Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum is one of the most important accounts documenting the history, geography and ethnology of Northern and Central-Eastern Europe in the period between the ninth and eleventh centuries. Its author, a canon of the archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen, remains an almost anonymous figure but his text is an essential source for the study of the early medieval Baltic. However, despite its undisputed status, past scholarship has tended to treat Adam of Bremen’s account as, on the one hand, an historically accurate document, but on the other, a literary artefact containing few, if any, reliable historical facts. The studies collected in this volume investigate the origins and context of the Gesta and will enable researchers to better understand and evaluate the historical veracity of the text.
Author(s): Grzegorz Bartusik, Radosław Biskup, Jakub Morawiec
Series: Studies in Medieval History and Culture
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 318
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of abbreviations
Introduction
1 Imperial politics and visions of the North
2 Proselytus et advena: reading the opening lines of Adam’s prologue in the light of biblical viewpoints on foreigners and converts
3 Sven Estridsen as Adam’s informant
4 St. Olaf and Adam of Bremen’s narrative pragmatics
5 Ad insulas Baltici. Role and reception of scholia in Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum
6 Adam of Bremen and the early (pre- 995) history of Norway
7 The eleventh- century Normans of Normandy in the view of Adam of Bremen
8 Religious conversions in Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum and in Saxo Grammaticus’ Gesta Danorum: a comparative approach
9 On the influence of Adam’s Gesta on Yngvars saga víðfǫrla
10 Adam of Bremen and visions of the state in Early Medieval
Scandinavia
– a
comparative approach to chiefdom, leadership,
kingship, segmental tribes
11 Ars moriendi and figures of power in Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum
12 Female characters and the meaning of history in Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis
13 Of Gunnhildrs and Gyðas
14 At the edge of time: Adam of Bremen’s imaginary North and Horror Vacui
15 Scythia and the Scythian Sea on the mental map of Adam of Bremen
16 Harald Bluetooth and the Western Slavs: cultural interactions in light of textual and archaeological sources
17 The description of the Oder (Odra) estuary in Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum . The oldest accounts of the river until the end of the twelfth century
18 Est sane maxima omnium, quas Europa claudit, civitatum. Adam of Bremen and the estimation of size and population of early medieval Wolin
19 Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis pontificum as an inspiration for Polish politics of history in Wolin after WW2
Geographical Index
Index
