King’s College 2004 v Mistress Gunnvör sílfrahárr
16
Sources: Latin Sources
There are a variety of chronicles, histories, and Church documents in Latin that touch upon the Vikings. The
best-known include:
vAdam of Bremen's Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclestia pontificium, written
sometime between 1066 and 1080, recounts early Danish history from 845 to 1072. Adam was most interested in showing the power and success of the Church and the Church
hierarchy, and thus distorts his
history appreciably to emphasize his concerns.
vSaxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum
was completed around 1216, and begins
with legendary and mythological materials based on oral accounts from traveling Icelanders, and also relies upon
histories such as the one
by Danish historian Sven Aggeson, a few years earlier. Scholars
have shown, however, that Vergil's Aeneid had more influence
on Saxo than did Aggeson. Saxo's
account is both augmented
and distorted by the northern legendary materials.
Caveats
wThe transition from oral
history to written history
wProblems with
backformation from Latin records
wIssues with literature
in translation: translation and normalizing