The empire created by the Germanic chieftain Charlemagne (Charles the Great) provides an excellent example of the process of synthesis that characterized the rise of the West. Carolingian culture integrated Classical. Christian, and Germanic traditions to form the fabric of medieval life. Feudalism, a political and military system, established patterns of social rank and status that dominated early medieval society. The landmark artworks of this period are animated by a spirit of rugged warfare, the bonds of feudal loyalty, and a rising tide of Christian piety and belief.
A First Look
The Bayeux Tapestry is a unique record of a
major historical event: the Norman conquest of
England. This landmark artwork is not, in fact,
a woven tapestry, but an embroidery, created
to ornament a banquet hall or to line the choir
walls of Bayeux Cathedral in northwestern
France. Sewn into a roll of bleached linen cloth,
some 20 inches high and 231 feet long-two thirds
the length of a football field-the lively
visual narrative chronicles the incidents leading
up to and including the Battle of Hastings, the
outcome of which gave William of Normandy
control of England in 1066. Some seventy-nine
scenes unroll continuously, in the manner of an
ancient parchment scroll, a Roman historical
narrative (see Figure 3.14), or a modern comic
strip. Above and alongside each scene, Latin
captions idenify the characters, places, and
events. Real and imaginary birds and animals
populate the borders above and below, and
in the battle scenes, fallen warriors clutter the
earth. Epic in scope and robust in style, the
Bayeux Tapestry presents a picture of an age
in which Christianity became a militant force
in the West. It provides a vivid visual record
of feudal life, colored by scenes of combat that
constitute a veritable encyclopedia of medieval
battle gear (seen in this detail): kite-shaped
shields, conical iron helmets, chain mail, battle
axes, and double-edged swords.
THE GERMANIC TRIBES
THE Germanic peoples were a tribal folk who followed a
migratory existence. Dependent on their flocks and herds,
they lived in pre-urban village communities throughout
Asia and frequently raided and plundered nearby lands
for material gain; yet they settled no territorial state. As
early as the first century B.C.E., a loose confederacy of
Germanic tribes began to threaten Roman territories, but
it was not until the fourth century C.E. that these tribes,
driven westward by the fierce Central Asian nomads
known as Huns, pressed into the Roman Empire. Lacking
the hallmarks of civilization-urban settlements, monumental
architecture, and the art of writing-the Germanic
tribes struck the Romans as inferiors, as outsiders, hence,
as "barbarians."
The Germanic language family, dialects of which differed
from tribe to tribe, included East Goths (Ostrogoths),
West Goths (Visigoths), Franks, Vandals, Burgundians,
Angles, and Saxons-to name but a few. The Ostrogoths
occupied the steppe region between the Black and Baltic
seas, while the Visigoths settled in territories closer to the
Danube River (Map 5.1). As the tribes pressed westward,
an uneasy alliance was forged: The Romans allowed them
to settle on the borders of the Empire, but in exchange the
Germanic warriors had to afford Rome protection against
other invaders. Antagonism between Rome and the West
Toths led to a military showdown. At the Battle of Adriantinople, near modern
Edirne in Turkey) in 3378 CE, the Visigoths defeated teh "invincible" Roman army, killing the East Roman Emperor Valens and dispersing his army. Almost immediately thereafter, the Visigoths swept across the Roman border, raiding the cities of the declining West, including Rome itself in 410 CE.
Germanic Culture
Germanic culture differed dramatically from that of Rome: In the agrarian and essentially self-sufficient communities of these nomadic peoples, fighting was a way of life and a highly respected skill. Armed with javelins and shields, Germanic warriors fought fiercely both on foot and on horseback. Superb horsemen, the Germanic calvary would come to borrow from the Mongols spurs and foot stirrups-devices (originating~ China) that firmly
secured the rider in his saddle and improved his driving
force. In addition to introducing to the West superior
methods of fighting on horseback, the Germanic tribes
imposed their own longstanding traditions on medieval
Europe. Every Germanic chieftain retained a band of
warriors that followed him into battle, and every warrior
anticipated sharing with his chieftain the spoils of victory.
The bond of fealty, or loyalty between the Germanic
warrior and his chieftain, and the practice of rewarding
the warrior would become fundamental to the medieval
practice of feudalism.
Germanic law was not legislated by the state, as in
Roman tradition, but was, rather, a collection of customs
passed orally from generation to generation. The Germanic
dependence on custom would have a lasting influence
on the development of Jaw, and especially common law,
in parts of the West. As in most ancient societies-Hammurabi's
Babylon, for instance-penalties for crimes varied
according to the social standing of the guilty party.
Among the Germanic tribes, however, a person's guilt
or innocence might be determined by an ordeal involving
fire or water; such trials reflected the faith Germanic
peoples placed in the will of nature deities. Some of the
names of these gods came to designate days of the week;
for example, the English word "Wednesday" derives from
"Woden's day" and "Thursday" from ''Thor's day."
Germanic Literature
Germanic traditions, including those of personal valor
and heroism associated with a warring culture, are
reflected in the epic poems of the early Middle Ages. The
three most famous of these, Beowulf, The
Song of the Nibelungs, and The Song of
Roland, were transmitted orally for hundreds
of years before they were written down sometime
between the tenth and thirteenth centuries. Beowulf originated
among the Anglo-Saxons and was recorded in Old
English-the Germanic language spoken in part of the
British Isles between the fifth and eleventh centuries. The
Song of the Nibelungs, a product of the Burgundian tribes,
was recorded in Old German; and the Frankish Song of
Roland, in Old French. Celebrating the deeds of warrior-heroes,
these three epic poems have much in common
with the Iliad, the Mahabharatn, and other orally transmitted
adventure poems.
The three-thousand-line epic known as Beowulf is
the first monumental literary composition in a European
vernacular language-the everyday language of
the people. The tale of a daring Scandinavian prince,
Beowulf brings to life the heroic world of the Germanic
people with whom it originated. In unrhymed Old English
verse embellished with numerous two-term metaphors
known as kennings ("whale-path" for "sea,"
"ring-giver" for "king''), the poem recounts three major
adventures: Beowulf's encounter with the monster Grendel
his destruction of Grendel's hideous and vengeful
' mother, and (some five decades later) his efforts to
destroy the fire-breathing dragon that threatens his people.
These adventures-the stuff of legend, folk tale, and
fantasy-immortalize the mythic origins of the Anglo-Saxons.
Composed in the newly Christianized England of the eighth
century, the poem was not written down for another two centuries.
Germanic Art
The artistic production of nomadic peoples consists
largely of easily transported objects such as carpets,
jewelry, and weapons. Germanic folk often buried the
most lavish of these items with their chieftains in boats
that were cast out to sea (as described in Beowulf). In 1939,
archeologists at Sutton Hoo in eastern England excavated
a seventh-century C.E. Anglo-Saxon grave that contained
weapons, coins, utensils, jewelry, and a small lyre. These
landmark treasures were packed, along with the corpse
of the chieftain, into an 89-foot-long ship that served as a
tomb. Among the remarkable metalwork items found at
Sutton Hoo was a 5-pound gold belt buckle richly ornamet,
ted with a dense pattern of interlaced snakes with
beaked, birdlike heads (Figure 5.2). The high quality of
so-called ''barbarian" art, as evidenced at Sutton Hoo
and elsewhere, shows that technical sophistication and
artistic originality were by no means the monopoly of
"civilized" societies. Such artifacts also demonstrate the
continuous diffusion and exchange of styles across Asia
and into Europe.
As the Germanic tribes poured into Europe, their
art and their culture comingled with that of the people
with whom they came into contact. A classic example is
the fusion of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon styles. The Celts
were a non-Germanic, Iron Age folk that had migrated
throughout Europe between the fifth and third centuries
B.C.E., settling in the British Isles before the time of Jesus.
A great flowering of Celtic art and literature occurred in
Ireland and England following the conversion of the Celts
to Christianity in the fifth century C.E. The instrument of
this conversion was the fabled Patrick (ca. 385-461 C.E.),
the British monk who is said to have baptized more than
120,000 people and founded three hundred churches in
Ireland, for which he is revered as Ireland's patron saint.
In the centuries thereafter, Anglo-Irish monasteries produced
a number of extraordinary Christian manuscripts,
whose decorative style is closely related to the dynamic
linear ornamentation of the Sutton Hoo artifacts.
The Germanic ornamental vocabulary influenced not
only the illumination of Christian manuscripts but also
the decoration of Christian liturgical objects, such as the
paten (Eucharistic plate) and the chalice (Eucharistic
cup). Used in the celebration of the Mass, these objects
usually commanded the finest and most costly materials;
and, like the manuscripts prepared for the sacred
rite itself, they received inordinate care in their execution.
Even as the Germanic tribes slowly converted to
Christianity, Germanic art entered the mainstream of
medieval art, where it fused with Greco-Roman artforms
to flower eventually in the great age of cathedrals (see
pages 157-164).
The Age of Charlemagne
FROM the time he came to the throne in 768 C. E., until
his death in 814 C.E., the Frankish chieftain Charles
the Great (in French, "Charlemagne"; Figure 5.4)
pursued the dream of restoring the Roman
Empire under Christian leadership. A
great warrior and an able administrator,
the fair-haired heir to the Frankish
kingdom conquered vast areas of land
in what would later come to be called
"Europe" (Map 5.2). His holy wars the
Christian equivalent of the Muslim
jihad- resulted in the forcible conversion
of the Saxons east of the Rhine River,
the Lombards of northern Italy, and the
Slavic peoples along the Danube. Charlemagne's
campaigns also pushed the
Muslims back beyond the Pyrenees
into Spain.
In the year 800 C. E., Pope Leo III crowned
Charlemagne "Emperor of the Romans,"
thus establishing a firm relationship between
Church and state. But, equally significant!~
Charlemagne's role in creating a Roman
Christian or "Holy" Roman Empire cast him as the prototype
of Christian kingship. For the more than thirty years
during which he waged wars in the name of Christ,
Charlemagne sought to control conquered lands by placing
them in the hands of local administrators-on whom
he bestowed the titles "count" and "duke"-and by
periodically sending out royal envoys to carry his edicts
abroad. He revived trade with the East, stabilized
the currency of the realm, and even pursued diplomatic
ties with Baghdad, whose caliph, Harun
al-Rashid, graced Charlemagne's court with the
gift of an elephant.
The Carolingian Renaissance
Charlemagne's imperial mission was driven
by a passionate interest in education and the
arts. Like most Germanic warrior chieftains,
Charlemagne could barely read and write- his
sword hand was, according to his biographers,
so callused that he had great difficulty forming letters.
Nevertheless, admiring his Classical predecessors, he sponsored the
Carolingian (from Carolus, Latin for Charles) renaissance, or rebirth, of learning and literacy. To oversee his educational program, he invited to his court missionaries and scholars from all over Europe. The most notable
of these was Alcuin of York, an Anglo-Saxon monk whose
work as a teacher and translator fostered a glorious revival
of learning. With Alcuin's assistance, Charlemagne established
a school at his palace in Aachen (see Map 5.2), and
similar schools at Benedictine monasteries throughout the
Empire.
Here, monks and nuns copied religious manuscripts,
along with Classical texts on medicine, drama, and other
secular subjects. Carolingian copyists replaced the difficult to
decipher Roman script, which lacked punctuation and spaces
between words, with a neat, uniform writing style known as
the Carolingian minuscule-the model for modem typography.
The long-term importance of Charlemagne's renaissance is
best reflected in the fact that 80 percent of our oldest Classical
Latin manuscripts survive in Carolingian copies.
Map 5.1
Map 5.2
