ABSTRACT
The object of this contribution to the theme of the seminar is one of the most beloved tales of Danish medieval literature: the tale of Hagbard and Signe by the learned Saxo Grammaticus - the clerk of Archbishop Absalon - in his Gesta Danorum, the Latin History of Denmark written in the decades around the year 1200. The Hagbard and Signe-story is about real people and not an exotic fairy tale. Hagbard and Signe actually seem to accept the law of the family; it is inevitable that they must die because of their love. Saxo's own attitude towards the tale is twofold: he has difficulty in accepting the structure of the tale and the unavoidable blood-feud and consequent death of Hagbard and Signe. Saxo seems to stress that Hagbard and Signe did not live in the flesh alone: they really had a marital affection for one another in his version of the tale.
