Memory, State, and Past Remembering in East Central and Northern Europe

Interdisciplinary Studies in Medieval Culture, Volume II

Piotr Pranke, Łukasz Różycki, Marcin Lisiecki

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2026
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781040651070
• Subtopic: Eastern European History
• Index: History

Analysing the mechanisms that led to the formation of early state forms, this book defines the role of gifts, religious belief systems, prestige, and reciprocity within segmentary and chiefdom societies in East and Northern Europe.

Volume II explores the concept and the idea of memory, commemoration, and material culture related to the power of memory and functioning of medieval state observed in sources. This book discusses how gift and elite exchange gained significant importance over the early and high middle ages and encompassed, at the level of symbolic communication, the Christian perspective on power rituals as well as the sacred dimension of its legitimisation and manifestation.

This book provides an interdisciplinary study of medieval elites, Saints, and Kings through material culture and memory across medieval Poland, Hungary, Scandinavia, Bohemia and Rus'. An ideal resource for students of medieval East Central and Northern Europe, medieval material culture, and memory more broadly.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• 1 Memory of the Past: John Lydos on the Origins of Rome and Roman Offices in the Period of Kings
• 2 Macedonia between Two Worlds: Roman and Barbaricum (7th–9th Centuries)
• 3 Testimonies and Questions Related to the Elite Formation Process: The Case of Antes (4th–7th Centuries)
• 4 (In)Visible Members of the Society: Children and Adolescents as Seen in a Tenth-Century Collection of Miracle Stories in Medieval Bulgaria
• 5 “Rome” in the Early Piast State
• 6 Memory of the Battle of Hlyrskógsheiðr and the Medieval Development of the Cult of St. Óláfr
• 7 Lady of Cassel and Her Polish Mercenaries: The Story of the Creation of a Duchy
• 8 Charlemagne in Medieval Illuminations: Representations of Religious and Temporal Power at the Crossroads of the West and the East
• 9 The Battle of Cedynia: Memory Versus History: Around 1050th Anniversary of the Events of 972 in Cidini
• 10 Imagination of Royal Power and Monarchy in Polish Cultural Texts for Children and Youth
• 11 The Nature of the Rulers Power in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 13th and 14th Centuries
• 12 Hungarian Border Defence Strategy Against Early Hussite Invasions
• 13 Some Considerations on the Emergence of the Moldavian State (13–14 Centuries)
• 14 “It Was Said Near the ‘Tower’ of Mstislav”: Accounts of the Rus’ Princes from Deszt–i–Kipczak on the Example of Mstislav Mstislavovich and Danilo Romanovich
• 15 Two Kings in One Realm: King Béla IV of Hungary and His Younger Brother, Prince Coloman
• 16 The Romanness of the Master Vincentius’s Account of Bolesław the Wrymouth’s Campaign Against Nakło (Chronica Polonorum, III.14–17)
• 17 Magister Vincentius’ Tales of Power: Roman Decor of the Early Piast Monarchy in the Chronica Polonorum
• 18 Rome, Christianity, and the Empire: Did Piasts Need External Legitimization of Their Power: Second Half of the 10th Century to the Beginning of the 12th Century
• Index