Writing the Barbarian Past : Studies in Early Medieval Historical Narrative.
- 1st ed.
- 1 online resource (329 pages)
- Brill's Series on the Early Middle Ages Series ; v.24 .
- Brill's Series on the Early Middle Ages Series .
Intro -- Writing the Barbarian Past -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- 1: Introduction -- The Barbarian Past and Early Medieval Historical Narrative -- Barbarians and Romans, Christians and Pagans: Cultural Contact in Late Antiquity -- Historical Writing in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages -- 2: The Gothic Histories of Jordanes and Isidore -- The Goths and Rome: Historical Background -- The De origine actibusque Getarum of Jordanes: Background and Summary -- Jordanes's Sources: Oral or Written? -- Paganism and Arianism in the Getica -- Goths and Romans: The Purpose of the Gothic Past in the Getica -- Isidore of Seville's Historia Gothorum: Background, Summary, and Sources -- Religious Identities in Isidore's Historia Gothorum -- Goths, Romans and Barbarians in Isidore's Historia Gothorum -- The Function of Gothic History: Isidore and Jordanes Compared -- 3: The Origins of the Franks -- The Historical Background to Frankish Historiography -- Gregory, Fredegar, and the lhf: Background and Summaries -- The Trojan Origin of the Franks -- The Sources for the Trojan Myth -- The Function of the Frankish Distant Past -- 4: Paul the Deacon and the Ancient History of the Lombards -- The Early History of the Lombards: Background and Sources -- Paul the Deacon and his Historia Langobardorum -- Lombard Oral Tradition in the Historia Langobardorum -- Catholics, Romans, and Lombards in the Historia Langobardorum -- 5: A 'Germanic' Hero in Latin and the Vernacular: Waltharius and Waldere -- Waltharius and Waldere: Authorship, Content, and Historical Background -- Christianity in Waltharius -- Waltharius and Germanic Oral Tradition -- The Distant Past and its Function: Heroic Narrative as Light Entertainment -- 6: Looking Back to a Troubled Past: Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon Historical Consciousness. Anglo-Saxon England: Origins, Narratives, and Literary Culture -- Christianity in Beowulf: The Pagan Past as a Problem -- Beowulf, Germanic Tradition, and the Anglo-Saxon Past -- 7: Vernacular Oral Tradition and The 'Germanic' Past -- Oral Vernacular Historical Material -- "Fashionable Gothicism"? The Value of the 'Germanic' Past -- 8: Conclusions -- Bibliography -- Index.
This book provides studies of narratives concerning the distant, 'barbarian' past, composed c.550-c.1000, ranging from Latin 'national' histories to Latin and vernacular epics and lays, and examines the place of this past in early medieval historical consciousness.
9789004305816
Germanic peoples-History-To 1500-Historiography. Germanic peoples-History-To 1500-Sources. Narration (Rhetoric)-History-To 1500. Historiography-History-To 1500. Oral tradition-History-To 1500. Ethnicity in literature. Latin literature, Medieval and modern-History and criticism. Germanic literature-History and criticism. Middle Ages-Historiography. Middle Ages-Sources.