Tonight’s entertainment, Roland

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The Song of Roland is a chanson de geste, a “song of deeds.” The chanson de gestes were a form of popular entertainment that have come down to us as long written poems. These poems started as oral story telling, in a tradition that is as old as language itself. At some point music was probably added, in the Greek tradition.

As the stories evolved, grew, and spread, the audiences probably began to ask for specific incidents in the story. “Tell us about when Roland blew his horn!”1.Tolkien copied the scene from Roland for the death of Boromir in the Lord of the Rings. “During dinner the duke wants you to sing of Ganelon’s trial for treason, to see who sweats.” The reason I mention this is because the stories that have come down to us are too long for a single evening or meal, and can be somewhat repetitive. When they were written down the scribe probably included every version he could find, which results in a story that is, while very much a coherent whole, could use some editing.

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Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 Tolkien copied the scene from Roland for the death of Boromir in the Lord of the Rings.

The Father, in Rome

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The United States has had (as of December, 2014) 44 presidents. Impressive. There have been about 52 kings and queens of England, dating back to the late 10th century. Very impressive, although of course the power of the current monarch is but the palest shadow of the authority that the scepter once commanded. Other European monarchies continue to perform ceremonial duties across the continent, but parliamentary democracy holds sway, right?

Almost. There is one holdout, an absolute monarch who answers to no one but God, makes his own laws, and has ruled without much change or challenge for almost two thousand years. The pope, head of the Roman Catholic Church, rules without peer in Vatican City, nestled in Rome, Italy. Beginning with Peter, apostle of Christ, there have been 266 popes. Now that is impressive.

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More wine!

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When I started this post I figured it would be something quick and easy, find a few references to wine in the sources, but in the end, as with so many areas of daily life in the 8th century, be forced to say, “but that’s all we know.”

I underestimated the place of wine in the lives of the great and the good. By a lot. While the church required wine for the sacrament of the Eucharist, wine infused virtually every area of society.

Wine was in their laws. The lex Salica imposes fines for thefts great and small:

“Chapter 23: If anyone reaps the harvest of another’s vineyard in theft, he shall be liable to pay six hundred denarii. [Which was the same fine for knocking out a tooth.]
Chapter 24: And if from there he carries off the wine to his house in a cart and there unloads it, he shall be liable to pay eighteen hundred denarii in addition to return of the material stolen [or its value] plus a payment for the time its use was lost. [Which is the same fine for a blow “so that the brain shows and the three bones over the brain protrude.”]1.The Salic Laws, Drew, LVII.

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Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 The Salic Laws, Drew, LVII.

December 25th, 8th century style

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First of all, it wasn’t called Christmas. That name didn’t come into usage until the 11th century, when someone mentioned “Christ’s Mass,” but in Old English. Instead the day was more definitively, if probably inaccurately, referred to as “the Lord’s birthday.”1.King renders this more accurately than Scholz, who uses “Christmas.” While the Bible has nothing to say about the date in question, in the 4th century the church had decided on December 25 as Christ’s birthday.

I am sure everyone with an interest in ancient and/or religious history has heard how the church co-opted pagan festivals, places, and rituals to reinforce Christian doctrine. Even without the scholarly backup, it seems inconceivable to me that Christmas was not originally a solstice festival. I certainly wait for the days to start getting longer again, and I have electric lights! The church could make the solstice celebration a holiday (holy day), and the populace would continue to enjoy their mid-winter festival, but with a new focus. They could continue to celebrate the fact that the days would be getting longer (Paris gets only just over eight hours of daylight on the solstice, assuming it’s not too cloudy), as long as they also attended Christ’s mass.

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Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 King renders this more accurately than Scholz, who uses “Christmas.”

Two Halves Of a Kingdom – Neustria

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Neustria was the other of the two “halves” of Francia (Austrasia being the other) that Charles Martel finally consolidated into something close to a cohesive whole by 721.

Neustria, meaning something like “new western lands,” as opposed to eastern Austrasia, was bordered on the north by the English channel, to the west by Brittany, to the south by river Loire, and to the east by much fuzzier boundaries. The kingdom of Burgundy was absorbed by the Neustrian kings early in the 7th century.

Neustria and Austrasia fought each other for most of the Merovingian centuries. Occasionally they would unite under a king for a time, but inevitably the Frankish inheritance rules broke the realms apart again. Finally in 687 Pippin of Herstal1.Pippin was of Austrasian descent, as were his descendents, Pepin and Charlemagne. defeated the Neustrian king at the battle of Tertry. After that the two kingdoms were ruled as one, while still subject to division in support of co-rulers. We can get some idea of how 7th century kings thought the various regions compared to each other from Fredegar, who says, “All the Austrasian magnates, the bishops and all the warriors of Sigebert, swore with hands raised that after Dagobert’s death Neustria and Burgundy united should belong to Clovis while Austrasia, which had the same population and extent of territory, should be entirely Sigebert’s.”2.Fredegar, Fourth Book, 76

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Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 Pippin was of Austrasian descent, as were his descendents, Pepin and Charlemagne.
↑2 Fredegar, Fourth Book, 76