Absalon in the context of "Gesta Danorum"

Sorø Academy (Danish: Sorø Akademi) is a boarding school and gymnasium located in the small town of Sorø, Denmark. It traces its history back to the 12th century when Bishop Absalon founded a monastery at the site, which was confiscated by the Crown after the Reformation, and ever since, on and off, it has served as an educational institution, in a variety of forms, including as a knight academy founded by Christian IV and a venue for higher learning during the Danish Golden Age. Danish-Norwegian writer and academian Ludvig Holberg bequested most of his fortune to re-establishing the academy in 1750 after a devastating fire.

Sorø (Danish pronunciation: [ˈsoːˌʁœˀ]) is a town in Sorø municipality on the island of Zealand in east Denmark with a population of 8,433 (2025). It lies on the northeastern shore of Sorø Lake. The municipal council and the regional council are located in Sorø.

The town was founded in the 12th century by Bishop Absalon, as a Cistercian Abbey. The site also contained Sorø Klosterkirke, the church where Bishop Absalon and Margaret I of Denmark were buried (she was later moved to Roskilde Domkirke). In the 16th century, the Abbey was converted into a school, which became Sorø Academy. Despite the construction of a rail line through the town in the mid-19th century, the academy remained the core of the settlement, and Sorø has limited industry. Today, Sorø is a commuter town, as much of its population works in either greater Copenhagen or Roskilde.

Anders Sunesen (also Andreas, Suneson, Sunesøn, Latin: Andreas Sunonis) (c. 1167 – 1228) was a Danish archbishop of Lund, Scania, from 21 March 1201, at the death of Absalon, to his own death in 1228.

He is the author of the Latin translation of the Scanian Law and was throughout his life engaged in integrating a Christian worldview into the old legislature. He managed to introduce tithe (taxation benefiting the church) despite the resistance this measure had met from the population of Scania during Absalon's time, but his efforts to convince the priests of his day about the merits of celibacy was based mostly on his own example and relied on oratory rather than legal maneuvering. To educate the priests and to forward his ideas, especially about the integration between church and state, he wrote a didactic poem, Hexaëmon, consisting of 8,040 verses of Latin hexameter.

Slotsholmen (English: The Castle Islet) is an island in the harbour of Copenhagen, Denmark, and part of Copenhagen Inner City. The name is taken from the successive castles and palaces located on the island since Bishop Absalon constructed the city's first castle on the island in 1167 at the site where Christiansborg Palace lies today.

Recognised as the centre of the Government of Denmark since the Middle Ages, the island is sometimes referred to as 'the Island of Power' (Magtens Ø), and is lined with central government institutions and ministries; the name Slotsholmen is thus also frequently used as a metonym for overall Danish governmental administration.

Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 – c. 1220), also known as Saxo cognomine Longus, was a Danish historian, theologian, and author. He is thought to have been a clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, the main advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author of the Gesta Danorum, the first full history of Denmark, from which the legend of Amleth would come to inspire the story of Hamlet by Shakespeare.
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