Gesta Danorum is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th century author Saxo Grammaticus. It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essential source for the nation's early history. It is also one of the oldest known written documents about the history of Estonia and Latvia.
Ragnar Lodbrok or Lothbrok is a historically dubious legendary Viking hero, as well as, according to the Gesta Danorum, a legendary Danish and Swedish King. He is known from Old Norse poetry of the Viking Age, Icelandic sagas, and near-contemporary chronicles. According to the traditional literature, Ragnar Lodbrok distinguished himself by many raids against the British Isles and the Holy Roman Empire during the 9th century. According to the sagas, Ragnar Lodbrok's father was the legendary Swedish king Sigurd Ring.
Saxo Grammaticus, also known as Saxo cognomine Longus, was a Danish historian, theologian and author. He is thought to have been a clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, the main advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author of the Gesta Danorum, the first full history of Denmark, from which the legend of Amleth would come to inspire the story of Hamlet by Shakespeare.
Fróði is the name of a number of legendary Danish kings in various texts including Beowulf, Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda and his Ynglinga saga, Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum, and the Grottasöngr. A Danish king by this name also appears as a minor character in the Middle High German epic Rabenschlacht. The name is possibly an eponym for the god Freyr.
Sigurd Ring was a legendary king of the Swedes mentioned in many old Scandinavian sagas. According to these sources he was granted rulership over Uppland as a vassal king under his uncle Harald Wartooth. Later he would take up arms against his uncle Harald in a bid to overthrow him and take the crown of Denmark, a conflict which Sigurd eventually won after the legendary Battle of the Brávellir, where it is said that Odin himself intervened and killed Harald. In the Sagas Sigurd is also known for being the father of the Norse Viking hero and legendary king of Denmark and Sweden, Ragnar Lodbrok. According to Bósa saga ok Herrauds, there was once a saga on Sigurd Ring, but this saga is now lost.
Harald Wartooth or Harold Hiltertooth was a legendary king of Denmark who is mentioned in several traditional sources. He is held to have (indirectly) succeeded his father as king of Zealand and to have expanded his realm. According to different sources, he may have ruled over Jutland, part of Sweden and the historical northern German province of Wendland. He is said to have been finally defeated and killed at the semi-legendary Battle of Bråvalla.
Erik Weatherhat was a legendary king of Sweden.
Chronicon Lethrense is a small Danish medieval work from the 12th century, written in Latin.
Hothbrodd was a legendary Norse hero, details of whose life appear in several related variations.
Christiern Pedersen was a Danish canon, humanist scholar, writer, printer and publisher.
Eyfura was a princess in Norse mythology, who married Arngrim and had twelve sons. In all accounts, her twelve sons would be slain by the Swedish champion Hjalmar and his friend Orvar-Odd.
Gyrd and Gnupa were kings of Denmark in the 10th century according to Sweyn II of Denmark and Adam of Bremen. They were the sons of the Swedish chieftain Olof the Brash who had conquered Denmark and they ruled together according to Swedish tradition.
Dan I was the progenitor of the Danish royal house according to Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum. He supposedly held the lordship of Denmark along with his brother Angul, the father of the Angles in Angeln, which later formed the Anglo-Saxons in England.
Humblus was one of the earliest kings of Denmark according to Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum.
Skjöldr was among the first legendary Danish kings. He is mentioned in the Prose Edda, in Ynglinga saga, in Chronicon Lethrense, in Sven Aggesen's history, in Arngrímur Jónsson's Latin abstract of the lost Skjöldunga saga and in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum. Under the name Scyld he also appears in the Old English poem Beowulf. The various accounts have little in common.
Hadingus was one of the earliest legendary Danish kings according to Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum, where he has a detailed biography. Georges Dumézil and others have argued that Hadingus was partially modelled on the god Njörðr.
Wihtlæg, Whitlæg, Wighlek, Wiglecus, Wiglek, Witlac or Viglek is a legendary king of either Denmark or Angeln in Germanic legends. He is known in Saxo's kings of Denmark by the name of Vigletus.
Runamo is a cracked dolerite dike in Sweden that was for centuries held to be a runic inscription and gave rise to a famous scholarly controversy in the 19th century. It is located 2.7 km from the church of Bräkne-Hoby in Blekinge, in South-Sweden. For hundreds of years people said it was possible to read an inscription, and learned men referred to it.
According to legend, Lagertha was a Viking shield-maiden and ruler from what is now Norway, and the onetime wife of the famous Viking Ragnar Lodbrok. Her tale was recorded by the chronicler Saxo in the 12th century. According to modern scholarship, it is likely that Lagertha was not a historical figure, but a reflection of tales about Viking warrior women or about the Norse deity Thorgerd.
Yngwin ("Yngve") was, according to Gesta Danorum, a king in Götaland, who was a close friend to one of the Danish kings named Halfdan.
