Widukind of Corvey

This article deals witha wide concept of freedom as an idea that constitutes communities in Early Middle Ages. The work is split in three parts: a theoretical side, a practical side, ad final conclusions, The first touches upon issues related to the "origines gentium" stories, which are about peoples' origins, where as the second serves as a supplement to earlier considerations. Mention of several examples illustrates the practical aspect of formation and organisation of said communities, based on the premise of liberty.

Widukind of Corvey, a Saxon chronicler and historian of the 10th century (about 925-975) wrote the chronicle of Res gestae saxonicae sive annalium libri tres (The Saxon Facts or Three Book of History), in which he portrayed the history of the Saxons from mythic origins and conquest of the new territory until your present. Widukind focuses mainly on the time of the reign of Henry I of Pentecost and Ota I the Great and his reports often represent the only available source of information for some of the events at that time. Although he focuses mainly on Saxon realities, we can find in his chronicle also references to Bohemia. Historical figures Widukind describe all things truthfully and reasonably reliably, but geographic events and historically farther distant ones are mostly fictional.

Статья посвящена проблеме описания средневековых политических ритуалов в нарративных источниках Оттоновской эпохи. Лиутпранд Кремонский, один из выдающихся сочинителей X в., нарисовал образ короля Оттона I как «гневающегося властителя» в контексте ритуала примирения государя и непокорного вассала (т.н. ритуал deditio). Задача работы – сравнить описания этих символических сцен у Лиутпранда со свидетельствами других современных ему авторов. Это сопоставление позволяет выявить некоторые существенные особенности подхода Лиутпранда и проанализировать, как субъективность автора могла трансформировать его описание ритуала.

The article is dedicated to the problem of description of medieval political rituals in narrative sources of the Ottonian age. Liutprand of Cremona, one of the eminent writers of the 10th century, depicted the image of king Otto I. as a “harsh ruler” in context of the ritual of reconciliation between ruler and rebellious vassal (the so-called deditio). The object of the work is to compare Liutprand’s descriptions of such symbolic scenes with testimonies of other contemporary writers; this comparison allows to reveal some significant peculiarities of Liutprand’s approach and to analyze how the subjectivity of author could transform his description of ritual.

German historians long assumed that the German Kingdom was created with Henry the Fowler's coronation in 919. The reigns of both Henry the Fowler, and his son Otto the Great, were studied and researched mainly through Widukind of Corvey's chronicle Res Gestae Saxonicae. There was one source on Ottonian times that was curiously absent from most of the serious research: Liudprand of Cremona's Antapodosis. The study of this chronicle leads to a reappraisal of the tenth century in Western Europe showing how mythology of the dynasty was constructed. By looking at the later reception (through later Middle Ages and then on 19th and 20th century historiography) the author showcases the longevity of Ottonian myths and the ideological expressions of the tenth century storytellers.

During the Middle Ages, rulers from different regions in Europe aspired to an idea of imperial hegemony over a territory. On the other hand, there were rulers who deliberately refused to be elected as emperors, although their reign showed some characteristics of imperial rule. This essay ask for the reasons why some rulers such as Otto I strove for an imperial agenda and how the expeditions of his margraves across Elbe were legitimized by contemporary writers. According to the idea of universal expansion including both Christians and pagans from all over the world, the Ottonian kingdom became an empire, an intrinsically Christian one, however, which followed the Carolingian model.

The paper presents a new hypothesis according to which Tugumir (Pol. Tęgomir), a Christian duke of the Stodorans (Havelians) beginning from 940, was a godfather of Mieszko-Dagome, the first Christian duke of Poland. It is suggested that Mieszko the First as a neophyte adopted Tugumir’s name as his official Christian name and therefore he used it in the document called Dagome iudex, who was sent to Rome ca. 990. The necrologium of the women’s cloister in Möllenbeck informs us that “duke Thugumir died” (Ob. Thugumir dux) on 25th May. It probably refers to Mieszko the First, who – according to Thietmar’s chronicle – died 25th May of 992, and not to Tugumir, the duke of Stodorians. It is finally suggested that the death-note of Mieszko-Thugumir-Dagome in this necrologium was introduced by the mediation of Oda, Mieszko’s second wife, who was expelled from Poland by Boleslaus the Brave. She spent her last years in a female cloister in Germany, most probably in Möllenbeck.

An investigation into tenth-century Ottonian imperialism across the Elbe-Saale, tracing the roots of present-day conceptions about the "Saxon March," comparing those conceptions to material and charter evidence, and concluding with an analysis in light of Widukind's narrative describing Wichmann the Younger's mid-century rebellion.

Trzy artykuły recenzyjne:
(Rec.) Thomas Riis, Einführung in die Gesta Danorum des Saxo Grammaticus, (University of Southern Denmark Studies in History and Social Sciences vol. 276), Odense 2006, ss. 202, „Stargardia” 2015, s. 261-263.

(Rec.) DDR og Norden. Østtyske-nordiske relationer 1949-1989, Red. Thomas Wegener Friis, Andreas Linderoth, Odense 2005 (University of Southern Denmark Studies in History and Social Sciences vol. 277), ss. 365, „Stargardia” 2015, s. 264-265.

Na marginesie nowych przekładów ważnych średniowiecznych źródeł kronikarskich do dziejów Polski, Pomorza i Słowiańszczyzny zachodniej, „Stargardia” 2015, s. 266-272.

Статья посвящена проблеме интерпретации образа смиренного государя в нарративных источниках оттоновской эпохи. Основным объектом анализа являются эпизоды из сочинений Лиутпранда Кремонского и Видукинда Корвейского, в которых описаны сцены инаугурации немецкого короля Генриха I (919-936) и итальянского короля Лотаря II (945-950). На этих примерах анализируется и сопоставляется подход авторов к изображению актов символического самоумаления государя-основателя покровительствовавшей им Саксонской династии, и властителя, принадлежавшего к «чужому», итальянскому контексту.

The article is devoted to the problem of the depiction of symbolic self-humiliation during the royal inauguration ceremonies in the narrative sources of the Ottonian age. The ambivalent image of a Christian king, full of both majesty and humility, was being transformed throughout the Middle Ages. That image was interpreted also in the middle of the 10th century, during the reign of the German king and Roman emperor Otto I, in the works of the Ottonian court writers. The Ottonian authors avoided to represent the symbolic self-humiliation of their patron Otto I (preferring to portray Otto only as a powerful ruler). But in some cases they described scenes of this kind writing about other rulers. The article's focus is primarily on two cases, described by Widukind of Corvey and Liutprand of Cremona: the inauguration of the father of Otto I, the German king Henry I (919, Fritzlar) and the coronation of the Italian king Lothair II (945, Milan). Ottonian authors should praise Henry I, demonstrating their loyalty to the Saxon dynasty, but Lothair II, as a «foreign» king, could be for them an object of criticism and ridicule. In the case of Henry I Widukind and Liutprand represented his symbolic self-humiliation as an act of a pious Christian ruler, while Liutprand, writing about Lothair II, interpreted his self-humiliation in the other way, including negative and comic connotations. Using the ambivalence of the Christian symbolism, the writers, according to their political aims, could emphasize positive or negative aspects of the image of a «humiliated ruler».

В статье анализируется ряд свидетельств оттоновских историографов о торжественных въездах государя в город (adventus domini). Описание этого ритуала позволяло авторам по-своему расставить акценты в «символическом диалоге» между властителем и встречающей его процессией знатных горожан. Рассмотрев различия в подходах к описанию данных сцен в сочинениях ряда авторов, предпринимается попытка установить, кто из сочинителей, «конструируя» в тексте сцены репрезентации власти, выступал в качестве лояльного исполнителя «заказа» государя, а кто — транслировал интересы групп знати, имевших несколько иную позицию.

Studie byla publikována roku 1997 v knize  Sborník Společnosti přátel starožitností 1 (Sborník Kruhu přátel Muzea hl. m. Prahy). 2. vydání / The study was published in 1997 in The Acta of the Society of Friends of Antiquities 1 (Acta of the Circle of Friends of the Prague City Museum). 2nd edition.

The aim of the study is a brief survey of the language and style of the chronicle Deeds of the Saxons written by the Saxon chronicler Widukind of Corvey in the 10th century. In the beginning, the issue of the work, the authorís background, and the language are briefly described. The main focus of the article is given to the use of particular terms as, e.g. dux, comes, princeps, praeses, rex, and other titles, quite common in medieval sources. In Widukindís work, the absence of the title marchio is quite striking. The author replaces it with the words comes or praeses. The use of the term rex is also unusual: The chronicler uses it to describe among others even some of the Slavic Christian dukes, like Boleslav I and Mieszko.