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Being a Barbarian: Identity, Memory and the Creation of Medieval Europe

Module description

Throughout the early middle ages histories were written about deeds and events surrounding various Germanic, Scandinavian and Slavic peoples who migrated all over Europe and were identified as being wholly barbaric in origin. The legacy of Rome, the deeds of these barbaric peoples, and the way in which they were commemorated in these histories, shaped the way that medieval peoples understood ethnic and communal identities, including their own and those of others.

This module focuses on the development of European history through the lens of identity during the period from after Rome’s ‘fall’ to the turn of the millennium, engaging with key debates and perspectives, both medieval and modern, on barbaric peoples. The module outlines the history of these peoples and the periods of migration, invasion and settlement that occurred during the early middle ages as written by key narrators of barbarian history, such as Bede, Isidore of Seville, Orosius, Gregory of Tours, Jordanes, and Paul the Deacon.

The module also focuses on broader alternative perspectives on identities and peoples, as well as alternative sources, including the legacy of barbarian histories, the dichotomy of Christian versus pagan rhetoric, the role of the barbaric Vikings as perceived in post-barbaric societies, and the role of gender and women in the propagation of medieval myths of origin and other ethnic discourse.

This module does not assume prior knowledge of the topic and encourages you to engage with the wide range of sources available to conduct their own examination into the subject. It asks not only who these barbarians were but also why they were considered to be so barbaric and what cultural influence this supposed barbarity had.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to:

• Use a broad period of cultural change in Europe, which includes the movements, rule and legacies of barbaric peoples, to explore the nature, possibilities and limitations of extant medieval source material.

• Determine what surviving source material can tell us about how medieval peoples understood and presented their perceptions of various ethnic identities, though other forms of identity surrounding religion, politics and gender are also considered.

• Rather than emphasising the acquisition of a broad knowledge of events and deeds surrounding the barbarian nations, focus on the interpretation of medieval sources that demonstrate contemporary perspectives on these themes as well as the way medieval authors commemorated and presented history.

• Introduce numerous significant genres of textual and material sources from the medieval period, use them to explore particular themes and topics, and conduct your own research into the subject.

• Help you to develop skills in source analysis and research to provide a foundation for future historical work.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Understand and assess the main developments in contemporary medieval perceptions of ethnicity and the barbaric past
• 2. Work critically with a range of written and visual sources relating to the topic

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Identify the problems of using historical sources, e.g. utility, limitations, etc, and compare the validity of different types of sources
• 4. Present historical arguments and answer questions orally

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Conduct independent study and group work, including the presentation of material for group discussion, developed through the mode of learning
• 6. Digest, select, and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument, developed through the mode of assessment
• 7. Write to a tight word-length

Syllabus plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

• the history of medieval peoples/nations c. 300-1100
• the Fall of Rome and the Barbarian Invasions
• the Migration Period
• medieval frameworks of identity
• ethnicity and ethnogenesis
• gender and women’s history
• medieval historical writing
• kingship and medieval rule/authority
• Vikings
• Normans
• Franks
• Charlemagne
• Goths
• Anglo-Saxons etc.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to redo the assessment(s) as defined above. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• R. Bartlett, The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change 850-1350 (London, 1994)
• S. Brink and N. Price, The Viking World (New York, 2008)
• P. J. Geary, The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe (Princeton, NJ, 2002)
• Gillett, ed., On Barbarian Identity: Critical Approaches to Ethnicity in the Early Middle Ages (Turnhout, 2002)
• W. Goffart, The Narrators of Barbarian History (A.D. 550–800): Jordanes, Gregory of Tours, Bede, and Paul the Deacon (Princeton, NJ, 1988)
• W. Goffart, Barbarian Tides: The Migration Age and the Later Roman Empire (Philidelphia, PN, 2006)
• G. Halsall, Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376–568 (Cambridge, 2007)
• W. Pohl with H. Reimitz, ed., Strategies of Distinction: The Construction of Ethnic Communities, 300–800, Transformation of the Roman World 2 (Leiden, 1998)
• W. Pohl, ‘Ethnicity, Theory, and Tradition: A Response’, in On Barbarian Identity: Critical Approaches to Ethnicity in the Early Middle Ages, ed. A. Gillet (Turnhout, 2002), pp. 221–39 ?
• S. Reynolds, ‘Medieval origines gentium and the Community of the Realm,’ History 68 (1983) 375-90
• P. Sawyer (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings (Oxford, 1997)
• Wickham, The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000 (London, 2009) ?

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE page: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/search.php?search=HIH1048

Key words search

Early/High Medieval Europe, ethnicity, identity, barbarians, migration, Goths, Franks, Vikings