The Bloody Poetry Rushes Forth

THE SCENE: The Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus occasionally gets downright poetic when describing the chaos and gore of battle.

THE TEXT: Headlong he shot to the fray, like a rushing river which sweeps to the sea, quick to clutch at battle as the cloven-hoofed stag speeds on its fleet course. See how amid the pools of human gore the dislodged teeth of the slain are washed in the rapid flow of blood and polished by the abrasive sand. Dashed in the mud they glint, while the red torrent carries splintered bones and swills over mangle limbs. A warm, foamy stream of Danish blood, squeezed from their veins, gathers in waves to form broad lakes, an inundation which rolls the scattered corpses.

– Gesta Danorum, Saxo Grammatic, 12th Century AD