Saxo, and to juxtapose it in history, to provide more information on where he was educated. Some have considered his Latin to have more in common with legal than with ecclesiastical training, and his poetry is thought to have traces of parallelism. Although Saxo is commonly viewed by modern Danes as their "first national historian", two other coherent accounts of Danish history by Danish authors predate Gesta Danorum. They are 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. The next 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. Saxo's works were received enthusiastically by Renaissance era scholars, who were curious about the pre-Christian history and legends. Saxo's portrayals of history have been seen to differ greatly from those of his contemporaries, especially Norwegian and Icelandic, including portrayals of various historical characters as either heroes or villains. There are also differences between Saxo's work and that of the fellow Danish historian Sven Aggesen from the same era. These differences have to do with Saxo's elaboration and euhemerism in his descriptions of mainly Scandinavian history and mythology, Saxo's account on the tale of Thyri, for instance, is considered to be far more fantastic than the same tale presented by Sven. Saxo's work has been criticized for this reason. Kurt Johannesson's studies expanded greatly on the comprehension of Gesta Danorum, deviating from the approach that focuses mostly on mythology, and allowing the development of a wider understanding of Saxo's works. Recently some scholars, such as Sigurd Kværndrup, inspired by Johannesson's study of the four cardinal virtues in Gesta Danorum, have studied other elaborations and schemes in the writings of Saxo. Some of them have concluded that Saxo, instead of simply distorting allegedly true Nordic and Baltic traditions and/or beliefs, was creating something new, attuned to the approaching 13th century Danish race to strengthen institutions and engage in the Northern Crusades. Importantly, Saxo Grammaticus appears to have changed his agenda after the death of his patron Absalon in 1202. What eventually came to be the first nine books of Gesta Danorum, were actually written after the death of Absalon, and they focus largely on