Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- About the Cover
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Prologue: The Prehistory of Power: Souls Spirits, Deities
- Part One Kings and Emperors
- 1 Divine Kingship in Mesopotamia
- 2 Pharaohs among the Indestructibles
- 3 Kingship among the Hebrews
- 4 The Deification of Roman Emperors
- 5 The Deva-Rajas in India and Southeast Asia
- 6 The Chinese Mandate from Heaven
- 7 The Japanese Imperial Cult
- Part Two Empires before the Common Era
- 8 The Legendary Empire of the Sumerians
- 9 Legendary Empires of Preclassical Greece
- 10 Patriarchs, Exodus, and the Epic of Israel
- 11 Legendary Empires of Ancient India
- 12 The Legendary Founding of Rome
- Part Three Founders
- 13 Moses: The Israelite Lawgiver
- 14 Buddha and Legends of Previous Buddhas
- 15 The Savior Narratives
- 16 Muhammad, the Qur’an, and Islam
- 17 The Virgin Mary through the Centuries
- 18 Tonantzin and Our Lady of Guadalupe
- Part Four Empires of the Common Era
- 19 Narrative Inventions of the Holy Roman Empire
- 20 The Epic of Kings, Alexander the Great, and the Malacca Sultinate
- 21 The Franks, Charlemagne, and the Chansons de Geste
- 22 The Legendary Kingdom of King Arthur
- 23 Ethiopian Kings and the Ark of the Covenant
- 24 Narratives of the Virgin Queen
- Part Five Ideologies
- 25 Discovery: The European Narrative of Power
- 26 Epics of the Portuguese Seaborne Empire
- 27 Dekanawida and the Iroquois League
- 28 The New England Canaan of the Puritans
- 29 The Marxist Classless Society
- 30 Adolph Hitler: Narratives of Aryans and Jews
- Epilogue: A Clash of Narratives
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Author
21 - The Franks, Charlemagne, and the Chansons de Geste
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- About the Cover
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Prologue: The Prehistory of Power: Souls Spirits, Deities
- Part One Kings and Emperors
- 1 Divine Kingship in Mesopotamia
- 2 Pharaohs among the Indestructibles
- 3 Kingship among the Hebrews
- 4 The Deification of Roman Emperors
- 5 The Deva-Rajas in India and Southeast Asia
- 6 The Chinese Mandate from Heaven
- 7 The Japanese Imperial Cult
- Part Two Empires before the Common Era
- 8 The Legendary Empire of the Sumerians
- 9 Legendary Empires of Preclassical Greece
- 10 Patriarchs, Exodus, and the Epic of Israel
- 11 Legendary Empires of Ancient India
- 12 The Legendary Founding of Rome
- Part Three Founders
- 13 Moses: The Israelite Lawgiver
- 14 Buddha and Legends of Previous Buddhas
- 15 The Savior Narratives
- 16 Muhammad, the Qur’an, and Islam
- 17 The Virgin Mary through the Centuries
- 18 Tonantzin and Our Lady of Guadalupe
- Part Four Empires of the Common Era
- 19 Narrative Inventions of the Holy Roman Empire
- 20 The Epic of Kings, Alexander the Great, and the Malacca Sultinate
- 21 The Franks, Charlemagne, and the Chansons de Geste
- 22 The Legendary Kingdom of King Arthur
- 23 Ethiopian Kings and the Ark of the Covenant
- 24 Narratives of the Virgin Queen
- Part Five Ideologies
- 25 Discovery: The European Narrative of Power
- 26 Epics of the Portuguese Seaborne Empire
- 27 Dekanawida and the Iroquois League
- 28 The New England Canaan of the Puritans
- 29 The Marxist Classless Society
- 30 Adolph Hitler: Narratives of Aryans and Jews
- Epilogue: A Clash of Narratives
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Author
Summary
As Roman power waned through the first half of the fifth century CE large areas of Western Europe were settled by Germanic peoples. These were late migrants from the east, in some cases from the Indo-European heartland northwest of the Black Sea. The earlier Celtic-speaking peoples who had occupied the region for a millennium were gradually displaced, their territory largely confined to the British Isles. Following the sacking of Rome in 476, the Germanic Ostrogoths gained control over most of Italy. A power vacuum developed across Northern Europe; petty kingdoms sprang up among people linguistically and ethnically related, each vying for territorial control. In France the Burgundians controlled the southeast from Lyon and Geneva while the Visigoths set up a kingdom at Toulouse. Tours became a center of Frankish power, but it is clear from the writings of Gregory, bishop of Tours (573–594 CE), that the common culture of these numerous tribes was a remnant Christian culture left over from Roman times.
Gregory's indispensable contribution was his compilation known as Historia Francorum (The History of the Franks) completed in 594 CE, which was originally presented in ten books, Decem Libri Historiarum (Ten Books of History). Gregory was well placed to write this history; he himself was responsible for eight sees extending west into Brittany (Gregory of Tours 2010, 10–13). Historians have judged Books 5 to 10 as reliable in their presentation of his own time, the late sixth century; as one remarks, Gregory has become “a byword for credibility as scholars seek but rarely find factual error in those things which Gregory knew best” (Gerberding 1987, 2). Through Books 2 to 4, which cover the years from 397 to 575, he relied on a variety of earlier writers, including Eusebius, Jerome, and Orosius, and his usage reveals an early example of careful use of sources (2010, 27–28). However, Gregory cast the whole into a larger framework with an extended background rooted in the Bible. As such, the Historia Francorum presents the first version of a post-Roman legendary empire that will continue to develop through the next six hundred years.
The first book of Gregory's history includes a paraphrase of the Bible, a history of Roman persecution, and the bishopric of Tours up to the death of its third bishop, St. Martin, in the year 397 CE.
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- Invented History, Fabricated PowerThe Narratives Shaping Civilization and Culture, pp. 245 - 256Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2020