In the Shadow of Death. Saint Boniface and the Conversion of Hessia, 721?54

Pages: xx + 487 p. Illustrations:41 b/w, 9 tables b/w. Language(s):English, Latin, German. Publication Year:2011. Brepols. ISBN: 978-2-503-53161-8. Hardback --- Summary In the year 721 the Anglo-Saxon missionary St Boniface came with his followers to Hessia, a small but turbulent province on the borders of the expanding Frankish kingdom. This book is the first dedicated interdisciplinary study of Boniface’s thirty-three-year mission among the Hessians. The author relates the historical sources to the rich archaeological heritage of the region in order to describe the political and cultural context of the mission and its relationship to long-term Frankish interests in the Saxon borderlands. Thanks to the survival of many letters between the missionary community and its supporters, it is also possible to examine a symbolic literary discourse that portrayed the missionaries as heroic exiles who chose to suffer torments in a distant land for the sake of Christ. Finally, fresh evidence drawn from topography and place names is used to argue for the existence of an expansive pre-Christian sacred landscape that was one of the major obstacles faced by Boniface and his followers. The result is an innovative study that brings history and archaeology into communication with the landscape, both real and imagined, in order to reconstruct a crucial moment in the conversion of Europe in all its complexity, ambiguity, and drama. Awarded the Josef Leinweber Prize 2009 by the Fulda Faculty of Theology. TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTENTS List of Illustrations ix Preface xiii Author’s Note xv List of Abbreviations xvii Part I. Foundations Chapter 1: Introduction 3 Chapter 2: Historiography 19 Part II. Context Chapter 3: West Saxon Origins 55 Chapter 4: Hessia on the Eve of the Bonifatian Mission 119 Part III. Mission Chapter 5: The Chronology of the Bonifatian Mission in Hessia 189 Chapter 6: Representing the Mission 237 Chapter 7: Experiencing the Mission 279 Chapter 8: Conclusion 399 Appendix 1: Terms and Expressions Relating to Mission and Missionaries in the Letters of Boniface and Lul 405 Appendix 2: Metaphors and Motifs Used to Represent the Mission in the Letters of Boniface and Lul 411 Appendix 3: The Terms Germania and Germanicum in the Letters of Boniface and Lul 421 Appendix 4: Property Held by Hersfeld in Hessia before 775 425 Appendix 5: Patrons of Fulda in the Amöneburg District, 750–59 427 Bibliography 431 Index 473.…