4 Go West1 Henry II, p. 424 2 Ibid., p. 170 3 Wulfstan, Lectio Sancti Evangelii Secundum Matheum 2 .4 Adam of Bremen, 4.26 5 Thietmar, 8.2 6 Geoffrey of Malaterra, 1.1 7 Jordanes, 4 8 Adam of Bremen, 4.26 9 Snorri Sturluson, King Harald’s Saga, p. 67 10 Dudo, p. 15 11 Egil’s Saga, Page, p. 70 12 Ibid.13 The Raven’s Tale, Page, p. 107 14 The Lay of Helgi, Killer of Hunding, Page, p. 130 15 Cartulaire de l’Abbaye de Saint-Aubin d’Angers, no. 21 16 Hávamál, Page, p. 141 17 The narrative given here depends upon sources that are either fragmentary or late. Nevertheless, it is broadly accepted. For the best account, see Crouch (2002), pp. 2–8.18 Adémar, 140 19 Dudo, p. 149 20 Ibid., p. 29 21 Inventio et Miracula Sancti Vulfranni, 7 22 Dudo, p. 150 23 Plaintsong of William Longsword, in Van Houts, p. 41 24 Dudo, p. 8 25 Warner of Rouen, 40–1 26 It is possible, of course, that there were older charters that used the title but have not survived. Some historians have argued that it was applied to Richard I during the last years of his reign.27 Richer, 1.156 28 Blickling Homilies, p. 76 29 The author himself makes an allusion to the date within the text of his homily – a level of precision that is unusual, and surely suggestive.30 Blickling Homilies, p. 82 31 In truth, the descent of the House of Wessex from Cerdic may not have been quite as unbroken as its propagandists liked to claim – but it was almost universally accepted, nevertheless.32 History of the Ancient Northumbrians. Quoted by Wood (1981), p. 184 33 The site of the battle, “Brunanburh,” remains unknown. For a typically stirring account of the attempt to solve the mystery, see “Tinsley Wood” in Wood (1999).34 The Annals of Ulster, entry for 939.6 35 See Loomis (1950) for a fascinating piece of historical detective work, tracing how a “holy spear” might indeed have passed from Charlemagne, via Duke Hugh, into the care of Athelstan.36 Or given secret burial in a commoner’s house, or even, according to one account, burned. If the latter, then the body venerated as Edward’s could not, of course, have been his.37 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle(Peterborough Manuscript), entry for 979 38 Ibid. (Abingdon Manuscript).39 Blickling Homilies, p. 64 40 Campbell (2000), p. 173 41 Warner of Rouen, 75–7 42 Wulfstan, The Sermon of the Wolf to the English.43 Aelfric’s Catholic Homilies, p. 37 44 William of Malmesbury, 2.2 45 Adam of Bremen, 2.40 46 Ibid., 2.57. For the hirsute character of women in the furthest reaches of Scandinavia, see 4.32 47 That Trygvasson led the Viking army at Maldon is something more than inference, something less than a certainty. To maintain it, as the leading authority on the battle has put it, is “to give oneself the benefit of the doubt, but such leaps are the stuff of Anglo-Saxon history” (Scragg, p. 90).48 Battle of Maldon, p. 294 49 Although our earliest source for the epithet is posthumous, it seems probable that it originated during Ethelred’s lifetime.50 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, entry for 1002 51 Matthew 13.37–40 52 Renewal by King Ethelred for the monastery of St. Frideswide, Oxford: EHD, document 127 53 Quoted by Wulfstan, Lectio Sancti Evangelii Secundum Matheum.54 Blickling Homilies, p. 145 55 Adam of Bremen, p. 229 56 Hávamál, Page, p. 142 57 Adam of Bremen, 4.39 58 Ari Thorgilsson, p. 66 59 Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla. King Olaf Trygvasson’s Saga, 37 60 Forkbeard’s presence at Maldon, like that of Trygvasson, has to be inferred. See the essay by Niels Lund, “The Danish Perspective,” in Scragg (pp. 137–8).61 Saxo Grammaticus, 10.8.4 62 Thietmar, 7.36 63 Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla. King Olaf Trygvasson’s Saga, 121 64 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, entry for 1014 65 Ottar the Black, p. 308 66 Encomium Emmae Reginae, 2.4 67 Wulfstan, The Sermon of the Wolf to the English.68 Völuspá, Page, p. 209 69 For the argument that Völuspá was inspired by Wulfstan, see Joseph Harris, p. 94 70 Völuspá, Page, p. 210 71 EHD, p. 424 72 Ibid., pp. 416–18.
5 Apocalypse Postponed1 2 Thessalonians 2.4 2 City of God, 20.19 3 Encomium Emmae, 2.21 4 Glaber, 3.13 5 Matthew 24.2 6 Glaber, 21.3 7 “What we should like most of all to know,” as the great historian of medieval Spain, Richard Fletcher, put it, “is why the bishop was convinced that the relics discovered were those of St. James” (Fletcher 1984, p. 59). One legend claims that he was led to the plain where the body lay buried by a mysterious star; but this is a late tradition, and reflects a heroic attempt to derive the shrine’s name of Santiago de la Compostella from the Latin phrase “campus stellae,” or “plain of the star.” In fact, most scholars now agree that the word “compostella” derives from a diminutive of “compostum,” or “burial place.”8 The words of Gottschalk, Bishop of Le Puy in the Auvergne, who travelled to Santiago in 951, the first pilgrim to do so that we know of by name.9 Such, at any rate, was the standard fate of Christian captives brought to Córdoba. See Fierro, p. 107 10 Qur’an 8.12 11 Abd Allah b. Buluggin al-Ziri al-Sanhaji, p. 44 12 Al-Nuwayri. Quoted by Scales, p. 65 13 Qur’an 2.191. “Tumult and oppression” is the translation of the notoriously untranslatable word “fitna,” which can mean chastisement, faction fighting, schism or civil war – and at its most extreme the period of total anarchy that will precede the end of days. The word was used by Muslim historians to describe the fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba, and its aftermath.14 Ibn Hazm, chapter 23 15 Ibid., chapter 26 16 Ibid., chapter 23 17 From the hadiths collected by Ibn Maja, 2.4086 18 From the hadiths collected by Abu Dawud, 2.421 19 Muqaddasi. Quoted by Peters, p. 237 20 Ibid.21 The testimony of a Muslim, Ibn al-Athr. Quoted by Canard, p. 18 22 Matthew 12.40 23 Or possibly early 1008: the dating depends on the evidence of a Muslim historian, Ibn al-Qalanisi.24 Adémar, 3.47. The description derived from the eyewitness account of the Bishop of Périgueux, who had been in Jerusalem at the time, and subsequently related what he had seen to Adémar.25 Again, on the evidence of Ibn al-Qalanisi. See Assad, p. 107 26 Adémar, 3.46 27 Ibid., 3.35 28 Ibid., 3.46 29 Ibid., 3.47 30 For a definitive statement, see Moore (1987), p. 89 31 For a powerful statement of this argument, see Landes (1996).32 Quoted by Landes (1995), p. 41 33 Glaber, 3.24 34 The testimony of a Persian traveller, Nasir-i-Khusrau, who visited the church in 1047. Biddle (p. 79) quotes it as evidence that the restoration project must have been begun long before the traditional date of 1048, which derives from the much later chronicle of William of Tyre. As Biddle also points out (p. 81), the speed with which the church was rebuilt offers the likeliest explanation for the silence of Western writers about the destruction of 1009 in the decades that preceded the First Crusade. “The event of 1009 was not mentioned, not because it had passed out of memory, nor because men did not care, but rather because architectural history was not relevant.”35 Quoted by Landes (1995), p. 45. For a brilliant explication of how and why Adémar sought to obscure the apocalyptic tenor of his times, see ibid., pp. 144–53 and 287–308. Anyone who writes on Adémar must be for ever in Landes’s debt.36 Glaber, 2.22 37 The precise date of Vilgard’s heresy is unknown.38 Adémar, 3.143 39 Andrew of Fleury, Miraculi Sancti Benedicti, p. 248 40 The degree to which mass heresy existed, or was a nightmare conjured up by its chroniclers, is intensely controversial. For the view that it was a reflection of faction battles among a clerical elite, see Moore’s essay (2000). For a strongly stated – and, in my opinion, thoroughly convincing – counter-view, see Landes (1995), pp. 37–40 41 It is true that one heretic, a theologian by the name of Priscillian, had been executed back in 383 – but even then on an official charge of sorcery. One intriguing theory holds that it was his tomb which subsequently came to be venerated at Santiago. See Fletcher (1984), p. 59 42 Adémar, 3.138 43 From a letter by a monk named Heribert. Quoted by Lobrichon (1992), p. 85 44 Adémar, 3.138 45 Wazo of Liège, p. 228 46 Landulf Senior, p. 65 47 Adam of Bremen, 4.8 48 John of Salerno, Life of Odo, 2.3 49 Wazo of Liège, p. 228 50 From “The Miracles that Happened at Fécamp”: van Houts, p. 78 51 Liber Miraculorum Sancte Fidis, 2.12 52 Glaber, 3.19 53 Quoted by Landes (1995), p. 177. See also Landes (1991).54 For the full extraordinary story of Adémar’s forgeries, see ibid.55 Glaber, 4.1 56 Ibid., 4.21 57 Ibid., 4.18 58 Arnold of Regensburg, p. 563.59 Glaber, 4.18 60 Quoted by Landes (1995), p. 322 61 Glaber, 4.14 62 Ibid., 4.17 63 Arnold of Regensburg, p. 547 64 Ibid.65 Wipo, p. 40 66 Wido of Osnabrück, p. 467 67 From the anathema against the Eastern Church delivered by Cardinal Humbert. Ironically, he appears to have regarded the practice of depicting Christ dead upon the Cross as a peculiarly Greek one.68 Arnulf of Milan, 3.4 69 Hildebrand’s precise origins are controversial. The claims that are repeated here – that they were humble – were so widespread as to seem to me irrefutable; but some scholars have argued that Hildebrand was in fact Gregory VI’s nephew, either by marriage or by blood. If the latter, then the foremost steward of the Catholic Church in the eleventh century was the grandson of a Jew. The biographies of Cowdrey (pp. 27–8) and Morghen (pp. 10–11) represent the opposite poles of opinion on this. That Hildebrand became a monk while still a boy is, again, the expression of a consensus rather than a certainty.70 Acts of the Apostles 8.23 71 Peter Damian, Vita Romualdi, p. 33 72 Desiderius of Monte Cassino, p. 1143 73 Life of Pope Leo IX, 1.2 74 Ibid., 1.15 75 Ibid., 2.3 76 Hildebert, col. 865 77 John of Fécamp, col. 797 78 From the notorious letter written by Humbert to the Patriarch of Constantinople, and published under Leo’s name: PL 143, col. 752 79 Humbert, De Sancta Romana Ecclesia. Quoted by Schramm 2 (1929), p. 128 80 Otto of Freising, The Two Cities, 6.33 81 Desiderius of Monte Cassino, 1.2 82 Amatus of Monte Cassino, 3.7 83 Ibid., 3.16 84 Blickling Homilies, p. 137 85 Liudprand, The Mission to Constantinople, 3.34 86 Revelation 12.9. The prophecy that Michael would kill the Antichrist dates back to the late fourth century.87 Hermann of Reichenau, p. 132 88 William of Apulia, 2.240–1 89 Michael Psellus, p. 116.90 Ibid., p. 269 91 Orderic Vitalis, 5.27.