Miðvikudaginn 11. júní 2025 heldur Alban Gautier, prófessor í miðaldasögu við Université de Caen Normandie, tvo fyrirlestra á vegum Miðaldastofu — / — Wednesday, June 11, 2025, Alban Gautier, professor of medieval history at Université de Caen Normandie, will give two talks for the Centre for Medieval Studies:
Alban Gautier
The ‘Massacre of the Long Knives’: transformations of a narrative from the ninth to the thirteenth century
Miðvikudaginn 11. júní 2025 kl. 11.00 / Wednesday, June 11, 2025, at 11.00
Árnagarður 304
A story first appearing in the Historia Brittonum traditionally ascribed to Nennius (early ninth century) tells how, after the Saxons led by Hengest first arrived in Britain, they invited all British noblemen to meet them: in the course of the meeting, the Saxons drew their knives and each one killed his neighbour. I will retrace the transformation of this narrative over five centuries, showing how it was retold and modified in history, pseudo-history and romance, and in a variety of European languages. The most important turning point here was undoubtedly Geoffrey of Monmouth and his History of the Kings of Britain: after him, nearly all versions, from Wace’s Roman de Brut to Breta sögur, drew some inspiration from his version, still modifying it, adding or removing individual details.
Alban Gautier is professor of medieval history at Université de Caen Normandie. His research focuses on Norse culture of the Viking Age where he has researched the roots of the concept of the “noble heathen” which appears in medieval Icelandic literature. In his book Beowulf au paradis: Figures de bons païens dans l’Europe du Nord au haut Moyen-Âge (Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2017), Gautier traces the origins of this concept to the writings of medieval theologians and offers a new interpretation of Beowulf.
Fyrirlesturinn verður haldinn á ensku og er öllum opinn. / The talk will be delivered in English and is open to all.
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Alban Gautier
‘Righteous heathens’ before the age of sagas: did something change in the early twelfth century?
Miðvikudaginn 11. júní 2025 kl. 15.00 / Wednesday, June 11, 2025, at 15.00
Árnagarður 304
The notion of the ‘righteous heathen’ or ‘good pagan’ is well-known from Icelandic sagas. There abundance in North European written narratives about the pre-Christian past seems to start sometime in the first half of the twelfth century, when so-called ‘national historians’ such as ‘Gallus Anonymus’ in Poland, Cosmas of Prague in Bohemia or Geoffrey of Monmouth in Britain tell long stories about rulers from the pagan past, celebrating their virtues and their achievements. I will show that, before this date, such stories were not inexistant in the North, but were limited to some regions (especially Ireland) and to a few notable individuals (a handful of them being even regarded as possibly admitted to Paradise). So did something change in the early twelfh century, that made such stories more acceptable for writers that were no less Christian and no less clerical than their predecessors?
Alban Gautier is professor of medieval history at Université de Caen Normandie. His research focuses on Norse culture of the Viking Age where he has researched the roots of the concept of the “noble heathen” which appears in medieval Icelandic literature. In his book Beowulf au paradis: Figures de bons païens dans l’Europe du Nord au haut Moyen-Âge (Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2017), Gautier traces the origins of this concept to the writings of medieval theologians and offers a new interpretation of Beowulf.
Fyrirlesturinn verður haldinn á ensku og er öllum opinn. / The talk will be delivered in English and is open to all.