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The Birth of a Stereotype
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.
Germans and Poles in the Middle Ages
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.
Central Europe in the High Middle Ages
This groundbreaking comparative history of the early centuries of Bohemia, Hungary and Poland sets the development of each polity in the context of the central European region as a whole. Focusing on the origins of the realms and their development in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the book concludes with the thirteenth century when significant changes in social and economic structures occurred. The book presents a series of thematic chapters on every aspect of the early history of the region covering political, religious, economic, social and cultural developments, including an investigation of origin myths that questions traditional national narratives. It also explores the ways in which west European patterns were appropriated and adapted through the local initiatives of rulers, nobles and ecclesiastics in central Europe. An ideal introduction to the essential themes in medieval central European history, the book sheds important new light on regional similarities and differences.
The Slavic Religion in the Light of 11th- and 12th-Century German Chronicles (Thietmar of Merseburg, Adam of Bremen, Helmold of Bosau)
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.
Religious Rites of War beyond the Medieval West
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.
Domus Bolezlai: Values and social identity in dynastic traditions of medieval Poland (c.966-1138)
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.
The Origin Legends of Early Medieval Britain and Ireland
This holistic study demonstrates the interconnected nature of early medieval origin legends and traces their growth over time.
Writing Regional Identities in Medieval England
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.
Anatomy of a Duchy
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.
Unions and Divisions
Providing a comprehensive and engaging account of personal unions, composite monarchies and multiple rule in premodern Europe: Unions and Divisions. New Forms of Rule in Medieval and Renaissance Europe uses a comparative approach to examine the phenomena of the medieval and renaissance unions in a pan-European overview. In the later Middle Ages, genealogical coincidences led to caesuras in various dynastic successions. Solutions to these were found, above all, in new constellations which saw one political entity becoming co-managed by the ruler of another in the form of a personal union. In the premodern period, such solutions were characterised by two factors in particular: on the one hand,...
