Hoc anno rex plures interfecit: The Year 782 in the Major and Minor Annals

Abstract

Frankish annalistic writing is traditionally divided into two types: the expansive and overtly political major annals and the briefer, seemingly unassuming, minor annals. Whereas the major annals are thought to have been affiliated with the Carolingian court, the minor annals are considered local histories, though their precise origins remain elusive. Recent scholarship has started to re-examine this neat division and its underlying criteria, pointing out the sophisticated narrative strategies evinced in individual minor annals and their deep commitment to writing Carolingian history. The present study continues this re-evaluation by taking a comparative approach to the Frankish annalistic corpus. It explores how different major and minor annalists responded to a controversial series of events that took place in 782: the Frankish defeat at the Süntel Mountains against the Saxons, followed that same year by the infamous Verden Massacre. While these events proved highly divisive among contemporary historians, the dividing lines did not run between the major and the minor annals, but right through them, suggesting that both were part of one and the same realm-wide debate.