Creating a Medieval Origin Story: The Influence of the Bible in the Search for Origins

Abstract

The Bible was a foundational text that shaped the worldview of medieval historians. The education that taught them to understand and interpret scripture created a Christian lens through which they interpreted sacred and secular history. This worldview was particularly relevant in the creation of origin stories, as the Bible was one of the only texts that established the origins of the world. Medieval historians had little information about the early ancestors of their nations due to low literacy rates and the disconnection between the literary and oral traditions in the ancient and medieval worlds. At best, historians remembered the names of their ancestors to the third or fourth generation, occasionally with their notable accomplishments. However, in many cases, this did not include the founder, let alone their possible connection to an ancient and highly respected society. In this respect, the early Middle Ages contrasted highly with the twelfth century, where medieval historians had access to a large corpus of ancient and medieval texts. Nevertheless, the Bible was an essential text for both periods in their creation or reinterpretation of their origin stories. This thesis explores the influence of the Christian Bible in the creation of origin stories in the five prominent histories from the Early and High Middle Ages: Paulus Orosius’ Historiae adversus paganos, Gregory of Tours’ Decem libri Historiarum, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae, William of Malmesbury’s Gesta Regum Anglorum, and Ordericus Vitalis’ Historia ecclesiastica. These five histories discuss each authors’ interpretation of the origins of their people, the world, and Christianity. They all sought to connect their texts to the Biblical narrative to create a legendary and divinely-inspired origin myth, which they accomplished through the establishment of a Biblical timeline, the incorporation of genealogies, discussions on exilic stories, and commentaries on the restoration that Jesus brought to the world. Moreover, each author wrote their text to record the events of the past to instruct their audiences morally. In so doing, they aimed to encourage their audience to uphold Christian values so that they remained in this Biblical timeline, within God’s favour, and thus within his plan for salvation.