Boniface | The Eighth Century and All That - Part 3

Frankish travelogue – Frisia, untamed

September 22, 2015September 18, 2015 by bentonian

Frisia is the area that is today called Holland, part of the Netherlands, but north of the Rhine River. It is flat, marshy, and at the sea land and water blur together, as befits an area also known as the Low Countries. Frisia is notably mentioned in Beowulf, when a bard sings of Finn, the Frisian king, and his battle with the Danes at Finnsburg.^1.Heaney, trans., Beowulf, lines 1070-1157.

In the 7th century Frisia was a trading center, particularly the town of Duurstede, south of Utrecht. Duurstede was the port where gathered and traded the merchants of Paris, London, Cologne, and up towards the Danes. Frisian coins have been found near London, and as far south as Lake Constance. As Frankish trading patterns grew the Frisians became a people of interest.^2.Geary, Before France and Germany, p.177-78. Not all of the trade was of the most beneficent kind. In 679 Imma, a thegn of the Mercian king, was captured after a battle by another Englishman, who later “sold him to a Frisian in London.”^3.Bede, Ecclesiastical History, bk.4, ch.22, p.242.

Footnotes[+]

Footnotes
↑1	Heaney, trans., Beowulf, lines 1070-1157.
↑2	Geary, Before France and Germany, p.177-78.
↑3	Bede, Ecclesiastical History, bk.4, ch.22, p.242.

Frenemies in Christ

June 20, 2015November 10, 2014 by bentonian

In the middle of the eighth century two religious men became great rivals. They had so much in common, their ages, upbringing, learning, careers, teachers, and, most of all, their mentor and leader, one of the greatest churchmen of the middle ages, that it drove them apart, as it often does with ambitious men.

First we have to talk about Boniface. You’ll get more in another post, but it is sufficient to know that he was, in the words of Norman Cantor^1.One of the few scholars to make truly accessible popular medieval history. “one of the truly outstanding creators of the first Europe, as the apostle of Germany, the reformer of the Frankish church, and the chief fomentor of the alliance between the papacy and the Carolingian family.” Boniface traveled widely and hobnobbed with kings and popes. He was a very big deal.

Footnotes[+]

Footnotes
↑1	One of the few scholars to make truly accessible popular medieval history.

Archaeology in Europe Regularly updated. Some early medieval stuff.
Carolingian Canon Law I'm not quite sure how useful this site is, as almost everything in it is in Latin, but I don't want to lose sight of it. The site "is a searchable, electronic rendition of works of canon law used by Carolingian readers." Sounds good to me.
Early Medieval Europe Subscription only scholarly journal, for good or ill. Occasionally they will have some free articles, and you can review the abstracts.
Early Medieval Inscriptions If you're into medieval inscriptions (epigraphy, as opposed to paleography, the study of handwriting), this is your place.
Europeana Searchable portal to the collections of many museums and repositories in Europe.
Medieval History Geek "An amateur's blog about medieval history, books, etc." An amateur, writing about history??? This guy does it, with good humor and a lot of reading. His focus is the early medieval era, and he has many thoughtful posts on various aspects of history and historiography.
Medieval Wall Medieval blog site that hasn't been active since late 2013, but there are some good entries.
Medievalists An excellent site with entries that cover a wide variety of topics. Some 550 citations using the keyword "carolingian."
Networks and Neighbors Open source scholarly journal, "[T]o advance early medieval scholarship in radical directions and towards truly alternative ways of thinking and emerging the early medieval past." For anyone who likes using "emerging" as a verb. Published twice a year, although the home page hasn't been updated since late 2016.
OmnesViae An overlay of Roman and medieval roads on a Google map. Includes a route-finder functionality.
ORBIS Fascinating site that allows you to recreate journeys across the Roman transportation network. Of use for us since early medieval transport was primarily over Roman roads.
Past Horizons This site used to have some archaeological articles, but now they function exclusively as a clearinghouse for fieldwork that are available for public participation. I like that sort of thing, so I'm keeping the link up.
The Appendix "A reader-supported quarterly journal of experimental and narrative history." They stopped publishing in 2015, but the site offers a complete archive. Look for the Index link at the bottom of the home page.
The Heroic Age Semi-scholarly journal about our time period. They have had problems getting issues out, but there is a 2018 issue available. There is a translation of Alcuin's Virtues and Vices in the 2015 issue.
The History Blog A new well-written entry EVERY DAY, covering a wide variety of topics. My go-to site.
The Making of Charlemagne's Europe This site brings together hundreds of charters from the 8th and 9th centuries, in a completely searchable and cross-referenced database. This is a huge resource, both because there are hardly any translated charters, and because the database allows for real research.