Franks, Northmen, and Slavs : identities and state formation in early medieval Europe / edited by Ildar H. Garipzanov, Patrick J. Geary, and Przemysław Urbańczyk.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Garipzanov, Ildar H.

Geary, Patrick J., 1948-

Urbańczyk, Przemysław

Constance L. Rosenthal Book Fund.

Series:

Cursor mundi (Turnhout, Belgium) ; v. 5.

Cursor mundi ; v. 5

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethnicity--Europe--History--To 1500.

Ethnicity.

History.

Scandinavia--History--To 1397.

Scandinavia.

Europe--History--476-1492.

Europe.

Physical Description:

266 pages : maps ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Turnhout, Belgium : Brepols, [2008]

Summary:

Cursor Mundi is a publication series of inter- and multi-disciplinary studies of the medieval and early modern world, viewed broadly as the period between late antiquity and the Enlightenment. Like its companion, the journal Viator, Cursor Mundi brings together outstanding work by medieval and early modern scholars from a wide range of disciplines, emphasizing studies which focus on processes such as cultural exchange or the course of an idea through the centuries, and including investigations beyond the traditional boundaries of Europe and the Mediterranean.

In recent decades, historians attempting to understand the transition from the world of late antiquity with its unitary imperial system to the medieval Europe of separate kingdoms have become increasingly concerned with the role of early medieval gentes, or peoples, in the end of the former and the constitution of the latter.

Eleven specialists examine here the role of ethnic identity in the formation of medieval polities on the periphery of the Frankish world in the eighth through eleventh centuries. In particular, they explore the intertwined issues of ethnic identity and state formation in Scandinavia and in the western and southern Slavic regions, areas in which the new approaches to the history of ethnicity have but little penetrated traditional scholarship. They ask to what extent common identities assisted in the consolidation and creation of early medieval kingdoms and to what extent the formation of these kingdoms created a discourse of common identity as a means to centralization and control. The authors contend that the developments in Scandinavia and in Slavic areas cannot be understood except in dynamic relationship with the process of state formation and group identity within the Frankish kingdoms. This powerful, expansionist society not only interacted and influenced the development of state structures on its northern and eastern borders, but it also provided models of discourse about the relationship between centralizing power and group solidarity. Not that these discourses were simply adopted by the Franks' neighbours, but rather they became part of the range of possible options selectively adapted to local circumstances.

Contents:

Introduction: Gentes, Gentile Identity, and State Formation in Early Medieval Europe / Ildar H. Garipzanov, Patrick J. Geary, Przemyslaw Urbanczyk 1

Part 1 Franks: Identities in the Migration and Carolingian Periods

1 Ethnicity, Group Identity, and Social Status in the Migration Period / Peter J. Heather 17

2 Omnes Franci: Identifications and Identities of the Early Medieval Franks / Helmut Reimitz 51

3 Frankish Identity in Charlemagne's Empire / Janet L. Nelson 71

Part 2 Northmen: Identities and State Formation in Scandinavia

4 People and land in Early Scandinavia / Stefan Brink 87

5 Frontier Identities: Carolingian Frontier and the gens Danorum / Ildar H. Garipzanov 113

6 Division and Unity in Medieval Norway / Sverre Bagge 145

Part 3 Slavs: Identities and State Formation in the Slavic World

7 The Primary Chronicle's 'Ethnography' Revisited: Slavs and Varangians in the Middle Dnieper Region and the Origin of the Rus' State / Oleksiy P. Tolochko 169

8 Christianity and Paganism as Elements of Gentile Identities to the East of the Elbe and Saale Rivers / Christian Lubke 189

9 Slavic and Christian Identities during the Transition to Polish Statehood / Przemyslaw Urbanczyk 205

10 Identities in Early Medieval Dalmatia (Seventh-Eleventh Centuries) / Neven Budak 223

11 Slovenian Gentile Identity: From Samo to the Furstenstein / Patrick J. Geary 243.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Constance L. Rosenthal Book Fund.

ISBN:

9782503526157

2503526152

OCLC:

185032830