Waiting for the End of the World: European Dimensions, 950 1200

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"The French president Charles de Gaulle spoke of a Europe "from the Atlantic to the Urals". Europe was spatially formed with these topographic parameters from the late 10th century onwards, with the massive Christianization of its inhabitants. At that time, however, all three monotheistic religions already had a steady presence there. Could such a macro-space be thought-and-narrated from a macro-perspective, in view of its medieval past? This has already been done through common 'denominators' such as the Migration Period, wars, trade, spread of Christianity. Could it also be seen through a common religious-philosophical and spiritual phenomenon - the Anticipation of the End of the world among Christians, Muslims, and Jews? This book gives a positive answer to the last question"-- Contents Preface: How the Idea for This Book Came About Acknowledgements Illustrations Introduction Chapter 1 European Dimensions of the Anticipation of the End of Times: Texts. Contexts. Real Places and Symbolic Topoi 1.1 Expectations for the End of Times in the Jewish Milieu, 10th–12th Centuries 1.2 Expectations for the End of Times in Western Europe 1.2.1 Calming of Fears in the 10th–11th Centuries: Adso of Montier-en-Der, Thietland, Raoul Glaber 1.2.2 The Peace of God Movement and the Year 1000 1.2.3 The Year 1000 and the Victory of the Cross in the North and the Center of Europe 1.2.4 On the Threshold between the 10th and 11th Centuries. The Ottonians: Symbolic Acts and Symbolic Topoi 1.2.5 A Look at the Cult of St. Michael the Archangel from the Holy Roman Empire 1.2.6 The Twelfth Century in the West: New Trajectories and Loci/Topoi of the ‘Salvational’ Expectations 1.2.6.1 Millenarian Explorations during the 12th Century: the Interpretations and the Promise of Joachim of Fiore 1.2.6.2 The West Looks to the Far East, or on the Kingdom of Prester John before the Earthly Paradise 1.3 Expectations for the End of Times in Byzantium 1.3.1 The ‘Scythian’ Threat from the North before 1092 1.3.1.1 Signs, Horoscopes and the Attacks of the Rus’ 1.3.1.2 The Pechenegs and the Other Steppe Nomads 1.3.2 The Norman Threat from the West before and after 1092 1.3.3 Symbolic Acts in Constantinople before 1200 1.3.4 Testimonies of the End in Byzantine Art 1.4 Expectations for the End of Times in Kievan Rus’ 1.4.1 The Rus’: the New ‘Chosen People’ of God 1.4.2 The Capital City of Kiev (Late 10th–12th Centuries): Imitating Jerusalem and Constantinople 1.4.3 And All of Rus’ Is under God’s Protection Chapter 2 Topography of the Evil Forces before the End of Times: European Dimensions 2.1 The Question of the Sources 2.2 Genealogy of Some of the Topoi 2.2.1 The ‘People (of ) Gog and Magog’ in the Old Testament 2.2.2 The Revelation of St. John the Apostle and the ‘People of the Evil Forces’ in the New Testament 2.2.3 The Wall/Gate of Alexander the Great 2.2.3.1 In the Jewish Milieu before the Birth of Christ 2.2.3.2 In the World of Christendom 2.2.3.3 In the Muslim World before the 10th Century 2.2.4 Notions of Constantinople as the ‘New Jerusalem’ and of the Heavenly Jerusalem—as a Heavenly Constantinople, with Constantinople Being Perceived as the Center of the New ‘Holy Land’ 2.3 Later Development of the Topos of the Direction of the Evil Forces’ Invasions in the 10th–12th Centuries 2.3.1 The Byzantine Case 2.3.2 Western European Cases 2.3.3 The Case of Kievan Rus’ 2.3.4 In the Islamic World (the Case of Volga Bulgaria) 2.3.5 In the Jewish Diaspora, 10th–12th Centuries Chapter 3 Bulgarian Dimensions of the Anticipation of the End of Times: Texts. Contexts. Real Places and Symbolic Topoi 3.1 Danube Bulgaria: ‘Texts’ of Word and Image 3.2 Topography and Names of the Evil Forces before the End of Times in the Notions of the Danube Bulgarians 3.3 Beginning and End of Tsardom: Bulgarian ‘Responses’ to the Expectation of the End of Times 3.3.1 The Topos of the ‘First Tsar’: ‘Tsar Slav’ and/or ‘Ispor Tsar’, or on the Legitimization of the Beginning of the Bulgarian Tsardom 3.3.2 The ‘Last Tsar’: The ‘Revival’ of Two Traditional Images in Bulgaria around 1092, or on the Legitimization of the End of the Bulgarian Tsardom 3.3.2.1 The ‘Chosen’ Bulgarian Tsars Michael and Petur: the Power of the ‘Salvational’ Naming 3.3.3 The Well, or about the Path to and the Place of Paradise (and Hell?): Bulgarian Visions about the Topography of Salvation 3.3.4 The Giants: Once Again about the Beginning and the End (of Space and Time, and of Tsardom as Well) 3.3.4.1 The Bulgarian Christian Case from the End of the 11th–Beginning of the 12th Century 3.3.4.2 Specific Features of the Bulgarian Islamic Case 3.3.4.3 Specific Features of the Scandinavian Case Conclusion Bibliography Illustrations Index