Huns
A formidable military force whose army could not be counted, attested across the Gesta Danorum and the Hervarar Saga.
The Huns appear across the Gesta Danorum and the Hervarar Saga ok Heidreks as a formidable military and political force. In the Gesta Danorum, the army of the Huns is described as vast — when asked whether it matched the forces of Olmar, Erik answered that he "came on a countless throng, a throng that neither earth nor wave could hold" (Gesta Danorum, Book Five). The Huns' military campaigns brought them through pathless deserts where, finding provisions nowhere, they began to risk general starvation in a "huge and swampy district" (Gesta Danorum, Book Five). Meanwhile, Frode distributed his soldiers through the towns to gather winter supplies, but even so could not maintain his army — plague fell on him "almost as great as the destruction that met the Huns" (Gesta Danorum, Book Five).
The Danish king's advisers praised the daughter of the King of the Huns as a fit wife (Gesta Danorum, Book Five), indicating the Huns' political stature. In a separate context, Lesy (Laesi) is identified as "the conqueror of the Pannonians (Huns)" who fitted a swift galley with a sail ringed with gold (Gesta Danorum, Book Eight).
The Hervarar Saga ok Heidreks provides a historical anchor: Gunnar son of Gjuki was overthrown and killed by the Huns in 437, after which the Burgundians moved to the district now known as Burgundy (Hervarar Saga ok Heidreks, The Thattr Of Nornagest).
The Gesta Danorum and the Hervarar Saga ok Heidreks position the Huns at different registers of narrative. Saxo's account in the Gesta Danorum treats the Huns as a recurring military presence — their army uncountable (Gesta Danorum, Book Five), their campaigns devastating, and their king's daughter a prize worth pursuing in marriage alliance (Gesta Danorum, Book Five). The detail about Huns starving in swampy pathless deserts (Gesta Danorum, Book Five) humanizes them as victims of geography even as they remain a threat.
The Hervarar Saga ok Heidreks strikes a different note, placing the Huns as historical agents in a datable event — the destruction of Gunnar son of Gjuki in 437 (Hervarar Saga ok Heidreks, The Thattr Of Nornagest). This specificity contrasts with Saxo's more legendary register, and the migration of the Burgundians that follows connects the Huns to real-world political geography. Between the two sources, the Huns occupy the boundary between legend and history.