The Name ‘Merovingian’ and the Dating of Beowulf

Abstract

Reviving an argument of 1849, Tom Shippey has lately maintained that the dynasty name ‘Merovingian’ in Beowulf furnishes a firm criterion for attributing an early date to the poem. He contends, using an electronic database, that a deliberate damnatio memoriae caused the name ‘Merovingian’ to fade soon after the dynasty was deposed (751); its occurrence is therefore a terminus ad quem. This article shows that the Carolingians took pains to affirm continuity with their predecessors. The first Frankish dynasty was not condemned to oblivion. Its name was well known in the ninth century and occurs repeatedly in later historiography.