HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

238 LEAH SHOPKOWconsistent with medieval learned treatments of the Roman gods ofantiquity. 99 We may also talk about the incorporation of materialsthat may not have been memory but which were widespread, suchas the use of epic, for example, the way epic deeds are set into theGesta consulum Andegavorum’s account of Geoffrey Grisegonelle. 100 Atthe other extreme, in some cases the contents of these histories maynot have resided in the brain of any person before they took shapein the mind of the writer, either under the influence of a researchedhistorical record or through invention. 101It can, of course, be very difficult to tell precisely from where thecontents of these histories come. To give one example, scholars havebeen arguing for some time about whether Dudo of Saint-Quentin’smaterial was composed of family memories passed to the historianby his patrons or whether it contains mostly constructions by thehistorian. 102 Clearly, however, some genealogies and dynastic historiesdrew upon the author’s research. This seems to have been thecase with the Welf genealogies and was certainly the case with theGrandes chroniques de France. Gislebert of Mons, although an eyewitness,also drew upon the charter record. Lambert of Ardres certainlyhad at least read some historical texts—Noble Flanders at the veryleast—and perhaps charters as well. Research in this sense mustinclude orally circulating material as well. When the author of theGesta consulum Andegavorum included quasi-epic materials on the reignof Geoffrey Grisegonelle, he might have gotten that material frommembers of the family, but he might equally well have encounteredthem in some other oral form.Even if we suppose that the core of the dynastic history containednothing but the memories of the family, someone either within thefamily or within its circle of power would have to have decided towrite this material down. We have to assume that for most members99Veyne (1988).100Halphen and Poupardin, Chroniques des comtes d’Anjou et des seigneurs d’Amboise,37 ff. and 38 n. 1. Still, this “epic” story is recounted in a text liberally strewnwith classical reminiscences (41 n. 1).101See Althoff (1988), for a conjectural reconstruction of the genesis of severalnoble genealogies through the labors of learned compilers.102This argument is tied into the larger question of whether the Normans werestill “Scandinavian” in their institutions. For the argument that they were and thatDudo’s work contains extensive Nordic memories, see Searle (1984); van Houts(1984); for the argument that Dudo based his work on Latin examples, particularlyVergil’s Aeneid, see Shopkow (1997), 150; Bates (1982), 15 ff.; Albu (1994), 111–18.