Waiting for the End of the World: European Dimensions, 950 1200

The French president Charles de Gaulle spoke of a Europe "from the Atlantic to the Urals". Europe was spatially formed with these topographic parameters from the late 10th century onwards, with the massive Christianization of its inhabitants. At that time, however, all three monotheistic religions already had a steady presence there. Could such a macro-space be thought-and-narrated from a macro-perspective, in view of its medieval past? This has already been done through common ʻdenominatorsʻ such as the Migration Period, wars, trade, spread of Christianity. Could it also be seen through a common religious-philosophical and spiritual phenomenon - the Anticipation of the End of the world among Christians, Muslims, and Jews? This book gives a positive answer to the last question. Contents 8 Preface: How the Idea for This Book Came About 12 Acknowledgements 16 Illustrations 19 Introduction 20 Chapter 1 European Dimensions of the Anticipation of the End of Times: Texts. Contexts. Real Places and Symbolic Topoi 35 1.1 Expectations for the End of Times in the Jewish Milieu, 10th–12th Centuries 36 1.2 Expectations for the End of Times in Western Europe 49 1.2.1 Calming of Fears in the 10th–11th Centuries: Adso of Montier-en-Der, Thietland, Raoul Glaber 49 1.2.2 The Peace of God Movement and the Year 1000 59 1.2.3 The Year 1000 and the Victory of the Cross in the North and the Center of Europe 64 1.2.4 On the Threshold between the 10th and 11th Centuries. The Ottonians: Symbolic Acts and Symbolic Topoi 67 1.2.5 A Look at the Cult of St. Michael the Archangel from the Holy Roman Empire 81 1.2.6 The Twelfth Century in the West: New Trajectories and Loci/Topoi of the ‘Salvational’ Expectations 85 1.2.6.1 Millenarian Explorations during the 12th Century: the Interpretations and the Promise of Joachim of Fiore 85 1.2.6.2 The West Looks to the Far East, or on the Kingdom of Prester John before the Earthly Paradise 91 1.3 Expectations for the End of Times in Byzantium 98 1.3.1 The ‘Scythian’ Threat from the North before 1092 101 1.3.1.1 Signs, Horoscopes and the Attacks of the Rus’ 101 1.3.1.2 The Pechenegs and the Other Steppe Nomads 103 1.3.2 The Norman Threat from the West before and after 1092 111 1.3.3 Symbolic Acts in Constantinople before 1200 114 1.3.4 Testimonies of the End in Byzantine Art 115 1.4 Expectations for the End of Times in Kievan Rus’ 117 1.4.1 The Rus’: the New ‘Chosen People’ of God 118 1.4.2 The Capital City of Kiev (Late 10th–12th Centuries): Imitating Jerusalem and Constantinople 126 1.4.3 And All of Rus’ Is under God’s Protection 130 Chapter 2 Topography of the Evil Forces before the End of Times: European Dimensions 135 2.1 The Question of the Sources 146 2.2 Genealogy of Some of the Topoi 147 2.2.1 The ‘People (of ) Gog and Magog’ in the Old Testament 147 2.2.2 The Revelation of St. John the Apostle and the ‘People of the Evil Forces’ in the New Testament 148 2.2.3 The Wall/Gate of Alexander the Great 150 2.2.3.1 In the Jewish Milieu before the Birth of Christ 150 2.2.3.2 In the World of Christendom 150 2.2.3.3 In the Muslim World before the 10th Century 153 2.2.4 Notions of Constantinople as the ‘New Jerusalem’ and of the Heavenly Jerusalem—as a Heavenly Constantinople, with Constantinople Being Perceived as the Center of the New ‘Holy Land’ 155 2.3 Later Development of the Topos of the Direction of the Evil Forces’ Invasions in the 10th–12th Centuries 162 2.3.1 The Byzantine Case 162 2.3.2 Western European Cases 172 2.3.3 The Case of Kievan Rus’ 191 2.3.4 In the Islamic World (the Case of Volga Bulgaria) 196 2.3.5 In the Jewish Diaspora, 10th–12th Centuries 199 Chapter 3 Bulgarian Dimensions of the Anticipation of the End of Times: Texts. Contexts. Real Places and Symbolic Topoi 210 3.1 Danube Bulgaria: ‘Texts’ of Word and Image 210 3.2 Topography and Names of the Evil Forces before the End of Times in the Notions of the Danube Bulgarians 229 3.3 Beginning and End of Tsardom: Bulgarian ‘Responses’ to the Expectation of the End of Times 248 3.3.1 The Topos of the ‘First Tsar’: ‘Tsar Slav’ and/or ‘Ispor Tsar’, or on the Legitimization of the Beginning of the Bulgarian Tsardom 248 3.3.2 The ‘Last Tsar’: The ‘Revival’ of Two Traditional Images in Bulgaria around 1092, or on the Legitimization of the End of the Bulgarian Tsardom 263 3.3.2.1 The ‘Chosen’ Bulgarian Tsars Michael and Petur: the Power of the ‘Salvational’ Naming 281 3.3.3 The Well, or about the Path to and the Place of Paradise (and Hell?): Bulgarian Visions about the Topography of Salvation 289 3.3.4 The Giants: Once Again about the Beginning and the End (of Space and Time, and of Tsardom as Well) 305 3.3.4.1 The Bulgarian Christian Case from the End of the 11th–Beginning of the 12th Century 307 3.3.4.2 Specific Features of the Bulgarian Islamic Case 309 3.3.4.3 Specific Features of the Scandinavian Case 311 Conclusion 318 Bibliography 326 Illustrations 372 Index 378 History,General In Waiting for the End of the World: European Dimensions, 950-1200 , Tsvetelin Stepanov offers a fresh, pan-European, look at a phenomenon that was typical not only for the Christians, but also for the other two monotheistic religions in Europe.