Prof Dániel Bagi, Genealogical fictions in Medieval Narrative Text sin East-Central-Europe.
Abstract: Fictions are since longer time topic of research of international medieval studies. Since Helmut Beumann’s work on Widikind of Corwey we know, that – to cite Beumann – fictions written in narrative texts give sometimes more about an age, then real meant events depicted in the texts.
A different kind of fictions is made up of genealogical fictions. There is no doubt: medieval chronicle writer composed several times genealogical fictions in their works. We have to difference between to main kind of fictions: one of them affects the dynasties, their ancestors, while the other the origin of the nation (origo gentis).
However beyond this well-known and sufficiently researched types of genealogical fictions one can find and other way of fictions, sometimes falsifications indeed.
This affects the real familiar circumstances of the ruling dynasties. In the so called East-central-European countries, in Poland, Hungary and Bohemia the beginnings of the national (dynastic) historiography are to set on the end of the 11th century or the first decades of the 12th century. Gallus Anonymus, Cosmas of Prague and the first redaction of the Hungarian Chronicle were written very close to the dynasties, and had to make stand for the result of dynastic conflicts, which occurred both in Poland, Hungary and Bohemia during the 11th century. One of the devices in the hand of monarchs conquered their competitors was the falsification of the genealogy of the dynasty, to have the ability to proof of legitimacy of them, who have conquered in the conflicts. Fictions and falsifications were first of all needed, when the generations living at the turn of the 11-12th centuries did not have any knowledge about the ancestors, who could and should have given orientation for the protagonists. Or even contrarily: when the contemporaries did clearly know about their real ancestors, whose memory could have shadowed on their reigns.
In the recent paper I try to give an overview about the genealogical fictions of the Arpads, Piast and Premyslds depicted in the earliest historiographical syntheses. In the paper I will examine both the problems with male and female ancestors of the monarchs. It’s very interesting, that the Arpads tried to become linked to St. Stephen, and that’s why they were still trying to hide their real ancestors: Vazul, who has been blinded by the first Hungarian king, and their mother, a pagan woman from the clan of Tátony. Similarly problematic was the descending of the Premyslids: they all originated of first degree from Boleslav I. called The Evil, of second degree from the illegitimate alliance of Bretislav I. and Bozena. These cases could not be used against participants of dynastic conflicts, because they could have shadowed the whole dynasty. On the other hand, arguing with illegitimate of ancestors was one of the many argumentative devices in the narrative sources. As good example we could mention Zbigniew’s mother, the case of Boris Kolomanowicz, the son of Koloman the Learnt.

Dr Mariusz Bartnicki, Describing the Ruthenian ethnos and foreign people in Kievian and Galichian- Volodimir chronicles in the 12th-13th centuries.
Abstract: The 12 th century, especially the second half was the time when an incredible development in the Ruthenian literature took place. The chronicles written in the courts narrated the events, which were important from the local rulers` and the society`s point of view. This local perspective had an impact on the way of the presentation of the internal coherence of Ruthenian ethnos. In the chronicles ( 12th-13th c.) the evidence of Ruthenian identity in a general meaning appears very rarely. In the literature the terms Ruthenia, Ruthenian lands are commonly regarded as an ethnonim of the society living under the Rurik dynasty reign, in the period regional features are developed.The reasons for such a situation can be found in the political realities of the time, but also in the literary myths about the origins of Ruthenia. In the 12th and 13th c. the chroniclers put the terms Ruthenia and Ruthenian lands rather in a political context than in an ethnic one.It was the Rurik dynasty which , according to the chroniclers, made the upper stream of Dnieper river the center of their power.The dynasty was the element which connected different communities. Undoubtedly the awareness of belonging to the Christian ecumene was the factor which integrated the different collectivities . These two examples of connections: dynastic and religious ones also defined their attitude towards the others, the strangers.

Phil. dr Georg Jostkleigrewe, Rex Franciae imperator in regno suo est. An investigation into the identitarian potential of a juridical concept.

Abstract: The Rex imperator in regno suo is a juridical construction which explains the sovereign use of Roman law by “provincial” kings, and particularly by the king of France, the most noble of all. Its foremost function is internal: The concept is used to legally legitimise the French king’s growing position within the rapidly emerging monarchic state of the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries.

Yet, the Rex imperator concept has an external function as well. For it allows one to understand the relations between the French monarchy and the universal powers in a specific way, as it precludes any pretensions of the popes and the so-called Holy Roman Emperors to exercise temporal domination over the French kingdom.

The proposed subproject will investigate into the identitarian potential of this concept and its limits using a threefold approach. Firstly, we will analyse the notion of Rex imperator and related concepts as a way of introducing French history into legal discourse. Historiography is thus adapted to concrete political purposes. In a second chapter, we will conversely examine this same concept as a means of transporting juridical thought into historiographical discourse, thus creating an extremely coherent vision of French historical identity.

Yet, this specific identity based on the principle of absolute independence with regard to other temporal powers is of astonishingly little importance outside the jurists’ milieu. This is rather surprising, as French and international researchers have generally presumed that the Rex imperator ideology is ubiquitous in French historiographical writing. A third and final chapter will therefore discuss its limits and propose a different model of thinking French and imperial identities together – a model which can be exemplified by the so-called Manuel d’histoire de Philippe VI de Valois.

Dr Wojciech Michalski, Creating knightly identities? Scottish lords and their leaders in the narratives about great moments in community’s history (between John Barbour’s The Bruce and Harry’s The Wallace).

Abstract: The Adv.MS. 19.2.2 manuscript (1488) held in The National Library of Scotland contains, written one after another, two late medieval historical epics: John Barbour’s The Bruce (ca. 1376) and The Wallace (ca. 1474-1479) by Harry, sometimes nicknamed the Blind or the Poet. It is hard to overestimate the role of this two works in the process of creating the identity of Scottish community. Especially Harry’s poem, due to its film adaptation (Braveheart), proved to be very important nowadays too.
The two epics are connected not only by similarity of their subjects, which are the deeds of king Robert Bruce (The Bruce), William Wallace (The Wallace) and their men performed during anglo-scottish war of 1296-1328. It is interesting to notice that for author of the later epic, Barbour’s poem is a literary model after which he very much followed. The analysis of Harry’s borrowings allows us to judge what motifs are in his eyes especially suitable for constructing narrative vision of Wallace – the ultimate defender of Scottish community. Equally important for us are the stories about achievements of minor heroes in both poems. What ideological meanings are expressed in these narratives? In what way does Harry describe heroes from the families that Barbour wrote about earlier and those who do not appear in older epic? Dealing with these issues, great importance of traditions about participation in the profound events of Scottish community’s history will be stressed, as they establish the kin group reputation for good.

Andrzej Pleszczyński, The identity of self-government groups (guilds and communes) in the Middle Ages.
Abstract: Guilds, with their corporate character, were very important institutions having influenced over the centuries the shape of European civilisation. The aim of the paper will be to examine a small part of the phenomenon of this institution’s existence. First, an analysis of the way in which guilds were portrayed in official writing (representing the point of view of political, state and church authorities) from the oldest descriptions to the end of the Middle Ages will be made. Another task of this paper will be to attempt to outline how guilds built their own group identity and what means were used to fulfil this task, and finally how these activities corresponded with the identity built by city communities.

Prof. Huw Pryce, Dynastic identity in 12th- and 13th-century Wales

Abstract: This paper examines what genealogies and other written sources reveal about the identity of 12th- and 13th-century native Welsh dynasties, especially the powerful dynasty of Gwynedd (north-west Wales). Among the questions it addresses are how, and how far, dynastic identity was understood differently in different genres of sources, and how far ecclesiastical concepts of legitimate birth were used to define membership of dynasties. It will therefore assess the importance of written texts in constructing dynastic identity as something that was contested rather than simply given.

Dr hab. Stanisław Rosik, Shaping post-barbarian identity: an example of Pomerania in the 11-12th century.
Abstract: The Pomeranians appear in sources in the mid 11th c., and the beginnings of the territorial and political community defined by this name, most certainly dates back to the times when the Piast Monarchy started to control the land on the Baltic Sea (between the Oder and Vistula) in the 10-11th c. The appearance of the name Pomeranians was connected with perceiving them from the outside as an expansion area, thus it was a peripheral community, living in one of the regions subjugated to the Polish Monarchy. The 12th c. brought a lasting inclusion of the Pomeranian communities in the circle of Christianity and the system of constituent monarchies, and in consequence their acceptance of the name Pomerania and Pomeranians as a determinant of their new post-barbarian identity. Perforce, especially in the case of the elites of the Western Pomeranian Duchy, which became the object of a political game on the stage of the Empire at that time still representing the universalist element, the Pomeranian identity lost its original, regional meaning. This fact is expressly shown in the hagiography of St. Otto of Bamberg in which the Pomeranians and Poles are referred to as “brothers”, thus equivalent communities.

Dr Joanna Sobiesiak, The Czechs and Germans; nationals and foreigners in the Czech chronicler’s work from Cosmas from Prague (12th c.) to the so-called Dalimil (14th c.).

Abstract: Czechs and Germans; nationals and foreigners in the work of Czech chroniclers, from Cosmas of Prague (12th c.) to the Chronicle of Dalimil (14th c.).
The article shows how, using narrative clichés, Czech medieval authors constructed the image of the Germans.
Interestingly, the state elite often cooperated politically with German rulers and aristocracy, but the Czech authors still treated their land and people very disparagingly.
Perhaps rivalry between native nobles and newcomers from Germany meant that, to an extent unique in the region, the Czechs were portrayed in these texts as an almost perfect community, under the care of St. Wenceslas – the ancestor of the ruling dynasty.
And all foreigners – especially Germans – were treated as the antithesis of this ideal native community.
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Mgr Tomasz Tarczyński, The king and the saint against the Scots. The Shaping of the English national identity in the XIIth-century narrative of king Athelstan’s victory over his northern neighbours

Abstract: This paper examines how the author of the XIIth-century narrative of Vita s. Johannis episcopi Eboracensis constructed events (the victorious battle against the Scots and the conquest of Scotland) and objects (a sword and a baner) memory of which constituted an important part of English national identity in the Middle Ages.

Dr hab. Przemysła Tyszka, Defining masculinity and feminity in penitence books from the 6th until the 11th century..

Abstract: The subject of my paper is the way the authors of the books of penance, who worked in the West from sixth to eleventh century, perceived masculinity and femininity, men and women. I treat the penitential books as an expression of views, convictions and assumptions of the clergymen – monks and bishops – who wrote and compiled them. I will present how the rules of the penitential texts concerning various sexual practices or behaviours, position of husband and wife in marriage, dissolving a marriage and remarrying and restrictions of participation in religious practices resulting from the situation of defilement expressed the ideas of the authors of the books of penance on qualities and characteristic features which have defined men and woman (both clergy and lay) as the separate groups within Christian community.

Dr. Tetiana Vilkul “Grazhane / Ludie” (People) and “Bojars” in the Old Rus’ Chronicles of the 11-13th Centuries: Narrative Modelling of the Social Identities

Abstract: I am going to study the chroniclers’ perceptions of the relations between prince
and the veche and prince and noblemen of Kievan Rus times. The research will analyse the narrative nature of the real political events’ description in Rus’ chronicles. The conventional narrative patterns, as well as the semantics of the texts, will be examined. The narratology is a comparatively rare area in the non-theoretical scholarship. Mainly, the scholars assume that the chronicles reflect historic facts. But different chroniclers describe the same event in a different way (there are differences in terms of the selection of the details, chain of events, over-all judgement etc.). Such parallel records are the basic material of my research. The following problems will be studied: the chroniclers’ ideas about the social groups and their role in political events; narrative modelling of the peaceful relations of the ruler and people and the conflict situations describing.