Hondero,
Thanks, that was a lovely passage. I like Saxo too, have read him several times but did not recall this - I guess I was not focused on slingshots at that time.
There is a part of his work that has a special interest to me. According to Saxo, in the time of king Frode Fredegod there was a marriage between him, the Danish king, and a princess of the Huns, Hanunde, probably the daughter of the Khan.
Furthermore in the Gesta Hungarorum it is said about Attila the Hun that he was "son of Bendeguz, the grandson of the great Nimrod who was brought up in Engadi and is the king of Huns, Medes, Goths and Danes by mercy of God."
Anyway, to me certain things point to connection between Danes and Huns. The Huns knew and used runes too, to name one.
This epic story talks about the marriage resulting in three years of relative peace - there off the kings name: Fredegod means PeaceGood, - which finally leads into a war with the Huns. There is a short sequence therein that illustrates the threatening appearance of such an army quite well:
Frode asks Erik whether the fleet of Olimar could match the army of the Huns. Erik answered:
No one, I believe can count it.
The sea does not have room for it,
nor does the land.
The forest, it seemed to me,
was set on fire.
when their campfires lit up the night.
The earth rumbled beneath the slaying of hoofs.
Wagons rolled by like roaring thunder.
So heavy and tight was their mass,
the earth gave way as they moved forward.
Fifteen banners I saw swaying,
by hundred flags each banner was followed.
Along with each flag twenty markers;
with each war sign a warlord followed.
When the king asked him what to put up against so many, Erik advised him to turn around and let the enemy perish by its own mass...!