UCC Library and UCC researchers have made this item openly available. Please let us know how this has helped you. Thanks! Title National identity, classical tradition, Christian reform and colonial expansion at the ends of the earth: an analysis of representations of the Swedish and Norwegian peoples in Adam of Bremen’s history of the archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen and the Irish in Gerald of Wales’s topography of Ireland Author(s) Forde, Britt Publication date 2016 Original citation Forde, B. 2016. National identity, classical tradition, Christian reform and colonial expansion at the ends of the earth: an analysis of representations of the Swedish and Norwegian peoples in Adam of Bremen’s history of the archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen and the Irish in Gerald of Wales’s topography of Ireland. PhD Thesis, University College Cork. Type of publication Doctoral thesis Rights © 2016, Britt Forde. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ Item downloaded http://hdl.handle.net/10468/3612 from Downloaded on 2021-10-10T07:53:02Z National Identity, Classical Tradition, Christian Reform and Colonial Expansion at the Ends of the Earth: An Analysis of Representations of the Swedish and Norwegian Peoples in Adam of Bremen’s History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen and the Irish in Gerald of Wales’s Topography of Ireland Britt Forde, MA (Hons) January, 2016 A thesis submitted to the National University of Ireland, Cork in fulfilment of the doctorate of philosophy in History School of History Head of School of History: Professor David Ryan Supervisor: Dr. Diarmuid Scully Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1: ‘Adam and Gerald in the Context of Church Reform and Secular Expansion’ Introduction 19 Adam of Bremen: A Brief Portrait 22 The Immediate Context: Archbishop Adalbert and Internal Crisis in Hamburg- Bremen 24 Hamburg-Bremen in the Broader Context of Papal Primacy and Empire 27 Adam’s Model of a Good Pastor: A Response to Gregory the Great and Bede 30 Ambivalence and Change of Character in Adam’s Representation of Adalbert 35 Adam’s Adalbert: Superficial Secular Glory and Internal Paganism 40 Gerald of Wales: Conquest, Reform and Crusade 53 Gerald of Wales in the Context of Conquest, Colonisation and Reform 56 Crisis in the Centre: Gerald, Henry II and the Crusades 61 Gerald and the Partial Failure of the Irish Conquest 63 Conclusion 66 Chapter 2: ‘Location’ Introduction: 67 Adam, Gerald and the Islands in the Immense Ocean at the Physical Limit of the World 69 Adam, Gerald and the Zonal Maps of the Planet 76 Adam, Gerald and the Medieval World on T/O Maps and Mappae Mundi 79 The National Library MS 700 Map, or ‘Gerald’s Map’ 84 Adam and Classical and Medieval Representations of the Northern Region: Evil or Blessed Locations 86 Adam’s Sweden and the Ancient locus amoenus (pleasant place) and Blessed Islands 90 Gerald and Ireland: The Blissful Island of Abundance 93 Adam, Gerald and Wonders in Peripheral Locations 96 Conclusion: 103 Chapter 3: ‘Description of Peoples in Adam and Gerald: Responses to Ancient Stereotypes, Reform Agendas, Conversion and Salvation’ Introduction 104 Names for Sweden and Norway and their Inhabitants in Adam and his Sources and Models 108 Adam and the Origins of the Swedes and their Identification with Goths and Scythians 111 Adam, the Conversion of the North, and its Ultimate goal: Christian Salvation 114 Adam and the Fulfilment of Ezekiel’s Biblical Prophecy Leading to Salvation 117 Adam’s Depiction of Swedes and Norwegians of his Own Era 127 Adam and the Pastoral Lifestyle and Social Organisation in Sweden and Norway 131 Adam and the Northmen as Hyperboreans; an Ideal People 136 Adam’s Ideals of Conversion: a Response to Bede and Gregory the Great 137 Adam and the Partial Failure of the Swedish Mission 142 Adam and Religious Life in Norway: a Triumph for Christianity 144 Gerald of Wales and the Irish 145 Gerald and the Names of Ireland and the Irish People 147 Gerald and the Origins of the Irish People 149 Gerald’s Ideals of Pastoral Care and his View of the Irish Church 153 Gerald’s Disregard of the Irish Reform Movement 159 Gerald and the Irish: Appearance and Character 162 Gerald and the Irish Pastoral Way of Life 172 Gerald and the Social Organisation of the Irish 174 Conclusion: 179 Chapter 4: ‘Adam’s and Gerald’s Strange and Monstrous Peoples’ Introduction 180 Adam and Gerald and the Ancient and Medieval Tradition of Populating the Periphery with Monstrous Beings 182 Adam and Gerald and the Implications of the Word Monstrous 186 The Monstrous Peoples: Do They Exist? Are they Human? 188 The Strange and Monstrous Beings in Adam’s Narrative: Humans in Need of Conversion 190 Adam, the Amazons and Divine Vengeance 200 The Monstrous in Norway 201 Gerald and the Monstrous and Strange Beings in Ireland as Signs or Portents: ‘A Wolf that Talked With a Priest’ 203 Gerald and the Ox-men 208 Conclusion 213 Conclusion 214 Bibliography 217 Declaration I certify that the work presented in this thesis has not been submitted for any degree or diploma, at this or any other university and that all of the work/research described herein is my own work. __________________________ Britt Forde Acknowledgements Foremost I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Diarmuid Scully, for his continuous support, advice and patience, and for willingly sharing his great knowledge of the medieval period. His motivation and encouragement has guided me thorough this work. I am very grateful to UCC College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences for my PhD scholarship and for the Michael Joseph McEnery Memorial Scholarship. I am indebted to the Nordic Centre of Medieval Studies (NCMS) in Bergen, Norway for an intense and illuminating Graduate course. Thank you to my proof readers Natalie Forde and, in the later stages, Dr. Sofia Georgiadou, whose enthusiasm, professionalism and attention to detail has been invaluable. I would also like to extend my thanks to friends and family, most especially to Karin Rosén, and to my children—fellow UCC students—Nadine, Danny and Natalie. Thank you. Abbreviations AB Adam of Bremen, History of the Archbishops of Hamburg- Bremen CCSL Corpus Christianorum Series Latina Expugnatio Gerald of Wales, The Conquest of Ireland HE Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum Hist. adv. Paganos Orosius, Historiarum adversus paganos libri septem LCL Loeb Classical Library MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica -SSrG Scriptores rerum Germanicarum -SSrM Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum -AA Auctores Antiquissimi NPNF Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church NH Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia (The Natural History) De Nuptiis Martianus Capella, De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii PL Patrologia Latina, ed. J.-P. Migne RS Rolls Series (Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aevii Scriptores) SDHK Diplomatarium Suecanum Top Gerald of Wales, The History and Topography of Ireland Introduction This thesis will examine the representations of the Swedes and the Norwegians in Adam of Bremen’s History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen (c 1074) and the Irish in the first recension of Gerald of Wales’ Topography of Ireland (1188).1 It will pay particular attention to the influence of classical and medieval geographical and ethnographical thought and the agenda of contemporary ecclesiastical reformers and imperial territorial expansion on the two authors. In order to analyse the representations of ‘normal’ (historically attested) inhabitants, as well as the monstrous or strange peoples the authors also place in these countries, it is necessary to examine the locations they inhabit. In ancient as well as medieval ethnographical thought, geographical location was believed to influence an individual’s or a people’s character. Whilst the focus of the thesis is predominantly on Adam’s work, a comparison with Gerald’s account will enable a better understanding of both writers’ views. This thesis will argue that the cumulative image of the inhabitants that emerges in Adam’s work is a positive representation of the Swedes and Norwegians of his own era, whereas the image of the Irish in Gerald’s narrative is starkly negative. This thesis will suggest that the secular and ecclesiastic context of each writer and their engagement with earlier sources and models, determines their approach to the people of whom they write. Robert Bartlett, who wrote the essential sole biography of Gerald of Wales in 1982, compared Adam’s account of Sweden and Gerald’s of Ireland and pointed out the economic similarities between the societies Adam and Gerald depict.2 In an age of expansion they were both seen, by their imperial neighbours, as undeveloped places ripe for exploitation.3 He also observed that these regions in medieval times were seen as ‘another world’—a world that shared certain characteristics: they were politically fragmented, sparsely populated territories where the 1 The editions used in this thesis are: Adam of Bremen, Magistri Adam Bremensis Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, Bernhard Schmeidler, (ed.) MGH SSrG, Vol. 2 (Hannover-Leipzig, 1917); Adam of Bremen, History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen, Francis J. Tschan (tr. and intro.) (New York, 1959; with new intro. by Timothy Reuter, New York, 2002). Also used in this thesis is a Swedish translation based on Schmeidler’s edition: Adam av Bremen, Historien om Hamburgstiftet och dess Biskopar, Emanuel Svenberg (tr.) with commentary by Carl Fredrik Hallencreutz, Kurt Johannesson, Tore Nyberg and Anders Piltz (Stockholm, 1984). Both translations use the chapter divisions which correspond to the Roman numerals in Schmeidler’s edition of the work as will this thesis. Tschan’s translation of Adam’s narrative will henceforth be abbreviated as AB; Schmeidler’s edition and the Swedish translation as Adam Bremensis and Adam av Bremen respectively.