorum and De Antiquitate Glastoniensis Ecclesiae, along with texts from the Black Book of Carmarthen and the Red Book of Hergest, and Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum as well as " The Descent of the Men of the North " ( Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd, in Peniarth MS 45 and elsewhere ) and the Book of Baglan.

* Gesta Danorum, Book 9 by Saxo Grammaticus.

Following Bede, versions of the Lucius story appeared in the 9th-century Historia Brittonum, and in 12th-century works such as William of Malmesbury's Gesta pontificum Anglorum and the Book of Llandaff.

Saxo Grammaticus ' Gesta Danorum ( Book 4 ) speaks of Froger, the King of Norway, who was a great champion.

According to the Chronicon Lethrense and Saxo Grammaticus ' Gesta Danorum ( Book 2 ), Halfdan had two brothers named Ro and Skat who also sought the throne.

A similar story is told in the Gesta Danorum ( Book 7 ) of two brother kings named Harold and Fróði in which the envious Fróði has his brother Harold killed by treachery.

* Book 2 of Gesta Danorum at the Online Medieval & Classical library

Heremod may also be identical to Lother ( Latin Lotherus ) in Saxo Grammaticus ' Gesta Danorum ( Book 1 ) or the same history may have been applied to two originally separate figures.

In the Annales Ryenses and Saxo Grammaticus ' Gesta Danorum ( Book 1 ) Skjöld, that is Scyld, is preceded by a king named Lother, not one name Heremod.

A variant with two serpents instead of one appears in Saxo Grammaticus ' Gesta Danorum ( Book 9 ) where Herraud appears as Herothus King of Sweden.

* Saxo Grammaticus ' Gesta Danorum, Book X chapter 7, online at Royal Danish Library.

And while the Höd of the Hversu is said to be father of a son named Höddbrodd, in Saxo Grammaticus ' Gesta Danorum ( Book 3 ) Høtherus, the slayer of Balderus, is the son of Hothbrodus or Hothbroddus.

According to Gesta, Unni had died in 936 ( I 64 ).

Parallels have been pointed out between Njörðr and the figure of Hadingus, attested in book I of Saxo Grammaticus ' 13th century work Gesta Danorum.

Additionally, Sleipnir is mentioned in a riddle found in the 13th century legendary saga Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks, in the 13th century legendary saga Völsunga saga as the ancestor of the horse Grani, and book I of Gesta Danorum, written in the 12th century by Saxo Grammaticus, contains an episode considered by many scholars to involve Sleipnir.

Sleipnir is generally considered as appearing in a sequence of events described in book I of Gesta Danorum.

* 1070 – William I of England commissioned the Norman monk William of Jumièges to extend the Gesta Normannorum Ducum chronicle.

In keeping with this view of Frederick, his uncle, Otto of Freising, wrote an account of Frederick's reign entitled Gesta Friderici I imperatoris ( Deeds of the Emperor Frederick ).

** Predslava, a concubine of Bolesław I Chrobry according to Gesta principum Polonorum

Simek continues that the notion of an eternal battle and daily resurrection can be found in book I of Saxo Grammaticus ' Gesta Danorum and in reports of the eternal battle of Hjaðningavíg.

In the later books, down to the reign of Robert I ( 1371 ), he was aided by Fordun's Gesta Annalia, but from that point to the close the work is original and of contemporary importance, especially for James I, with whose death it ends.

The third, and arguably the most important record, comes from the Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus, who in his Gesta Danorum described the war fought in 1168 by the Danish king Valdemar I against the Wends of Rügen, the conquest of their city at cape Arkona and the destruction of the grand temple of Svantevit that stood there.

Better known is Otto's Gesta Friderici imperatoris ( Deeds of Emperor Frederick ), written at the request of Frederick I, and prefaced by a letter from the emperor to the author.

The Gesta Dagoberti I regis Francorum (" Deeds of King Dagobert I of the Franks ") was written in the first third of the ninth century.

The Latin text was first published by Jacques Bongars ( Gesta Dei per Francos, I, 139-183 ), and again in the " Recueil des historiens occidentaux des croisades " ( 1866 ), 235 – 309.

* Latin Chroniclers from the Eleventh to the Thirteenth Centuries: Gesta Stephani from The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Volume I, 1907 – 21.

The so-called Gesta Francorum (" The Deeds of the Franks ") or in full Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum (" The deeds of the Franks and the other pilgrims to Jerusalem ") is a Latin chronicle of the First Crusade written in circa 1100-1101 by an anonymous author connected with Bohemond I of Antioch.

In the additions Orderic Vitalis made to the Gesta Normannorum Ducum ( Deeds of the Norman Dukes ), he states that prior to his death at the Battle of Hastings, Harold Godwinson was betrothed to ‘ Adelidis ', a daughter of William I, and that she remained single after his death.

He wrote a history of the reign of Edward I of England, and a work on the Barons ' War ; and was probably the continuator of Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani.

Book I of the Philippide, along with relevant selections of the Gesta, has been translated into English by Gregory P. Stringer.

* The Gesta Danorum contains a description of a dragon killed by Frotho I

Despite the apparently late date, Scottish textual historian Dauvit Broun has shown that Fordun's work in fact consists of two earlier pieces, Gesta Annalia I and Gesta Annalia II, the former written before April 1285 and covering the period from King Máel Coluim mac Donnchada ( Malcolm III, died 1093 ) to 2 February 1285.