Saxo's Relation Of The Story Of Troy

: MEDIAEVAL MIGRATION SAGAS.
: Teutonic Mythology

Such is, in the main, the story which was current in Iceland in the

thirteenth century, and which found its way to Scandinavia through the

Prose Edda and Heimskringla, concerning the immigration of Odin and the

Asas. Somewhat older than these works is Historia Danica, by the

Danish chronicler Saxo. Sturlason, the author of Heimskringla, was a lad

of eight years when Saxo began to write his history, and he (Sturlason)

h d certainly not begun to write history when Saxo had completed the

first nine books of his work, which are based on the still-existing

songs and traditions found in Denmark, and of heathen origin. Saxo

writes as if he were unacquainted with Icelandic theories concerning an

Asiatic immigration to the North, and he has not a word to say about

Odin's reigning as king or chief anywhere in Scandinavia. This is the

more remarkable, since he holds the same view as the Icelanders and the

chroniclers of the Middle Ages in general in regard to the belief that

the heathen myths were records of historical events, and that the

heathen gods were historical persons, men changed into divinities; and

our astonishment increases when we consider that he, in the heathen

songs and traditions on which he based the first part of his work,

frequently finds Odin's name, and consequently could not avoid

presenting him in Danish history as an important character. In Saxo, as

in the Icelandic works, Odin is a human being, and at the same time a

sorcerer of the greatest power. Saxo and the Icelanders also agree that

Odin came from the East. The only difference is that while the Icelandic

hypothesis makes him rule in Asgard, Saxo locates his residence in

Byzantium, on the Bosphorus; but this is not far from the ancient Troy,

where the Prose Edda locates his ancestors. From Byzantium, according to

Saxo, the fame of his magic arts and of the miracles he performed

reached even to the north of Europe. On account of these miracles he was

worshipped as a god by the peoples, and to pay him honour the kings of

the North once sent to Byzantium a golden image, to which Odin by magic

arts imparted the power of speech. It is the myth about Mimer's head

which Saxo here relates. But the kings of the North knew him not only by

report; they were also personally acquainted with him. He visited

Upsala, a place which "pleased him much." Saxo, like the Heimskringla,

relates that Odin was absent from his capital for a long time; and when

we examine his statements on this point, we find that Saxo is here

telling in his way the myth concerning the war which the Vans carried on

successfully against the Asas, and concerning Odin's expulsion from the

mythic Asgard, situated in heaven (Hist. Dan., pp. 42-44; vid. No.

36). Saxo also tells that Odin's son, Balder, was chosen king by the

Danes "on account of his personal merits and his respect-commanding

qualities." But Odin himself has never, according to Saxo, had land or

authority in the North, though he was there worshipped as a god, and, as

already stated, Saxo is entirely silent in regard to any immigration of

an Asiatic people to Scandinavia under the leadership of Odin.



A comparison between him and the Icelanders will show at once that,

although both parties are Euhemerists, and make Odin a man changed into

a god, Saxo confines himself more faithfully to the popular myths, and

seeks as far as possible to turn them into history; while the

Icelanders, on the other hand, begin with the learned theory in regard

to the original kinship of the northern races with the Trojans and

Romans, and around this theory as a nucleus they weave about the same

myths told as history as Saxo tells.