The Merovingians in Historiographical Tradition

von Yaniv Fox

342 Seiten, Hardcover

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

The Merovingian centuries were a foundational period in the historical consciousness of western Europe. The memory of the ¿rst dynasty of Frankish kings, their origin myths, accomplishments, and failures were used by generations of chroniclers, propagandists, and historians to justify a wide range of social and political agendas. The process of curating and editing the source material gave rise to a recognizable 'Merovingian narrative' with three distinct phases: meteoric ascent, stasis, and decline. Already in the seventh-century Chronicle of Fredegar, this tripartite model was invoked by a Merovingian queen to prophesy the fate of her descendants. This expert commentary sets out to understand how the story of the Merovingians was shaped through a process of continuous historiographical adaptation. It examines authors from across a millennium of historical writing and analyzes their in¿uences and objectives, charting the often-unexpected ways in which their narratives were received and developed.

• Themen: Biographie, Literatur und Literaturwissenschaft Geschichte und Kritik Literaturwissenschaft, allgemein 1400 bis 1600 (Renaissance / Humanismus)
• ISBN: 9781009285018
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 16.11.2023
• Größe: 233 x 159 mm
• Verlag: Cambridge University Press