Overview

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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Shami Ghosh
Publisher:   Brill
Imprint:   Brill
Volume:   24
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.650kg
ISBN:  

9789004305229

ISBN 10:   900430522
Pages:   318
Publication Date:   06 November 2015
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Table of Contents

Contents 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

Reviews

""This is a significant study which will add nuance to the engagement of scholars with the thorny issues of identity, ethnicity and the perception of the past in the Early Middle Ages… The quality of Ghosh’s scholarship and the deep maturity of his arguments, which he demonstrates with his chosen texts, will ensure that this work will remain a sine qua non of the literature for some time to come. He has pointed the way to further useful engagement with the sources that will be a productive avenue for future research and researchers."" Christopher Heath, University of Manchester, in: al-Masaq 29.3 (2017), 273-4.

This is a significant study which will add nuance to the engagement of scholars with the thorny issues of identity, ethnicity and the perception of the past in the Early Middle Ages... The quality of Ghosh's scholarship and the deep maturity of his arguments, which he demonstrates with his chosen texts, will ensure that this work will remain a sine qua non of the literature for some time to come. He has pointed the way to further useful engagement with the sources that will be a productive avenue for future research and researchers. Christopher Heath, University of Manchester, in: al-Masaq 29.3 (2017), 273-4.

Author Information

Shami Ghosh, Ph.D. (2009), University of Toronto, has published numerous articles on medieval and early modern cultural, social, and economic, and literary history. His first book, Kings’ Sagas and Norwegian History: Problems and Perspectives, was published by Brill in 2011.

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