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IMC 2023: Sessions

Session 231: Circulations of Information and Networks of Knowledge, I

Monday 3 July 2023, 14.15-15.45

Moderator/Chair:Nicoletta Rozza, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici Sezione di Scienze dell'Antichità, Università degli Studi di Napoli - Federico II
Paper 231-a'The utterance of Antiquity': Saxo Grammaticus' Sources for the Gesta Danorum
(Language: English)
Haley Guepet, School of Divinity, History, Philosophy & Art History, University of Aberdeen
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Latin, Language and Literature - Scandinavian
Paper 231-bNetworks of Intertwined Sources in the Auchinleck Anonymous Short English Metrical Chronicle
(Language: English)
Sibilla Siano, Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Letterari, Università degli Studi di Padova
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Middle English
Abstract

Paper -a:
12th-century Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus wrote Gesta Danorum to praise and glorify his country and its recent king, Valdemar I, rather than accurately document Denmark's history. Saxo employed a great deal of literary freedom in writing Gesta Danorum, and he drew his literary inspiration from his contemporary peers, legendary Danish history, and other oral and written Scandinavian stories.

This paper will trace the networks that Saxo used to gather inspiration and information to write Gesta Danorum and will look at how these sources came together to create Saxo Grammaticus' history of the Danes.

Paper -b:
The Anonymous Short English Metrical Chronicle in the Auchinleck Manuscript is a 2361-line chronicle of the history of England from its mythical foundation to the beginning of Edward III's reign. This chronicle appears to draw not only on authoritative sources such as William of Malmesbury and Robert of Gloucester, but also on a wider network of romances, chronicles, and oral legends. A comparison between the Auchinleck chronicle and the shorter version presented in the roughly contemporary Royal MS 12 C XII might demonstrate the extent to which this network of sources was reworked to convey specific views of English history.