Saxo grammaticus on pre-christian religion of

Among the literary sources on pre-Christian religion and mythology of the Slavs, predominantly highly fragmented and biased, the Western, German-Danish, Latin texts distinguish themselves, compared to the Arab and Old Rus sources, by their relative scrupulousness and a less obvious agenda. Even on the backdrop of the other Western sources, accounts of Saxo Grammaticus are specially characterized by the detailed and rigorous descriptions and the minimal use of the ideologically motivated narrative instruments. Unfortunately, the English translation of book XIV done by Erik Christiansen is highly difficult to access, while Oliver Eltons translation of a number of fragments in books I-IX describing the same pre-Christian religion, lack the desired level of accuracy and detail of the cult description. The following translation, with all its imperfections, still, is intended to make Saxo Grammaticus texts more accessible for a wider circle of readers, both specialists and not, present frequently overlooked fragments, and correct some of the errors traditionally creeping from one of the Saxos account overview to another. The translation is accompanied by the Latin original, and an attempt was made to preserve the original structure of the text in English translation as much as possible without impeding its semantics and the ease of understanding. Another goal of this translation is to give a second possible reading to vague fragments, compared to existing translations, without penalizing the accuracy.