Adam of Bremen's "Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum": Origins, Reception and Significance

Description

Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum is one of the most important accounts documenting the history, geography and ethnology of Northern and Central-Eastern Europe in the period between the ninth and eleventh centuries. Its author, a canon of the archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen, remains an almost anonymous figure but his text is an essential source for the study of the early medieval Baltic. However, despite its undisputed status, past scholarship has tended to treat Adam of Bremen’s account as, on the one hand, an historically accurate document, but on the other, a literary artefact containing few, if any, reliable historical facts. The studies collected in this volume investigate the origins and context of the Gesta and will enable researchers to better understand and evaluate the historical veracity of the text. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of abbreviations Introduction 1 Imperial politics and visions of the North 2 Proselytus et advena: reading the opening lines of Adam’s prologue in the light of biblical viewpoints on foreigners and converts 3 Sven Estridsen as Adam’s informant 4 St. Olaf and Adam of Bremen’s narrative pragmatics 5 Ad insulas Baltici. Role and reception of scholia in Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum 6 Adam of Bremen and the early (pre- 995) history of Norway 7 The eleventh- century Normans of Normandy in the view of Adam of Bremen 8 Religious conversions in Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum and in Saxo Grammaticus’ Gesta Danorum: a comparative approach 9 On the influence of Adam’s Gesta on Yngvars saga víðfǫrla 10 Adam of Bremen and visions of the state in Early Medieval Scandinavia – a comparative approach to chiefdom, leadership, kingship, segmental tribes 11 Ars moriendi and figures of power in Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum 12 Female characters and the meaning of history in Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis 13 Of Gunnhildrs and Gyðas 14 At the edge of time: Adam of Bremen’s imaginary North and Horror Vacui 15 Scythia and the Scythian Sea on the mental map of Adam of Bremen 16 Harald Bluetooth and the Western Slavs: cultural interactions in light of textual and archaeological sources 17 The description of the Oder (Odra) estuary in Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum . The oldest accounts of the river until the end of the twelfth century 18 Est sane maxima omnium, quas Europa claudit, civitatum. Adam of Bremen and the estimation of size and population of early medieval Wolin 19 Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis pontificum as an inspiration for Polish politics of history in Wolin after WW2 Geographical Index Index