Pagan Saxon Resistance to Charlemagne’s Mission: ‘Indigenous’ Religion and ‘World’ Religion in the Early Middle Ages
Carole M. Cusack
What is “known” about the interplay between Paganism and Christianity in Middle Ages grows more problematic with every new scholarly contribution. Recently it has become fashionable to assert that nothing can be known of earlier oral tradition Pagans, as all remain are Christian texts written by clergy who drew upon Biblical models such Canaanite “idolatry” depict medieval peoples like Anglo-Saxons Frisians whose religion they were ignorant. Extreme versions this position deny existence entirely; because produced Christians, other potential sources information (archaeological evidence, comparative Indo-European parallels, folklore) deemed inadmissible. The encounter literate, urban non-literate rural early Europe resembles contemporary cases where claims “indigenous religions” (e.g. legal actions establish native title mounted at time colonized Europeans) “world (e.g., missionary directly or indirectly facilitating colonialist enterprises) clash. Yet rarely recognized within academic disciplines history studies. This article considers struggle Pagan Saxons Frankish army Charlemagne late eighth ninth centuries a case study an indigenous people being crushed universalizing world promoted globalizing empire. It argues programs intended bring deliberate obliteration cultures, fact which scholars.
The Pomegranate