The Uses of the Middle Ages in Modern European States: History, Nationhood and the Search for Origins (Writing the Nation)

An assessment of the role of the Middle Ages in national historiography and in modern conceptions of national identity, looking at relatively young nations, and regions which claim national traditions but were slow to achieve, or regain, separate statehood. Examples range from Ireland and Iceland through Austria and Italy to Finland and Greece. Front Matter....Pages i-viii Introduction....Pages 1-4 Front Matter....Pages 5-5 Transmission and Translation of Medieval Irish Sources in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries....Pages 7-17 The ‘Decline of Norway’: Grief and Fascination in Norwegian Historiography on the Middle Ages....Pages 18-30 ‘Braves Step out of the Night of the Barrows’: Regenerating the Heritage of Early Medieval Finland....Pages 31-51 Interpreting the Nordic Past: Icelandic Medieval Manuscripts and the Construction of a Modern Nation....Pages 52-71 Front Matter....Pages 73-73 A Serious Case of Amnesia: the Dutch and their Middle Ages....Pages 75-87 Medieval Myths and the Building of National Identity: the Example of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg....Pages 88-112 An Era of Grandeur. The Middle Ages in Belgian National Historiography, 1830–1914....Pages 113-135 Front Matter....Pages 137-137 To Whom Does Byzantium Belong? Greeks, Turks and the Present of the Medieval Balkans....Pages 139-151 The Image of the Battle of Kosovo (1389) Today: a Historic Event, a Moral Pattern, or the Tool of Political Manipulation....Pages 152-174 Front Matter....Pages 175-175 Italy’s Various Middle Ages....Pages 177-196 Medievalism, the Politics of Memory and Swiss National Identity....Pages 197-220 The Public Instrumentalization of the Middle Ages in Austria since 1945....Pages 221-244 ‘Old Czechs Were Hefty Heroes’: the Construction and Reconstruction of Czech National History in its Relationship to the ‘Great’ Medieval Past....Pages 245-258 Conclusion....Pages 259-262 Back Matter....Pages 263-296 Cover 1 Contents 6 Notes on the Contributors 8 1 Introduction 10 Part I: Celts and Scandinavia 14 2 Transmission and Translation of Medieval Irish Sources in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries 15 3 The 'Decline of Norway': Grief and Fascination in Norwegian Historiography on the Middle Ages 26 4 'Braves Step out of the Night of the Barrows': Regenerating the Heritage of Early Medieval Finland 39 5 Interpreting the Nordic Past: Icelandic Medieval Manuscripts and the Construction of a Modern Nation 60 Part II: Benelux 80 6 A Serious Case of Amnesia: the Dutch and their Middle Ages 81 7 Medieval Myths and the Building of National Identity: the Example of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg 94 8 An Era of Grandeur. The Middle Ages in Belgian National Historiography, 1830–1914 119 Part III: Balkans 142 9 To Whom Does Byzantium Belong? Greeks, Turks and the Present of the Medieval Balkans 143 10 The Image of the Battle of Kosovo (1389) Today: a Historic Event, a Moral Pattern, or the Tool of Political Manipulation 156 Part IV: Central Europe 179 11 Italy's Various Middle Ages 180 12 Medievalism, the Politics of Memory and Swiss National Identity 200 13 The Public Instrumentalization of the Middle Ages in Austria since 1945 224 14 'Old Czechs Were Hefty Heroes': the Construction and Reconstruction of Czech National History in its Relationship to the 'Great' Medieval Past 248 Conclusion 262 Bibliography 266 Index 287 This is the first collection of its kind, with a broad European coverage and very international team of authors. It shows how modern states and societies have used the history of the Middle Ages to legitimize themselves, and draws on some of the most famous and fascinating medieval themes, from Icelandic sagas, through Switzerland's William Tell and the Czech Hussites, to the Serbian battle of Kosovo. The volume investigates especially the ways in which new and smaller states have invented or reinvented themselves on an imagined medieval base and how rival traditions have interacted with each other. It also shows the often uneasy relation between professional history and popular understandings of history, and some of the highly politicized uses to which the work of historians has been put in many different countries