"Writing the Barbarian Past" examines the presentation of the non-Roman, pre-Christian past in Latin and vernacular historical narratives composed between c. 550 and c. 1000: the Gothic histories of Jordanes and Isidore of Seville, the Fredegar chronicle, the "Liber Historiae Francorum," Paul the Deacon's "Historia Langobardorum," "Waltharius," and "Beowulf;" it also examines the evidence for an oral vernacular tradition of historical narrative in this period.
In this book, Shami Ghosh analyses the relative significance granted to the Roman and non-Roman inheritances in narratives of the distant past, and what the use of this past reveals about the historical consciousness of early medieval elites, and demonstrates that for them, cultural identity was conceived of in less binary terms than in most modern scholarship.
Author(s): Shami Ghosh
Series: Brill’s Series on the Early Middle Ages, 24
Publisher: Brill
Year: 2016
Language: English
Pages: XIV+316
Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations xi
1. Introduction 1
The Barbarian Past and Early Medieval Historical Narrative 3
Barbarians and Romans, Christians and Pagans: Cultural Contact in Late Antiquity 11
Historical Writing in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages 27
2. The Gothic Histories of Jordanes and Isidore 39
The Goths and Rome: Historical Background 39
The "De origine actibusque Getarum" of Jordanes: Background and Summary 42
Jordanes's Sources: Oral or Written? 46
Paganism and Arianism in the "Getica" 60
Goths and Romans: The Purpose of the Gothic Past in the "Getica" 63
Isidore of Seville's "Historia Gothorum": Background, Summary, and Sources 69
Religious Identities in Isidore's "Historia Gothorum" 74
Goths, Romans and Barbarians in Isidore's "Historia Gothorum" 81
The Function of Gothic History: Isidore and Jordanes Compared 87
3. The Origins of the Franks 93
The Historical Background to Frankish Historiography 93
Gregory, Fredegar, and the "LHF": Background and Summaries 95
The Trojan Origin of the Franks 99
The Sources for the Trojan Myth 104
The Function of the Frankish Distant Past 110
4. Paul the Deacon and the Ancient History of the Lombards 115
The Early History of the Lombards: Background and Sources 115
Paul the Deacon and his "Historia Langobardorum" 117
Lombard Oral Tradition in the "Historia Langobardorum" 121
Catholics, Romans, and Lombards in the "Historia Langobardorum" 141
5. A "Germanic" Hero in Latin and the Vernacular: "Waltharius" and "Waldere" 153
"Waltharius" and "Waldere": Authorship, Content, and Historical Background 155
Christianity in "Waltharius" 163
"Waltharius" and Germanic Oral Tradition 170
The Distant Past and its Function: Heroic Narrative as Light Entertainment 178
6. Looking Back to a Troubled Past: "Beowulf" and Anglo-Saxon Historical Consciousness 184
Anglo-Saxon England: Origins, Narratives, and Literary Culture 184
Christianity in "Beowulf": The Pagan Past as a Problem 197
"Beowulf", Germanic Tradition, and the Anglo-Saxon Past 212
7. Vernacular Oral Tradition and the "Germanic" Past 222
Oral Vernacular Historical Material 225
"Fashionable Gothicism"? The Value of the "Germanic" Past 236
8. Conclusions 257
Bibliography 267
Index 305
