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Ideal and reality in Frankish and Anglo-Saxon society: Studies presented to J.M. Wallace-Hadrill
Studies presented to J.M. Wallace-Hadrill.
345 pages, Hardcover
First published September 29, 1983
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May 19, 2021
Ideal and Reality in Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Society, Eds Wormald, Bullough and Collins, 1983, 343 pages
This is a book of individual papers presented to Wallace-Hadrill,. Some concern the Franks, some Anglo-Saxon England and one the medieval west in general. Not all interested me, but by heck, look at the names involved. There's some famous scholars involved in this.
This book is now quite venerable and whilst not all scholarship ages badly, ideas can be refuted, refined, or expanded by subsequent works. Hence there is always a risk that the knowledge gained from this will have been supplanted or supplemented by further work. However, I've seen the various essays contained within this cited in a lot of works, so when I found it on sale for the right price, I grabbed it.
Papers include:
Theudebert I, R Collins
Not my cup of tea.
The ecclesiastical politics of Merovingian Clerment, I Wood
Still not my cup of tea.
Bureaucratic shorthand and Merovingian learning, D Ganz
Probably superb, but not for me.
Bede's Old Testament kings, J McClure
To get the most from Bede's history it is necessary to understand how he thought history should be recorded and this means knowing of his biblical influences, particularly the book of kings. One of the things that he picked up was the importance of exactitude (his deliberate choice of terminology regarding settlements has been explored by Campbell, as has the use of titles). Another was seeing kingly activities through exemplars such as Solomon and David. One problem, though, is that whilst some of his terminology is influenced by the bible, it isn't clear how much he amended or omitted facts to reflect the bible. He records Penda at Winwaed having 30 dux whilst in the bible Benhadad of Aram took 32 kings with him against Israel. Did Bede exaggerate facts to get the link or is it just coincidence?
Bede, the Bretwaldas the the origins of the Gens Anglorum, P Wormald
In the past two terms have drawn undue attention. Heptarchy, which suggests a stability that was at best illusory and Bretwalda, which tantalisingly betokens an imperial grandeur of some kind, possibly even evidence of some kind of constitutional early sense of unity. This paper punctures that bubble. Wormald points out that overlords gained what they could through strength and not by any right. Further to this, any tendency to read back a unified England through the Bretwaldas should be resisted. The notion of this list of kings (inconsistent as it is) holding a Southumbrian hegemony, as opposed to a northern one, is much more interesting. Even more fascinating than this is the section on the popularisation of the Gens Anglorum.
Bede's ideal of reform, A Thacker
This paper shows that Bede's ideas concerning reform were heavily influenced by Pope Gregory. For Bede the ideal religious sort was one that was learned, humble and active in teaching people the faith. His second life of St Cuthbert brought these traits to the fore whilst at the same time making the Bernician saint one for all of Northumbrian. This has obvious, although unstated in this paper, implications concerning Wilfrid and the contrast to Cuthbert.
Kings who opted out, C Stancliffe,
This was a very enjoyable paper that examined kings who retired to a monastery or went on pilgrimage. This covered Frankish, Irish (the sources for this are rather messy), British and Anglo-Saxon. It looked at who, when, why and the eventual cessation of the phenomenon. Although the number of kings who opted out was small it is an interesting phenomenon in itself.
Burial, community and belief in the early medieval west, D Bullough,
This paper could do with revisiting. It begins by discussing burial locations inside and then, eventually, outside of towns, before being located at locations associated with Christian infrastructure throughout. In the last 40 years or so archaeological finds have added a lot more information that pertains to this and so that leaves this paper, in part, with a provisional feeling. It's surprising just how unconcerned the early church was about burial locations. The paper then goes on to consider how the well to do Christian could distinguish their graves from the rest of the populace.
Legislation and consensus in the reign of Charles the Bald, J Nelson,
Another that wasn't in my area of interest.
The Carolingian kings and the see of Rheims, R Mckitterick
I probably should read more about the Franks, but there's just so much to learn about Anglo-Saxon England.
The making of Aethelstan's Empire – an English Charlemagne, M Wood
I was looking forward to reading this and whilst it wasn't compulsive reading like The making of England, it was still good. Here Wood examines the intellectual flowering of Aethelstan's court, showing how it built upon Alfredian foundations and led to the flowering under Edgar. He looks most closely at the continental intellectual links, showing just how important these were to the culture of the court. These contacts and the gifts received from the Carolingian successor states added to the glory of Aethelstan.
The Royal Tun in pre-conquest England, P Sawyer,
I enjoyed this paper. It was more or less an older version of Royal Estates in Anglo-Saxon Wessex (R Lavelle) whilst the sections dealing with royal assemblies reminded me in part of Kingship and Consent by L Roach. It was a very easy read. However , the downside was that it felt quite dated in comparison to the two later works.
The world of Abbot Aelfric, E John
This looked at the influences of Abbot Aelfric and the intellectual world in which he moved. It might be because I read it late at night, or it could be that it's not an area I'm that fussed about, but over 16 pages, I found it very hard to get to grips with. There were definitely words on the page, but after reading each page, I felt none the wiser as to what John was trying to get across.
A bibliography of the historical writings of Wallace-Hadrill, I Wood
This is a book of individual papers presented to Wallace-Hadrill,. Some concern the Franks, some Anglo-Saxon England and one the medieval west in general. Not all interested me, but by heck, look at the names involved. There's some famous scholars involved in this.
This book is now quite venerable and whilst not all scholarship ages badly, ideas can be refuted, refined, or expanded by subsequent works. Hence there is always a risk that the knowledge gained from this will have been supplanted or supplemented by further work. However, I've seen the various essays contained within this cited in a lot of works, so when I found it on sale for the right price, I grabbed it.
Papers include:
Theudebert I, R Collins
Not my cup of tea.
The ecclesiastical politics of Merovingian Clerment, I Wood
Still not my cup of tea.
Bureaucratic shorthand and Merovingian learning, D Ganz
Probably superb, but not for me.
Bede's Old Testament kings, J McClure
To get the most from Bede's history it is necessary to understand how he thought history should be recorded and this means knowing of his biblical influences, particularly the book of kings. One of the things that he picked up was the importance of exactitude (his deliberate choice of terminology regarding settlements has been explored by Campbell, as has the use of titles). Another was seeing kingly activities through exemplars such as Solomon and David. One problem, though, is that whilst some of his terminology is influenced by the bible, it isn't clear how much he amended or omitted facts to reflect the bible. He records Penda at Winwaed having 30 dux whilst in the bible Benhadad of Aram took 32 kings with him against Israel. Did Bede exaggerate facts to get the link or is it just coincidence?
Bede, the Bretwaldas the the origins of the Gens Anglorum, P Wormald
In the past two terms have drawn undue attention. Heptarchy, which suggests a stability that was at best illusory and Bretwalda, which tantalisingly betokens an imperial grandeur of some kind, possibly even evidence of some kind of constitutional early sense of unity. This paper punctures that bubble. Wormald points out that overlords gained what they could through strength and not by any right. Further to this, any tendency to read back a unified England through the Bretwaldas should be resisted. The notion of this list of kings (inconsistent as it is) holding a Southumbrian hegemony, as opposed to a northern one, is much more interesting. Even more fascinating than this is the section on the popularisation of the Gens Anglorum.
Bede's ideal of reform, A Thacker
This paper shows that Bede's ideas concerning reform were heavily influenced by Pope Gregory. For Bede the ideal religious sort was one that was learned, humble and active in teaching people the faith. His second life of St Cuthbert brought these traits to the fore whilst at the same time making the Bernician saint one for all of Northumbrian. This has obvious, although unstated in this paper, implications concerning Wilfrid and the contrast to Cuthbert.
Kings who opted out, C Stancliffe,
This was a very enjoyable paper that examined kings who retired to a monastery or went on pilgrimage. This covered Frankish, Irish (the sources for this are rather messy), British and Anglo-Saxon. It looked at who, when, why and the eventual cessation of the phenomenon. Although the number of kings who opted out was small it is an interesting phenomenon in itself.
Burial, community and belief in the early medieval west, D Bullough,
This paper could do with revisiting. It begins by discussing burial locations inside and then, eventually, outside of towns, before being located at locations associated with Christian infrastructure throughout. In the last 40 years or so archaeological finds have added a lot more information that pertains to this and so that leaves this paper, in part, with a provisional feeling. It's surprising just how unconcerned the early church was about burial locations. The paper then goes on to consider how the well to do Christian could distinguish their graves from the rest of the populace.
Legislation and consensus in the reign of Charles the Bald, J Nelson,
Another that wasn't in my area of interest.
The Carolingian kings and the see of Rheims, R Mckitterick
I probably should read more about the Franks, but there's just so much to learn about Anglo-Saxon England.
The making of Aethelstan's Empire – an English Charlemagne, M Wood
I was looking forward to reading this and whilst it wasn't compulsive reading like The making of England, it was still good. Here Wood examines the intellectual flowering of Aethelstan's court, showing how it built upon Alfredian foundations and led to the flowering under Edgar. He looks most closely at the continental intellectual links, showing just how important these were to the culture of the court. These contacts and the gifts received from the Carolingian successor states added to the glory of Aethelstan.
The Royal Tun in pre-conquest England, P Sawyer,
I enjoyed this paper. It was more or less an older version of Royal Estates in Anglo-Saxon Wessex (R Lavelle) whilst the sections dealing with royal assemblies reminded me in part of Kingship and Consent by L Roach. It was a very easy read. However , the downside was that it felt quite dated in comparison to the two later works.
The world of Abbot Aelfric, E John
This looked at the influences of Abbot Aelfric and the intellectual world in which he moved. It might be because I read it late at night, or it could be that it's not an area I'm that fussed about, but over 16 pages, I found it very hard to get to grips with. There were definitely words on the page, but after reading each page, I felt none the wiser as to what John was trying to get across.
A bibliography of the historical writings of Wallace-Hadrill, I Wood
Displaying 1 of 1 review