Barbarians, Maps, and Historiography

Walter Goffart is Professor Emeritus of History, University of Toronto, Canada, and Senior Research Scholar and Lecturer in the Department of History, Yale University, USA

Contents: Preface; Two notes on Germanic antiquity today; What's wrong with the map of barbarian invasions?; The map of barbarian invasions: a preliminary report; The map of barbarian invasions: a longer look; Does the Vita S. Severini have an underside?; Conspicuously absent: martial heroism in the Histories of Gregory of Tours and its likes; Bede's Uera lex historiae explained; The Historia ecclesiastica: Bede's agenda and ours; Bede's History in a harsher climate; Paul the Deacon's Gesta Episcoporum Mettensium and the early design of Charlemagne's succession; Charters earlier than 800 from French collections; Le problème des Translationes S. Liborii; The first venture into 'medieval geography': Lambarde's map of the Saxon heptarchy (1568); Hetware and Hugas: datable anachronisms in Beowulf; The name 'Meringovian' and the dating of Beowulf; Christian pessimism on the walls of the Vatican Galleria delle carte geografiche; Addenda; Additional articles (annotated list); Index.