[1][7] During the transition ending the Viking Age and a few centuries ahead, the Hvide clan was a dominant factor in the Danish power politics.

Thereafter, the Hvide clansmen regularly rose to the highest positions in the Christian clergy, including several as Roman Catholic Archbishops of Lund.

[18][1][2][3] In c. 1100, after his brother had been murdered, Skjalm Hvide with his warriors sailed for a revenge to Rügen, the largest island by area [19] in what today is Germany.

It was perhaps in connection to this expedition of his when Skjalm Hvide made the people of Rügen taxpayers for the Danish crown, of which Saxo Grammaticus has written.

Based on Saxo's account, Skjalm Hvide was also the bailiff of Zealand, and commanded the King of Denmark's armed forces.

Today, Jørlunde is a village in the Frederikssund municipality, about 26 km northwest of central Copenhagen, in the Capital Region of Denmark, with a population of 305 as of 1 January 2019.

The earliest written mention of Copenhagen, located on the island of Zealand, was in the 12th century when Saxo Grammaticus in Gesta Danorum referred to it as Portus Mercatorum, meaning Merchants' Harbor or – in the Danish of the time – Købmannahavn.

This is due to its strategically important location in the center of the narrow waterways known as the Danish straits, which connect – and provide the only maritime gateway between – the Baltic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

Adam's position and the missionary activity of the church of Bremen allowed him to gather information on the history and geography of Northern Germany and some of the surrounding areas.

On this mission, Adam at some point in 1073–1076 spent time at the royal court of King Sweyn II of Denmark (c. 1019 – 28 April 1076; reigned in 1047–1076),[9] a.k.a.

[39] presumably including in Slangerup – a part of which is Jørlunde –, based on the fact that King Sweyn II primarily used as his home the royal estate there and its equivalent in Dalby, near Lund.

Sweyn II's grandson Canute Lavard and great-grandson Valdemar I – a future King of Denmark – were both brought up by Skjalm Hvide and his family.

[38] Among the things Adam wrote about in Scandinavia were the sailing passages across Øresund – the strait which forms the Danish–Swedish border, separating Zealand (Denmark) from Scania (Sweden) –, such as what today is known as the ferry route from Elsinore to Helsingborg.

These pirates, who call themselves Vikings [wichings], pay the king of the Danes taxes for their right to plunder the barbarians inhabiting the coasts of the sea.

"In his account pertaining to the Nordic areas, Descriptio insularum Aquilonis, the book 4 of Adam's "Gesta", published in c. 1076, Adam was the first[42] author known to have written about Vinland, the area of coastal North America explored by the Norse Vikings, where Leif Erikson first landed in c. 1000, approximately five centuries prior to the voyages of Christopher Columbus and John Cabot.

As the jurisdiction of the bishops of the diocese included missions related to the Christianization of Scandinavia, in Gesta Adam reports also of the Norse paganism of the period.

[7][47] Skjalm's son Asser Rig married Inger Eriksdotter (c. 1100–1157),[48] the daughter of Eric, the Jarl of Falster, and Princess Cecilia Knutsdatter, the daughter of King Canute IV of Denmark (c. 1042 – 10 July 1086), the first Danish king (1080–1086) to be canonized, recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as the Patron Saint of Denmark in 1101.

They gave birth to Absalon (c. 1128 – 21 March 1201), who became the Bishop of Roskilde, Archbishop of Lund, and a powerful warrior leader, government minister and main adviser and ally to two Danish kings.

This mission of Skjalm Hvide began when Canute Lavard's parents, King Eric I and Queen Boedil embarked for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

During the next fifteen years, he fulfilled his duty of establishing peace in the border area so well that he was titled Duke of Holstein (Hertug af Holsten) and became a vassal of the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1158, Absalon was appointed the Bishop of Roskilde (1158–1192), and later the Archbishop of Lund (1178–1201), while all along serving as the chief adviser, war commander and a minister for his stepbrother, the King Valdemar I of Denmark.

Accordingly, on a land owned by Skjalm Hvide until his death in c. 1113, his sons Ebbe Skjalmsen and Asser Rig in 1140 founded the Sorø Abbey, which became the preeminent and wealthiest monastic house in all of Denmark during the Middle Ages.

Saxo cognomine Longus), who was born around the time when Skjalm Hvide's sons Ebbe Skjalmsen and Asser Rig – the founders of the Sorø Abbey – are believed to have died (both in c. 1151).

[70] Based on Saxo's writings, he is believed to have been either a clerk or secretary to Archbishop Absalon, the son of Asser Rig and grandson of Skjalm Hvide.

Additionally, Gesta Danorum offers singular reflections on European affairs in the High Middle Ages, from a unique Scandinavian perspective.

[71][72] Saxo is believed to have finished Gesta Danorum by writing the preface for it as the work's last step, in c. 1216,[73] while then being under the patronage of Anders Sunesen, who became the Archbishop of Lund after the death of Absalon in 1201.

In the preface of Gesta Danorum, Saxo included a warm appreciation of both Archbishops of Lund, Absalon and Anders Sunesen, as well as the reigning King Valdemar II.

The earliest one is Chronicon Roskildense (English: Roskilde Chronicle), a small work written in Latin, completed in c. 1143, spanning from the introduction of Christianity in Denmark to the author's own time.

[77] The next Danish historiography to be published was Brevis historia regum Dacie, written by Sven Aggesen (b. c. 1140–1150 – death unknown), thought to have been finished in 1186 or 1187 (the last event described happened in 1185), covering the years 300–1185.

Therefore, we prefer to support the composition order of Gesta Danorum as X–XVI, followed by I–IX, and ending with the preface, says historian André Muceniecks from the Department of History at University of São Paulo in Brazil.