![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In his record of event Gregory exposes himself more personally than in his enunciation of Orthodox belief -his passion for peace, his curious, observing writer's eye, his appreciation of a queer sort of humor in Sichar's drunken talk of the value of wergeld, which like Clovis's gilded armlets reveals the rare tone that mocks Germanic society's pious and important cliches. Sichar and Chramnesind (in a passage recently made more famous by its use in Erich Auerbach's Mimesis) act out the drama of blood-feud and wergeld. Here the poor, in famine, sell their freedom, the merchant goes towards Orleans to buy wine, the witch Bees to the wicked queen Fredegundis, and punishment follows crime. Something of the connection between men's religious beliefs and their view of history is here apparent. T hese passages from the beginning of The History of the Franks and from its record of events for the years 584 to 587 show what a man might say when he tried to define his faith and what he might see when he looked out on the world around him in the late sixth century, in Frankland. Gregory of Tours: His Faith and the World Around Him HIstory of the Franks THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES: 500-1000 ![]()
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