Tyler E.M., Balzaretti R. (ed.) Narrative and History in the Early Medieval West

Turnhout (Belgium): Brepols Publishers n.v., 2006. – 266 p. – (Studies in the Early Middle Ages. Vol. 16).
ISBN10: 2503518281This volume explores the nature of narrative in texts used as sources for history by modern scholars of the early medieval West. Narrative is defined here broadly as how stories are told and the volume focuses on the interaction of what texts say and with how they say it. The congruence of narrative and history is a wide subject, which can be approached in a number of ways. This volume examines four types of written source: poetry (Latin and vernacular), charters, biographical writing (hagiography and royal lives) and historical writings (histories and chronicles). These include traditional narrative sources as well as literary texts and documents not generally considered in terms of narrative. The ten studies in this volume cover a geographical range that includes the Carolingian Empire, the British Isles and Scandinavia, and from the Carolingian period through to the twelfth century.List of Abbreviations
Introduction. Elizabeth M. Tyler and Ross Balzaretti
Spoken Narratives in Ninth-Century Milanese Court Records. Ross Balzaretti
Reading Anglo-Saxon Charters: Memory, Record, or Story? Sarah Foot
William of Malmesbury’s Use of Charters. Julia Barrow
Mixed Modes in Historical Narrative. Joaquín Martínez Pizarro
‘Sad stories of the death of kings’: Narrative Patterns and Structures of Authority in Regino of Prüm’s Chronicle. Stuart Airlie
Narrating the Life of Eusebius of Vercelli. Nick Everett
Ælfric’s Account of St Swithun: Literature of Reform and Reward. Elaine Treharne
Folklore and Historiography: Oral Stories and the Writing of Anglo-Saxon History. Catherine Cubitt
Poetics and the Past: Making History with Old English Poetry. Elizabeth M. Tyler
The ‘Meaning of the Narrative Moment’: Poets and History in the Late Viking Age. Judith Jesch