In many countries in Northern and Eastern Europe, the period after 1000 saw the emergence of new Christian kingdoms. This process was soon reflected in works of historiography that traced the foundation and development of the new polities. Many of these texts had a lasting impact on the formation of political, ethnic, and religious identities of these states and peoples. This volume deals with some of these earliest histories narrating the past of the new polities that had emerged after 1000 in Northern, East Central, and Eastern Europe, as well as in the Adriatic regions. They have often been understood as 'national histories', but a closer look brings out the differences in their aims and construction. One question addressed here is to what extent these historians built on models of identification developed in earlier historiography. The volume provides an overview of several fundamental texts in which identities in the new Christian kingdoms were negotiated, and of recent research on these texts.
Author(s): Walter Pohl, Veronika Wieser, Francesco Borri (eds.)
Series: Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, 31
Publisher: Brepols
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 520
City: Turnhout
List of Illustrations xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction: The Historiography of New Peoples and Polities in Northern and Eastern Europe / WALTER POHL and VERONIKA WIESER 1
Scandinavian and Baltic Origins
Adam of Bremen’s Use of Earlier History / IAN WOOD 45
National Identity in Scandinavian Chronicles (Saxo and Snorri) / SVERRE BAGGE 65
Orkney, Óláfr Tryggvason, and the Conversion to Christianity / ROSALIND BONTÉ 81
Biblical Motifs and the Shaping of Ethnic Categories in the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia / STEFAN DONECKER and PETER FRAUNDORFER 117
Cosmas of Prague, the 'Gesta principum Polonorum', and their Western Contexts
The 'Legenda Christiani', the 'Chronica Bohemorum', and the Bohemian Slavs / PAVLÍNA RYCHTEROVÁ 143
Space and Identity in the 'Chronica Bohemorum' of Cosmas of Prague / JAN HASIL 179
Helmold of Bosau and our Reading of his 'Chronica Slavorum' / JAN KLÁPŠTĚ 203
Creating Dynastic Identity: Gallus Anonymus’s 'Chronicle' / ZBIGNIEW DALEWSKI 231
'By the Crown of My Empire! The Things I Behold Are Greater than I Had Been Led to Believe!': The Narrative Pattern 'Sheba Visits Salomon' in Medieval Narratives (Gallus’s 'Chronicle', 'Chronicon Salernitanum', and 'Pèlerinage de Charlemagne') / JACEK BANASZKIEWICZ 251
Hungarian Origins and their Political Uses
Hungarian Origins and Carolingian Politics in Regino of Prüm’s 'Chronicle' / MAXIMILIAN DIESENBERGER 273
Us and Them: The Description of Foreigners and Indigenous Peoples in Master P.’s and Simon of Kéza’s 'Gesta' (Thirteenth Century) / DÁNIEL BAGI 287
Christian Identity versus Heathendom: Hungarian Chroniclers Facing the Pagan/Nomadic Past and the Present / LÁSZLÓ VESZPRÉMY 305
Histories of Origins from the Adriatic and the Balkans
Circles of Identity: The Narratives of Thomas of Split and Domnius de Cranchis of Brač / NEVEN BUDAK 321
Grado as Aquileia Nova and Split as Salona Nova?: Local Historiography and Local Identity / PETER ŠTIH 337
Patria Venecia: John the Deacon’s Search for Venetian Origins / FRANCESCO BORRI 367
The 'Dioclean Tradition' in Serbian Literature of the Early Thirteenth Century / ALEKSANDAR UZELAC 389
The Rus’ 'Primary Chronicle', the Old Testament, and the Byzantine Background
The Debate over Authorship of the Rus’ 'Primary Chronicle': Compilations, Redactions, and Urtexts / DONALD OSTROWSKI 415
Creating Time, Forging Identity, Building a State: The 'Primary Chronicle' of Rus’ / OLEKSIY TOLOCHKO 449
Historiography of the New Europe: Comparative Perspectives / WALTER POHL 467
Index 485
