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In early Medieval Western Europe intellectuals were used to indicate the external location of Slavic countries, as though outside civilization, with the term ‘the North’. The problem did not only concern nomenclature. The stereotype associated with ‘the North’ pointed at the obvious cold weather, but also the primeval nature of the land and people. This study shows the detailed image of Poland created by German authors in the earliest period of existence of the Piast state (963-1034). An important aim of this work was also to identify the wider context of written opinions. Another purpose was to gather information illustrating actions taken by the Polish rulers aimed at creating an image of themselves as civilized men and true Christians.
Patrick J. Geary's highly acclaimed collection of source materials on the medieval period is well-known for offering an excellent selection of substantial excerpts—or whole documents wherever possible—from the most widely studied historical texts. This much-anticipated fifth edition features a larger format, as well as enlarged type, to make the collection more reader-friendly. Study questions have been added at the end of each section to help students focus on key points in the text. Volume II includes new material on the Black Death as well as new readings on Western Europe and the Mongols. A color photo section has been added, introducing students to fascinating medieval art such as the two earliest images of Joan of Arc and the Sachsenspiegel.
In this volume, Stanisław Rosik focuses on the meaning and significance of Old Slavic religion as presented in three German chronicles (the works of Thietmar of Merseburg, Adam of Bremen, Helmold of Bosau) written during the time of the Christianization of the Western Slavs. The source analyses show the ways the chroniclers understood, explained and represented pre-Christian beliefs and cults, which were interpreted as elements of a foreign, “barbarian”, culture and were evaluated from the perspective of Church doctrine. In this study, individual features of the three authors are discussed– including the issue of the credibility of their information on Old Slavic religion– and broader conclusions on medieval thought are also presented.
This is Volume One of a two-volume collection that brings together contributions from cultural and military history to offer an examination of religious rites employed in connection with warfare as well as their transformative and power- and identity-building potential across political communities of medieval Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe. Covering the period ca. 900 and 1500, the work takes theoretical, textual and practical approaches to the research on religious warfare, and investigates the connections between, and significance and function of crucial war rituals such as pre-, intra- and postbellum rites, as well as various activities surrounding the military life of individuals, polities, and corporates. Contributors are Robert Antonín, Robert Bubczyk, Dariusz Dąbrowski, Jesse Harrington, Carsten Selch Jensen, Sini Kangas, Radosław Kotecki, Gregory Leighton, Kyle C. Lincoln, Jacek Maciejewski, Yulia Mikhailova, Max Naderer, László Veszprémy, and Dušan Zupka.
Between the middle of the 10th century and the middle of the 12th century both the cultural and the national identities of the Poles were formed. They were determined by political decisions made by the rulers from the Piast ruling house and built on a framework consisting of stories focused on the Piasts’ past. In all of this a dynastic tradition supported by the current ruler and his entourage was created and re-created. Tradition was understood as communication, the aim of which was to transmit values which define ways of perceiving the world by those people who accept this tradition as their own – by the Poles. The aim of the work is to seek traces of these traditions and values still alive in Polish culture.
This holistic study demonstrates the interconnected nature of early medieval origin legends and traces their growth over time.
Cover -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1. Coping with Conquest: Local Identity and the Gesta Herwardi -- 2. The View from Lincolnshire: Gaimar's Estoire des Engleis as Regional History -- 3. Locating a Border: Fouke le Fitz Waryn and the March of Wales -- 4. Englishness Outside England: Embracing Alterity in Medieval Romance -- 5. England at the Edge of the World -- Envoi -- Bibliography -- Index.
An analysis of the early Přemyslid realm provides an opportunity for recognizing the importance of different factors involved in the formation of stable social structures in the early medieval regnum. The contemporary narrative emphasizes the importance of violence, where the Přemyslid princes and their powerful retinues imposed princely will on elites and freemen in Bohemia and Moravia. However, our attention also turns to the problematic evidence of assumed powerful cavalry armies and the importance of communication between prince, elites and church, somewhat problematizing the role of violence as the primary tool of governance. Furthermore, an analysis of “otherness” in Saxon chronicles and a comparison of different traditions of St. Wenceslas and Great Moravia confirm the importance of the “Identitätsbildung”-process and “ideology” as stabilising factors in the new Přemyslid regnum.
This volume examines mutual ethnic and national perceptions and stereotypes in the Middle Ages by analysing a range of narrative historical sources, such as chronicles, hagiography, and literary material, with a particular focus on the mutual history of Germany and Poland. What sorts of stereotypes and prejudices existed in the Middle Ages, and how widespread were they? Or what other types of differentiating features were considered, and why? The majority of the contributions clearly shows that medieval authors in general displayed only limited interest in the activities of neighbouring lands, and only then when it concerned their own interests – such as matters of conflict, diplomacy, or marriage – while criticism usually focused on individuals, rather than being generalised to bordering regions as a whole. Contributors are Isabelle Chwalka, Jarochna Dąbrowska-Burkhardt, Stephan Flemmig, Sławomir Gawlas, Georg Jostkleigrewe, David Kalhous, Norbert Kersken, Paul Martin Langner, Roman Michałowski, Wojciech Mrozowicz, Piotr Okniński, Andrzej Pleszczyński, Volker Scior, Florian M. Schmid, Marcin Starzyński, Adam Szweda, Kristin Skottki, Grischa Vercamer, and Thomas Wünsch.
A groundbreaking comparative history of the formation of Bohemia, Hungary and Poland, from their origins in the eleventh century.