ABSALON.  From the Old Danish-Latin name Absalonis, meaning "reward of the gods."  See Yonge's note under Absalom.  Also see Axel.

    Archbishop Absalon, who flourished in the twelfth century, appeared most seasonably for the deliverance of Denmark, at a moment when she was reduced to the last extremity of misery at home and insignificance abroad.  At that period the succession to the crown, like every thing else, was altogether unsettled: the throne might be filled by any individual of the royal line.  The inhabitants of Jutland in consequence chose Canute, and the rest of the Danes Svend to be kind of Denmark.  A most sanguinary civil war was the result.
    The foreign enemies of Denmark naturally took advantage of her deplorable situation, and that country which had made Rome herself tremble, was now insulted by predatory hordes.  The pirates of Venden in particular committed the greatest excesses with perfect impunity.  They wrapped the coasts of Denmark in a general blaze of devastation, and carried off many of her children into a state of bondage.
    At this crisis the young Duke Valdemar, afterwards King of Denmark, and surnamed the Victorious, and Absalon began to distinguish themselves not less by their virtues than by their talents... (Poems: from the Danish, Feldborg, 1816)