THE CONSTRUCTION OF COMMUNITIES IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES Texts, Resources and Artefacts EDITED BY RICHARD CORRADINI rvlAX DIESENBERGER HELl\,IUT REIMITZ BRILL LEIDEN' BOSTON 2003 ou f/(GS'J- HAIR, SACRAUTY AND SYMBOUC CAPITAL IN THE FRANKISH KINGDOMS Maximilian Diesenberger When Emperor Julian came to power his beard, after generations of government by clean-shaven Christian generals, was-as Peter Brown recognized-a 'pointed reminder' that a late-antique intellectual was now on the throne. I This symbolism was not lost on the educated public, but even so another interpretation of its meaning was possi- ble: the beard could be a sign of the barbaric or even seem ridicu- lous. Thus, the people of Antiochia laughed about his beard." The beard is portrayed differently by Augustine several years later: "The beard signifies strong men; the beard signifies young, vigorous, active, quick men. 'Vhen therefore we describe such men, we say that a man is bearded."? Thus, the same sign was perceived differently by different groups. Furthermore, one could combine seemingly incon- sistent signa in one person. For example, as the sixth century began, Ennodius wrote of a cer- tain Jovinian that "although he had a Gothic beard [he] went about wearing a lacerna. I am amazed at the races contrasted in [one] immoderate body."" InJovinian's case, the beard represented descent from a specific gens. Differing symbols that represented a person or a people, for example Jovinian's Gothic beard and Roman clothing, could contradict one another, but they also could be interpreted in I P. Brown, Sociery and the Holy in Laie Antiquity (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1982) p. 83. Cf. G. Constable, "Intro.duction: beards i? history", Apologiae duae (Gozechini Epistola ad Waleherum. Burchardi Apologia de barbis), ed. R.B.C. Huygens, Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Medievalis 62 (Turnhaut 1985) p. 86. I have kept the bibliography minimal. I am grateful to l\layke de Jong, Ian N. Wood and Waiter Pohl for their helpful comments on earlier drafts. I would like to thank Richard Corradini and Helmut Reimitz for their help and Karl R. Giesriegl for advice on the Lex Salica. 2 Brown, Sociery and the Holy, p. 83. Cf. Constable, "Introduction", p. 86. 3 Augustine, Enarratio in psalmos 132, 7, ed. E. Dekkers and I. Fraipont, Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina 40 (Turnhaut 1966) pp. 1931f. Cf. Constable, "Introduction", p. 60. • Ennodius, Carmen 2, 57 (Opus 182), ed. F. Vogel, l\lGH AA 7 (Berlin 1885) p. 157. Cf. Constable, "Introduction", p. 88. 174 I\IAXII\IILIA."1 DIESENBERGER various ways by different observers.' asJulian's beard shows. Although clearly-visible and easily-manipulable, aspects of the body, the hair and beard were, at the same time, dependent upon their context," They could be used to refer to multiple social groupings: a gens, a hierarchy within a certain society, an ecclesiastical office, and so on.? They could also be used to indicate different social practices or social states, for example mourning, war, the burden of an oath, or pun- ishment," Julian's unkempt and lice-infested beard prompted him to say: "I look like a man expiating a crime."? In this symbolic world, the hair and beard styles of both emperors and subjects were expres- sions of a specific way of life. Combined with other elements of the available repertoire of symbols, hair and beards were employed as a form of self-fashioning-as they were in Julian's case.'? For the Merovingian family, the question of hairstyles was slightly different. For them, hairstyle was less an expression of individual character than an indication that they were members of an exclu- sive group, set apart from the rest of the people. Indeed the way in which they wore their hair seems to have remained constant through- out centuries. In the depictions of the Merovingian family surviving in Frankish historical writing, from Gregory of Tours' sixth-century Decem libri Historiarum to Einhard's early ninth-century obituaries, the long hair of the Merovingians was considered their typical and exclu- sive trait. 1 1 The portrait of the king on a seal found in the tomb of 5 See further examples R. Bartlett, "Symbolic meanings of hair in the Middle Ages", Transactions if the Royal Historical Society, Sixth Series 4 (1994) pp. 43-60. 6 Bartlett, "Symbolic meanings of hair", p. 60. 7 W. Poh1, "Aux origines d'une Europe ethnique: Transformations d'identites entre antiquite et moyen age", Annales ESC (in press). 8 See for instance Johannes Chrysostomos, In Joanrum homiliae 62, 4, ed. J.-P. Migne, Patro1ogia Graeca 59 (Paris 1862) col. 346. SI Huben Penitential 53, ed. HJ. Schmitz, Die Bussbücher und das kanonische Bussverfahren (Düsseldorf 1898)p. 338. Cf Bartlett, "Symbolic meanings of hair", p. 55, n. 56 and 57. E.James, "Bede and the tonsure question", Paitia 3 (1984) pp. 85-98, esp. 89. 9 Cf. Constable, "Introduction", p. 66. IQ St. Greenblatt, Renaissance &!fFashwning. From More la Shakespeare (Chicago 1991). 11 Einhard, Vita Karoli Magni I, ed. O. Holder-Egger, l\IGH rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum [25], 6. edn. (Hannover 1911) pp. 2f. For the different dates suggested for Einhard's Vita Caroli, compare M. Innes and R. McKitterick, "The writing of history", Carolingian Culture. Emulation and Innovation, ed. R. McKitterick (Cambridge 1994) pp. 193-220! here: 2031[ (821 or 823); M. Tischler, Einharts "Vita Karoli". Studien .(;urEntstehung, Vherlieferung und &zeption. Schriften der MGH 48, 1 (Hannover 2001) pp. 151-239 (828), with the discussion of the older literature. SYMBOLIC CAPITAL IN THE FRANKISH KINGDOMS 175 Childeric J12 shows him wearing a similiar hair style to that of a head illuminated in an eighth-century Bamberg codex (Staatsbib- liothek, MS patr. 61 olim HJ. IV. 15), a codex that preserves- among other texts-Gregory of Tours' De cursu stellarum ratio:" The accuracy of these depictions is further supported by Priscus' brief description of a Frankish prince. Dating from the middle of the fifth century, and thus roughly contemporary with Childeric, the prince's hair is described in terms that match the depiction of both Childeric's signet ring and the Bamberg Codex." Later, in the eighth century, Theophanes was to say of the Merovingians that "... the descen- dants of that family were called crested, which is translated into Greek as having hair on the back, for they had hair growing out of their back, like swine.l'" The longevity of the royal hairstyle underlines the importance that it had for the l\lerovingians, even as Gregory's account of Gundovald's origo, or childhood, does. In addition a remark that the boy was "educated with great care" and taught to "read and write", Gregory mentions that little Gundovald "wore his hair long and down his back, as is the custom of the Frankish kings."!" Due to the fact that Gundovald's descent was a debated issue among the Merovingians themselves, with Chlothar I repeatedly denying that he was the boy's father, Gregory's brief listing of the important issues surrounding the raising of a l\lerovingian illustrates the vital role that the traditional hairstyle played within the royal family as well as with all the Franks. 12 St. Lebecq, "The two faces of king Childeric: history, archaeology, historio- graphy", InlLgratWn und Herschcfl. Ethnisihe ldentuäten und soziale Organisation im Frühmiuelalter, ed. W. Pohl and 1\1. Diesenberger, Forschungen zur Geschichte des Mittelalters 3 (Wien 2002) pp. 119-126. 13 See the representation of Merovingian kings in Ph. Lauer and Ch. Samaran, us diplOmes originaux des Mirovingiens (Paris 1908) PI. 43. Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek I\ls patr. 61 (Italy, 8th century) fol. 79r. See A. Cameron, "How did the Merovingian kings wear their hair?", Revue helge de Philologie et d'Histoire 43 (1964) pp. 1203-1216, here 1214f. For the date and place of origin of the manuscript: E.A. Lowe, The Beneventan Script (Oxford 1914) pp. 20, 305. 14 Priskos, Fragmenta historiae Byzantinae 16, ed. K. Müller, Fragmenta historicum Graecorum 4 (Paris 1851) pp. 69-110, here: 98f.; vgl. Cameron, "How did the l\lcrovingian kings wear their hair?", p. 1214. I~ Cameron, "How did the Merovingian kings wear their hair?", p. 1212. 16 Gregory of Tours, Historiae VI, 24, ed. B. Krusch and W. Levison, MGH SS rerum Merovingicarum I, I (Hannover 1951) p. 231: ... ut regum istorum mos est, crinium jlagellis per terga dimissis .... 176 MAXIl\IILIA.~ DIESENBERGER In the course of this article, an effort will be made to examine the context in which reports of Merovingian hair or hairstyles were made and transmitted, in order to understand their function. This effort will encompass hagiographical, historiographical and legal texts. Various models which have hitherto been employed in order to explain the significance of these hairstyles will be examined. Was the hairstyle of Germanic origin? This view was often combined with an evolutionist model of a gradual development of Frankish kingship from pagan origins to its full christianization under the Carolingians. Consequently, the question of the significance of hair- styles as expressions of social practice among the Frankish people will lead us beyond the specific case of the Merovingians to the more universal question of the context of social practice itself, within which such signs function. Furthermore this field of enquiry demands the consideration of the textual strategies at work in the tradition. A fundamental question in any study of Merovingian hair is whether it was in and of itself the symbol of 'la distinction'," or whether, as many scholars have claimed, a greater importance has been assigned to something that was merely one point of difference among many. Scholars have in fact tried various approaches to explain the mean- ing and function of the hairstyles of the reges cnniti.1B Mare Bloch, for example, described the hair of the Merovingians as 'un symbole d'ordre surnaturel', containing a 'valeur magique'.'? Perey Ernst Schramm, in turn, spoke of a 'primitiv-magische ..