Even less evidence exists for identifying our Saxo with the scribe of
that name--a comparative menial--who is named in the will of Bishop
Absalon; and hardly more warranted is the theory that he was a member,
perhaps a subdeacon, of the monastery of St. Laurence, whose secular
canons formed part of the Chapter of Lund. It is true that Sweyn
Aageson, Saxo's senior by about twenty years, speaks (writing about
1185) of Saxo as his "contubernalis". Sweyn Aageson is known to have had
strong family connections with the monastery of St. Laurence; but there
is only a tolerably strong probability that he, and therefore that Saxo,
was actually a member of it. ("Contubernalis" may only imply comradeship
in military service.) Equally doubtful is the consequence that
since Saxo calls himself "one of the least" of Absalon's "followers"
("comitum"), he was probably, if not the inferior officer, who is called
an "acolitus", at most a sub-deacon, who also did the work of a superior
"acolitus". This is too poor a place for the chief writer of Denmark,
high in Absalon's favor, nor is there any direct testimony that Saxo
held it.

His education is unknown, but must have been careful. Of his training
and culture we only know what his book betrays. Possibly, like other
learned Danes, then and afterwards, he acquired his training and
knowledge at some foreign University. Perhaps, like his contemporary
Anders Suneson, he went to Paris; but we cannot tell. It is not even
certain that he had a degree; for there is really little to identify him
with the "M(agister) Saxo" who witnessed the deed of Absalon founding
the monastery at Sora.