As so often happens in academia, what began as a highly selective study eventually mushroomed into a comprehensive analysis that resulted in the monograph under review here. One unique feature about this case is that André Muceniecks composed this work in Brazil, not known as a center of study of medieval Scandinavia. And while medieval scholarship in Brazil has roots in the French Annales School, the author notes that due to its sheer geographic remoteness, Brazil's medieval historians have felt disconnected from their European counterparts. In this work, Muceniecks attempts to understand more fully this period of Danish medieval history through the lens of its most relevant source: the Gesta Danorum, which was written around 1185–1187 by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus during the Valdemarian dynasty (c.1157–1241). The main focus of the Gesta Danorum is to provide justification not only for Danish territorial expansion in the Eastern Baltic states during the Northern Crusades but also, importantly, that Danish hegemony was ultimately achieved only through the leadership (counsel) of the men who occupied the archbishopric of Lund.
Chapter 1 offers a historical narrative and seeks to place Denmark within the broader perspective of European history during the thirteenth century. Readers are provided a brief, general history of Danish authority and kingship during the Middle Ages, including the thorny issue of royal succession due in part to the absence of any tradition of primogeniture, all seemingly to demonstrate the relative stability achieved during the Valdemarian dynasty.
Chapter 2 discusses how knowledge was transferred in medieval Scandinavia where oral tradition inspired poets to explain and glorify Nordic myths in written form. These sagas, which were composed both in Latin and in the vernacular, were also presented as chronicles and histories that deal with both the spiritual and the secular. The chapter also presents a brief biography of Saxo, an examination of the various editions of the Gesta Danorum, as well as a description of its methodology, structure, and form. Readers learn that the work was commissioned by Archbishop Absalom and is divided into two main parts along with a preface that provides a general description of the work: books one through nine focus on Nordic mythology; books ten through sixteen are a chronicle of Danish history. The skillful use of tables and visual images, in this chapter and throughout the work, enhances decidedly the reader's understanding of the text.
Chapter 3 mentions briefly the hierocratic standpoint as presented in the historical books of the Gesta Danorum in which it is clear that Saxo is defending clerical authority over secular rulers and is chiefly concerned with how this arrangement will influence the nature of Danish political ideas about the inherent value of stability indicative of the Valdemarian kings.
Chapter 4 discusses how Saxo employs the literary euphemism, “whereby gods were men whose deeds were amplified by the passage of time and the development of mythical tradition” in the Gesta Danorum as an attempt to “connect genealogically the ancient Scandinavian gods to the kings of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries” (53). Readers learn the ways that medieval authors used this device for similar purposes, most notably in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae.
In chapter 5, the author examines Saxo's use of the “Four Cardinal Virtues” in the Gesta Danorum: fortitudo, iustitia, prudentia, and temperantia. Readers learn that while this concept originated with Greek and Roman non–Christian authors of classical antiquity, Saxo's use of this motif mirrors Martianus Capella's allegorical work, De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii in which the four cardinal virtues are portrayed as matrons and, to a lesser extent, on Valerius Maximus's Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium. In addition to these references, Muceniecks ably covers each of four virtues in separate sections using extensive examples from Danish mythology.
In the final chapter, Muceniecks demonstrates that the extent to which Saxo arrogates the chronicles of the Goths to the Danes in order to fashion a Danish empire on par with the Roman Empire. In an elaborate defense of his hierocratic position, Saxo employs a narrative theme referred to as “The Thematic of the Counsellor.” Muceniecks convinces the reader that, through the use of this theme, Saxo is able to “defend the king's tutelage by churchmen and even the Church's supremacy . . . where the easiest way to deliver the work would be a simple and plain narrative focused on strong kings and warriors” (107). Thus, the Danish hegemony over the northern peoples established in the thirteenth century was truly achieved by the kings’ counsellors (archbishops), precisely because these kings lack the four cardinal virtues to the same degree as their counsellors, as instituted by God.
