#longobards

[littlehistorian]

Lombard king Alboin forces his wife, the gepid princess Rosemonde, to drink from a cup formed by his father's skull at a banquet in Verona. By Tancredi Scarpelli.

[skyeventide]

there needs to be a tradition in Middle Earth where men wrote histories about the First Age and especially the War of Wrath or the wars of Númenor where, say, Eonwe intervenes during a battle and either protects someone or scares enemies.

this brought to you by a) divine interventions in the Iliad and b) the history of the Longobards I’m reading where good old Catholic Cunicpert is battling against Arian-heresy Alahis and, after winning, comes up with a whole propaganda story where the Archangel Michael, whom the Longobards super loved for being a warrior angel, descends on the battlefield to scare Alahis away from fighting a solo duel against Cunicpert, which in the warring tradition of the Longobards would be a huge dishonour.

and — you’re witnessing my thoughts in real time, but with a different connotation... the borderline-religious-angelic figure intervening in a battlefield in favour of a side is not super different from Glorfindel stopping Earnur from pursuing the Witch King at Fornost...

[historybizarre]

This Medieval Man Used a Knife as a Prosthetic Limb

The man’s skeleton bears signs of frequent ‘biomechanical force,’ according to a new study

In a paper published in the Journal of Anthropological Science, researchers write that the man’s limb appears to have been removed by blunt force trauma, but they aren’t sure exactly how or why. He may have undergone some sort of surgical procedure or, given the “warrior-specific culture of the Longobard people,” lost his hand in a fight. It is also possible that his limb was cut off as a form of punishment.

What is more clear, the researchers say, is that the man’s remains show signs of having been shaped by a prosthetic limb. T US 380 lived for years after his amputation, and while his injuries healed up nicely, the study authors observed that his tissue had formed callus, a thick layer of skin that develops when an area is subjected to friction. This, the researchers say, suggests there may have been a “biomechanical force” applied to the stump—a prosthesis, in other words.

The man’s teeth, which showed signs of “extreme” wear, also produced some clues to support this theory. On the right side of his mouth, his teeth were so worn down that the pulp cavity opened, causing a bacterial infection, according to Michelle Starr of Science Alert. The study authors think that the man was using his teeth to tighten the straps on his prosthesis. His shoulders also suggest that this was the case. The man’s upper arm bone had shifted slightly, and his shoulder had developed a C-shaped ridge, possibly because he was frequently holding his arm in an unnatural position so he could grip the straps with his mouth.

[littlehistorian]

Alberto Azzo II (1009-1097) was an Italian nobleman of Lombard lineage and a member of the Obertenga dynasty. First Marquis of Este from 1039, he was, from 1029, Marquis of Milan, Count of Luni, Genoa, and Tortona. Between 1069 and 1070, he was also Count consort of Maine. He is considered the founder of the House of Este because he was the first of his family to hold the title of "Lord of Este," a town in the Paduan territory. The title of Marquis came to him by imperial appointment.

[skyeventide]

this is so funny, there’s a Longobard king who instead of attacking Bizantium when weakened was trying to find a definitive peace with the Emperor and the other Longobards thought this was so militarily stupid that it meant the king was either mad or under enchantment. 

[skyeventide]

reading this very small History of the Longobards book is giving back to me the feeling of reading The Silmarillion for the first time, a sensation that’s otherwise completely lost on me these days when I basically can quote passages of it by heart.

it has the very similar names — just these two pages I’m on have a Cunicpert, a Liutpert, Aripert, an Ansfrit, Ansprand, a Grimoald a Raduald and a Garibald, and some of them repeat (hello Aripert II) and are sons of this and that, genealogies that I’m supposed to, presumably, learn in half a line. it also has the very understated sentences that make you think but what happened there, such as 

“Alahis rebelled against the king, [Cunicpert’s father]” → “Cunicpert, who had been in the past linked in friendship with Alahis, negotiated a reconciliation” → “In 688 [Cunicpert’s father] died, and again Alahis put himself at the head of the rebels” → “Cunicpert betrayed him and, with the aid of the clergy and of the Catholic population, soon could retake Pavia and the royal palace” → “the two hosts faced each other in a decisive battle that Cunicpert resolved to his advantage, whereas Alahis there found his death.”

like. that’s the sort of two barebones sentences that people collectively lose their minds over in the Silm. downside, mr Jörg Jarnut doesn’t have half of the poetry of Tolkien on his side — dare I say cause he’s writing a chronicled history for scholarly perusal and not a fictional mythology. still, though. the adventures of Cunicpert continue (for about half a page).

[skyeventide]

in reading this history of the Longobards it’s made clear that tracing their kings’ ancestry to the legendary figures of their first chieftains (who incidentally are two brothers) is a method of legitimisation of kingship and of reinforcement of continuity as a people.

Tolkien’s Aragorn is that, in that he is legitimised by his lineage and in that his identity as a Dúnadan reinforces the continuity of Gondor’s identity as the heirs of Númenor. the problem is that in this case it isn’t an artifice of historiography, because we know that it’s true in the legendarium, Aragorn is the heir of Elros who has mythological blood, and we know this because this is Tolkien’s fiction, despite however many thousands years have passed. 

I don’t know how I feel about that. might need to find an essay about stories that make the myth into a truth. 

[skyeventide]

so this book tells me that the Longobards probably had kings before their descent into Italy since kings are those who “conferred people their cohesion and traditions”, the fact that they aren’t mentioned in the Origo Gentis Langobardorum is due to the fact that apparently they were not noteworthy enough to pass into memory. but then it says that they are “probably” named in the Anglo-Saxon poem Widsith

and nothing else. I’m going feral over this. please EXPAND your claim and tell me about these kings “probably” named in the poem, I’m BEGGING