Reading the Fabulous in Anglo-Norman Histories

Abstract

From the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the early thirteenth century, the Anglo-Normans ruled England. In this relatively short period of time, they proved themselves as both accomplished military figures and great patrons of the arts. Yet for all their achievements, they faded as a distinct group, assimilating into the broader ‘English’ population within a few generations. Their lasting legacies, contrasted with the brevity of their established rule, have since compelled historians to question if the Anglo-Normans identified themselves as a distinct, unique people. By closely examining the imaginative ways in which Anglo-Norman historians depicted their ancient past, this thesis argues that there existed a shared ‘Anglo-Norman myth’: a construction that allowed Anglo-Norman historians not only to present an ideological representation of their shared past, but to reflect on their contemporary contexts. Chapter One situates itself within recent historical debate regarding the reality of a collective Anglo-Norman identity. It traces how Anglo-Norman historians described a series of mythic origin tales and ideological hero figures that marked the early ancestral foundations of the Anglo-Norman people. These foundational tales combined to establish the Anglo-Norman myth; an idealised portrayal of the past that successive Anglo-Norman historians revised to reflect their contemporary contexts without sacrificing its central themes. Having established the central components of this myth, Chapter Two details the historians’ contemporary environments in more detail. It explores how the myth was employed by Anglo-Norman historians to provide commentary on popular ideologies and movements of the time, such as the conquest of Ireland, while allowing them to reflect on their own personal anxieties regarding identity and historywriting as a discipline. Building on the two previous chapters, Chapter Three then outlines the spiritual emphasis prevalent in Anglo-Norman histories, with its particularly Christian bent, detailing how the historians expressed anxieties toward, while preparing for, the possible receptions of their texts. By examining the extravagant tales of kings battling giants, magicians discovering dragons, and great spiritual journeys accompanied by prophetic visions, by reading the fabulous, this thesis advocates a new approach to Anglo-Norman histories. These tales were written by learned men for an engaged audience and thus are fundamental to any consideration of the Anglo- Norman world.1 1 The figure on the cover page accompanies Gerald of Wales’s tale ‘about a wolf that talked with a priest’, examined in Chapter Two. Gerald of Wales, Topographia Hiberni: The History and Topography of Ireland, trans. John J. O’Meara, Dublin, 1982, p. 71.