The Making of Christian Myths in the Periphery of Latin Christendom (c. 1000-1300)
9788763504072
Distributed for Museum Tusculanum Press
The Making of Christian Myths in the Periphery of Latin Christendom (c. 1000-1300)
Mythology is usually reserved for non-Christian religions. However, the adoption of Christianity in northern and east-central Europe between ca. 1000 and 1300 can be adequately described as a myth-making process: local saints were added to the Christian pantheon in all regions entering Latin Europe. The present collection explores the links between local sanctity and the making of national myths in medieval historical writing. By bringing together specialists in history and literature of the European periphery in question, The contributions convincingly argue that the writing of history and saints’ lives from this pioneering period are attempts at creating cultural foundation myths.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Lars Boje Mortensen
Constructing the Past. Religious Dimensions and Historical Consciousness in Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum
Hans-Werner Goetz
Pilgrims, Missionaries and Martyrs: The Holy in Bede, Orkneyinga saga and Knýtlinga saga
Carl Phelpstead
The Function of the Saints in Early Bohemian Historical Writing
Marie Bláhová
The Beginnings of Local Hagiography in Iceland: The Lives of Bishops Þorlákr and Jón
Ásdis Egilsdóttir
The Friend of the Meek. The Late Medieval Miracles of a Twelfth-century Icelandic Saint
Ármann Jakobsson
God and Saints in Medieval Polish Historiography
Norbert Kersken
In the Presence of the Dead. Saint Canute the Duke in Saxo Grammaticus’s Gesta Danorum
Karsten Friis-Jensen
Royal Saints in Hungarian Chronicles, Legends and Liturgy
László Veszprémy
Sanctified Beginnings and Mythopoietic Moments. The First Wave of Writing on the Past in Norway, Denmark, and Hungary, c. 1000–1230
Lars Boje Mortensen
Divine Election for Nations—a Difficult Rhetoric for Medieval Scholars?
Mary Garrison
Constructing Religious Pasts: Summary reflections
Håkan Rydving
Reflectons on Historiography and the Holy: Center and Periphery
Patrick Geary
Acknowledgments
List of Maps and Illustrations
Index
Lars Boje Mortensen
Constructing the Past. Religious Dimensions and Historical Consciousness in Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum
Hans-Werner Goetz
Pilgrims, Missionaries and Martyrs: The Holy in Bede, Orkneyinga saga and Knýtlinga saga
Carl Phelpstead
The Function of the Saints in Early Bohemian Historical Writing
Marie Bláhová
The Beginnings of Local Hagiography in Iceland: The Lives of Bishops Þorlákr and Jón
Ásdis Egilsdóttir
The Friend of the Meek. The Late Medieval Miracles of a Twelfth-century Icelandic Saint
Ármann Jakobsson
God and Saints in Medieval Polish Historiography
Norbert Kersken
In the Presence of the Dead. Saint Canute the Duke in Saxo Grammaticus’s Gesta Danorum
Karsten Friis-Jensen
Royal Saints in Hungarian Chronicles, Legends and Liturgy
László Veszprémy
Sanctified Beginnings and Mythopoietic Moments. The First Wave of Writing on the Past in Norway, Denmark, and Hungary, c. 1000–1230
Lars Boje Mortensen
Divine Election for Nations—a Difficult Rhetoric for Medieval Scholars?
Mary Garrison
Constructing Religious Pasts: Summary reflections
Håkan Rydving
Reflectons on Historiography and the Holy: Center and Periphery
Patrick Geary
Acknowledgments
List of Maps and Illustrations
Index