Remembering and Forgetting Pagan Kings of the Danes in the Eleventh Century

Abstract

In eleventh-century Denmark, the memory of the pagan kings of the Danes of the previous centuries was treated in many different ways: practices and choices of oral and written memory, oblivion and reinterpretations can be identified. We illustrate those varied strategies in three main contexts: oblivion, as exemplified by the work of Ailnoth; the use (or lack of use) of genealogy in the reign of Knud the Great and his sons; reinterpretations of past reigns by King Svend Estridsen, as described in the work of Adam of Bremen.