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

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Date
2016
Authors
Forde, Britt
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University College Cork
Published Version
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Abstract
This thesis compares 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). Adam and Gerald placed their respective locations and peoples of which they write within the concepts of ancient and medieval geographical and ethnographical thought, as remote islands in the Ocean that surrounded the tripartite terrestrial landmass that constituted the known world. This Oceanic location was believed to influence nature and wildlife as well as the character of the inhabitants; thus they shared a common geographical environment, yet their depictions of the inhabitants sharing this peripheral Oceanic location is widely different. The classical stereotypes about remote Oceanic locations like Sweden, Norway and Ireland encompassed two separate traditions of ethnographical and geographical thought, one positive and one negative. This thesis argues 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: Adam’s reform ideals in an era of imperial and papal strife in Germany; Gerald’s concern with church reform, at a time of crusades and the ongoing attempts at a conquest of Ireland.
Description
Keywords
Adam of Bremen , Gerald of Wales , National stereotypes , Barbarians , Polytheists , Ancient and medieval geography , Mappae mundi , Periphery , Salvation history , Colonialism , Church reform , Monstrous peoples
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.