War and nation-building in Widukind of Corvey’s Deeds of the Saxons
By Stergios Laitsos
Byzantine War Ideology Between Roman Imperial Concept And Christian Religion: Akten des Internationalen Symposiums (Vienna, 19–21 Mai 2011), eds. J. Koder and I. Stouraitis (Vienna, 2012)
Introduction: Military conflicts constituted a central function of early medieval rulership and, correspondingly, of the historiographical tradition. War and violence in the Middle Ages have been the subject of various studies, which are above all devoted to warfare and to the army. War in the middle ages (as in any period), according to Malte Priezel, is to be viewed as a component of culture; that is, as a component of a conception within which facts are evaluated, arranged and put together into a whole. Viewed in this way, I shall attempt in my small study to analyze the role of war and nation-building in Widukind of Corvey’s Deeds of the Saxons. Of course the not-to-be-overlooked factuality of portrayals of violence and war for the entire period from the ninth to the tenth century cannot and will not here be examined. In the following pages I will treat episodically aspects or correlations of the text with regard to the above-mentioned question. Such an examination of the military and violent events allows a contribution to an analysis of Widukind’s depictions and traditions of war. On the one hand they are entwined with the collective memory of the saxons; on the other hand they evidence the complex process of the creation of a collective saxon identity. In this light, that is within the depiction of war in the Deeds of the Saxons, the contemporaneous interpretation of Ottonian kingship and the beginnings of the Ottonian empire in the past is detectable. at the same time it follows that it is the Ottonian perception of saxon identity which influences the composition of Widukind’s depiction of war.
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Little is known concerning Widukind (* around 925, † after 973), the historian and monk of Corvey. The author of the Deeds of the Saxons came from the Saxon upper nobility. around 941/2 he entered the Benedictine monastery of Corvey. here he composed numerous hagiographic works, all of which have not survived. around 967/68 he wrote in the same place his Deeds of the Saxons (Rerum Gestarum Saxonicarum libri tres). In three books the early history of the Saxon people until the death of the emperor Otto I is depicted. Within the first book the early history until the death of the King Henry I (919–936) is narrated; he describes here the legendary origins of the Saxons, their battles against the Franks as well as the introduction of Christianity among the Saxons. In the second and third books the deeds of Otto I are recounted. at the beginning of each book there is a dedicatory address in the preface to the daughter of Otto I, Matilda, who in 966 became the Abbotess of the Benedictine convent of Quedlinburg. although the Deeds of the Saxons are counted among the most important works of the Middle Ages, they have nonetheless been discussed amid great controversy in the secondary literature.
By Stergios Laitsos
Byzantine War Ideology Between Roman Imperial Concept And Christian Religion: Akten des Internationalen Symposiums (Vienna, 19–21 Mai 2011), eds. J. Koder and I. Stouraitis (Vienna, 2012)
Introduction: Military conflicts constituted a central function of early medieval rulership and, correspondingly, of the historiographical tradition. War and violence in the Middle Ages have been the subject of various studies, which are above all devoted to warfare and to the army. War in the middle ages (as in any period), according to Malte Priezel, is to be viewed as a component of culture; that is, as a component of a conception within which facts are evaluated, arranged and put together into a whole. Viewed in this way, I shall attempt in my small study to analyze the role of war and nation-building in Widukind of Corvey’s Deeds of the Saxons. Of course the not-to-be-overlooked factuality of portrayals of violence and war for the entire period from the ninth to the tenth century cannot and will not here be examined. In the following pages I will treat episodically aspects or correlations of the text with regard to the above-mentioned question. Such an examination of the military and violent events allows a contribution to an analysis of Widukind’s depictions and traditions of war. On the one hand they are entwined with the collective memory of the saxons; on the other hand they evidence the complex process of the creation of a collective saxon identity. In this light, that is within the depiction of war in the Deeds of the Saxons, the contemporaneous interpretation of Ottonian kingship and the beginnings of the Ottonian empire in the past is detectable. at the same time it follows that it is the Ottonian perception of saxon identity which influences the composition of Widukind’s depiction of war.
Little is known concerning Widukind (* around 925, † after 973), the historian and monk of Corvey. The author of the Deeds of the Saxons came from the Saxon upper nobility. around 941/2 he entered the Benedictine monastery of Corvey. here he composed numerous hagiographic works, all of which have not survived. around 967/68 he wrote in the same place his Deeds of the Saxons (Rerum Gestarum Saxonicarum libri tres). In three books the early history of the Saxon people until the death of the emperor Otto I is depicted. Within the first book the early history until the death of the King Henry I (919–936) is narrated; he describes here the legendary origins of the Saxons, their battles against the Franks as well as the introduction of Christianity among the Saxons. In the second and third books the deeds of Otto I are recounted. at the beginning of each book there is a dedicatory address in the preface to the daughter of Otto I, Matilda, who in 966 became the Abbotess of the Benedictine convent of Quedlinburg. although the Deeds of the Saxons are counted among the most important works of the Middle Ages, they have nonetheless been discussed amid great controversy in the secondary literature.
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Stergios Laitsos is a PhD candidate at the University of Vienna. You can read more articles from his Academia.edu page
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