IMC 2010: Sessions

The papers in this session investigate the representation of exile in Frankish chronicles. Based upon a general survey of the motifs of exile and relegation in the Chronicle of the so-called Fredegar, Andreas Fischer will focus on the historiographer's presentation of Desiderius' and Columbanus' expulsion at the beginning of the 7th century. Conclusions will be drawn from an analysis of the relationships to other texts and of the narrative patterns used in the Chronicle. The second paper (Kaschke) is devoted to the Chronicon Universale, which marks the start of Carolingian world chronicles. Its heavy reliance on copy and paste from its sources, among them Fredgar, the Liber Historiae Francorum and especially Bede's Chronica Maiora, obscures the compiler's own viewpoint. Only a close examination of the way different bits of information were selected – or supressed– and then recombined may shed some light on the chronicle's position concerning enforced exile. The final paper (Kramer) examines the early 9th-century source material composed at the monastery of Aniane, including the so-called Chronicon Moissiacense and the Vita Benedicti Anianensis, and takes a closer look at the fall from grace of Theodulf of Orléans in 818. However, rather than reappraising the political causes of this exile, the emphasis will lie on monastic views on imperial interference in the ecclesiastical hierarchy and its consequences.