Description
Book SynopsisRobert Flierman is Assistant Professor in Medieval History at the Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Trade ReviewRobert Flierman’s original discussion of perceptions of the people labelled ‘Saxons’ in antiquity and the early middle ages neatly and convincingly addresses texts as instruments of identity formation. The development of views of the Saxons as disparate groups of ‘barbarian’ outsiders in Roman texts to their being regarded, in Merovingian sources at least, as a well-defined people, is traced authoritatively. The book culminates in the role of the Saxons in Carolingian war narratives and Saxon self-representation. Flierman's book is not only an important and engaging contribution to the debate about ethnicity in the barbarian successor kingdoms of Europe. It also represents a timely challenge to the assumptions of a link between textual representation and ethnic reality. * Rosamond McKitterick, Fellow in History, University of Cambridge *
Table of ContentsList of Maps Acknowledgements Note on annotation and translation Abbreviations 1. Introduction1 2. The most ferocious of enemies. Saxons from a Roman perspective 3. Rebels, Allies, neighbours. Saxons from a Merovingian perspective 4. Gens perfida or populus Christianus? The Saxons and the Saxon Wars in Carolingian historiography 5. From defeat to salvation. Remembering the Saxon Wars in Carolingian Saxony Conclusion Bibliography Primary sources Secondary literature
