Customer Reviews

Before France and Germany: The Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World

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During the fifth century, the country we know as France was overrun by a horde of German speaking barbarians called the Franks. After subjugating the Gallo-Roman population, the Franks somehow ended up speaking French and wearing berets. Or so I was taught in high school.

What is wrong with this picture? Generally when a country is conquered, the victors impose their language and culture on the vanquished, not the other way around. Most history books devote about two paragraphs to this period of French history.

If you have ever wondered how a group of plain, down to earth, barbarians could have produced a guy by the name of Charlemagne, Patrick J. Geary has the answer. (Hint: The barbarians were relatively few in number, and the Gallo-Roman aristocracy was never really conquered.) Geary's book is heavy reading in places, but it explores in depth the complex relationship between the Franks and the Gallo-Romans. Much that is confusing about European history can be cleared up by reading this book.

Geary's work is an enlightening look at the transformation from the Roman to the medieval in the transalpine Roman provinces. Geary easily dispels the myth of barbarian invasions and the "fall" of Rome. A complex and weary narrative is turned into a simple and intersting one. Geary does not waste his time (and ours) in pointless name-dropping. He gets right down to the core of the social, economic, and political story. Additionally, Geary quietly, but effectively, addresses one of the major controversies in early medieval studies: what was the economic impact of the Germanic migrations? This book is a must have for anyone interested in the classical or medieval periods and goes a long way to clearing up a lot of misconceptions.

In his own words, Geary's purpose was "not to launch some new theory about the origins of European civilization, but to make available the vast literature on late antiquity and the early Middle Ages which has, for a variety of reasons, seldom been presented in a manner accessible to a broader audience, particularly to an English-reading one."

Understanding that the intent was to synthesize a much larger body of work, it is important to also understand that Geary's focus is laser-beam tight on the Merovingian dynasty within the Frankish kingdoms of the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th centuries. For those without some familiarity to the period, I would suggest reading a couple of chapters from a more general work such as "Medieval Europe" (Hollister & Bennett) even if just not to be surprised when the early Carolingians start showing up on the page. (Geary assumes you'll instantly know who "Pippin" was.)

My one reservation about the book lies in the torrent of names that take up about forty pages towards the end. That is probably a curse of writing about Merovingians in the 8th century, period, but I found it impossible to keep my Nantechildis separate from my Flaochad while keeping a mental finger on Clothar II, Grimoald, and Childebert (along with many more).

Otherwise, I found the book quite engaging, particularly with respect to the early merger of the Franks into Roman-Gallo society and its reporting on the differing roles and influences that the bishops, monks, and eventually the Roman Benedictines assumed and exercised within the early Frankish kingdoms.

Most history books are written by experts to experts; this is a book written by an expert to a more general audience and as such it is a wonder! When we hear of "the Fall of Rome" we often imagine an overnight calamity -- this book dispells that notion, along with several others, such as the cohesion of "tribes" as they crossed from "Germany" into the Empire and the visions these people had of themselves. This is one of those books that a nonspecialist can read and gain great insight from. I cannot reccomend it enough.

The transformation of the Roman Empire of the West into the barbarian kingdoms and thence into Mediaeval Europe was a process of interaction and assimilation between Rome and the barbarians during which both refashioned the other.

Geary examines the Roman and barbarian worlds before the 5th century AD. In the West, the Roman world was faced with depopulation of rural areas, low tax revenues, and the stratification of society as occupations became hereditary - the distinction between free labourers and slaves all but vanished while the senatorial aristocracy enjoyed vast agricultural holdings. The barbarian 'tribes', somewhat loose confederations of peoples, vacillated between fighting against and for the Empire, while absorbing by one means or another the material benefits Rome could provide. Thus the Visigoths entered the Eastern Empire as foederati, or allies, after which followed a period of turbulent relations - in AD 410 they sacked Rome; three years the Visigoths were an official Roman army in Gaul.

After this overview, the emphasis is on the kingdom of the Franks (consisting of large parts of what are now France, Germany, Switzerland and the Low Countries) and the interaction amongst the Frankish barbarians and the Gallo-Roman aristocracy, in particluar the role played by the Church through the bishops (largely an aristocratic preserve) and different monastic traditions. The appearance of the Franks and their expansion of their authority was not a direct displacement of the Roman world, rather a gradual merging of two societies. Despite the disappearance of the political power of the Empire in the West, the lives of the Gallo-Roman aristocracy, with their vast wealth, changed slowly.

The authority of the Merovingian kings suffered from serious obstructions - the several partitions and unifications of the kingdom amongst different heirs; royal succession passing to minors; the centrifugal tendencies of outlying regions; and the desire of the aristocracy for autonomy. Finally the Merovingians became mere figureheads as real power passed to the maiores domus (majors of the palace) until finally Pippin III assumed kingship in 751 with papal approval and the Carolingian dynasty was established. The church in Francia also changed with bishops becoming essentially secular magnates dependent on royal patronage and no longer drawing on the tradition of classical learning, which latter was relegated to the monasteries as lay literacy also faded.

This is an introductory work which offers a synthesis of research, much of which is in German or French. It maintains a balance by not delving too deeply into intricacies (although even a short account of Merovingian history is necessarily somewhat complicated) while distinguishing important participants and trends. It is a good starting point before proceeding to more specialist and detailed works and provides a practical historical background useful not only to those studying history, archaeology or historical linguistics, but also the reader interested in what bridged the gap in the West between late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.

This book's essential for your understanding of the middle ages. Most books treat the period between the "fall" of Rome in the late 5th century and Charlemagne's coronation in 800 AD as a time of unmitigated chaos with little modern relevance, and while it may have no central personality to bring it into historical focus (though Clovis comes closest), culturally it was a very rich time, and in dealing with this is where Geary really excels. The breadth of life within those 300 or so years is explored, from rural economies to the different class structures within the (initially) competing Frankish and Gallo-Roman worlds. Even 15 years ago a book this thorough and wide-ranging would have been impossible, as historians have finally learned to encompass more than lists of kings and battles. My only problem with this book, however, is that there's a serious map deficiency. There are only 2 maps, and they're overcrowded and not pertient to whole chapters of the book. This was frustrating, especially when the text deals with regions and cities no longer extant. But this aside, the book is terrific.

Geary's book provides a comprehensive overview of the transition from the Roman Empire to the beginnings of the Europe we know today and effectively fills in what had been a major "blank" in my knowledge of history (and I was a European history major!) I would recommend, however, that readers have some background in European history and a keen interest in the subject.

This book provides fascinating information and insights. I rank it among a handful of the best history books I have read; of course, it does help to be interested in Euporean late antiquity/early medieval France. Although the book assumes little knowledge, I think it would be best if the reader had just a little familarity with the outline of the period. It addressed issues I had been wondering about and succinctly introduces many new vistas. With that said, if the Amazon scale had ten or one hundred stars available, the book would deserve all of them.

The book is a survey based primarily on primary sources of classical and translated works since Geary states that his mission was to address the issue of a huge lack of material available for an English speaking audience.

The main scope of the book is Merovingian Gaul which spanned 481-751, but the first half of the book just covers the Roman Empire beginning at the end of the 5th century. The first Merovingian King Clovis does not get mentioned until Chapter 3 (77). There are extensive bibliographies at the rear of the book summarizing each recommended sources and his endnotes are strictly to show sources (most of which are primarily sources in Latin, German, or French) and there are no notes included with them. Additionally, many foreign words are thrown into the text without explanation and Geary jumped around with timelines and locations so often that I was dizzy.

I was also confused to which audience Geary was addressing. Supposedly he wrote this book because much of the available literature on the subject is not in English, and he wanted to offer a contribution to American students in the field. However, only highly educated scholars would know most of the foreign vocabulary used through the book - and if they are highly educated, they would likely already know the subject matter to begin with and likely would not need a survey. More likely, this is meant to be a strict synthesis aimed at higher education.

While I enjoyed this piece, there simply did not seem to be enough data regarding the Merovingian Dynasty specifically, nor that of its mythos. Perhaps this disappointment is due to my believing I would be reading strictly of the Merovingians when, in fact, most chapters did not discuss this. Professor Geary frequently alludes to the Merovingian "mythic" origins, yet never addresses them. (94+) The Merovingian mythos is a huge part of its allure. Playing on the "mystical powers" of their bloodline allowed the Merovingian Kings to instill awe and fear in their people and added to their renowned charisma. If a non-history major who has heard of the Merovingian dynasty picked up this book, it is likely through the tales told of their connection to the Holy Grail or in modern literature.

There is a helpful family tree although two founders of the dynasty (Chlodio and Merovech) are absent. Only on ONE page (80) do these founders get mentioned! I was surprised to only find 2 maps and neither timelines nor images of relics and the like. If this is to be a survey, one would assume these to be invaluable.

I found it frustrating that the author consistently refers to information provided by Gregory of Tours even while claiming Tours was biased and unreliable. Geary even relied on a quote from Julius Ceasar to claim that the German diet consisted of milk. (46) Attributing any quote to Ceasar is sketchy at best much less one in this context! There are also occasional errors in the data itself.

Patrick Geary is a highly educated man with a rich background in Medieval History and I have a lot of admiration for him, but this piece left me a bit disappointed. Hopefully an updated version will be printed that will alleviate some of these issues. Meanwhile, I consider it a nice addition to my knowledge of the world the Merovingians inhabited, rather than the family itself.

I thoroughly enjoyed this little book. It has the best synopsis of the decline of the Roman Empre that I have ever read. The author helps us understand how so few Franks could take over such a large part of the Western Empire with so little trouble. The key thought, that the author presents admirably, is that they were essentially already there. They had been handling the Empire's security in the region for a long time. Apparently, some had already settled there, and the Gallo-Roman society had already evolved from the image we have of the Roman Empire. I hope it is not too much of a stretch to imagine that the Gallo-Roman aristocrats decided to pay the Franks directly for security, instead of first paying the Empire, who would then pay, or not pay, the Franks for the same job. One can also get an understanding of how the Merovingian society fragmented under the ambitions of the aristocrats and the Church to form smaller "duchies", and ultimately countries. I must say that my thinking has changed considerably since I first read Edward Gibbon and A.H.M Jones several years ago.