The ''Annales Almannici'', which are also referred to as the ''Annals of St. Gall'', provide one of the earliest records of Medieval Europe available. The core text of the ''Annales Alamannici'' covers the years 709 through to 799. Spread over several

Swabia Swabia ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of ...

n monasteries, the annals were continued independently in several places, in the

Reichenau Abbey Reichenau Abbey was a Benedictine monastery on Reichenau Island (known in Latin as Augia Dives). It was founded in 724 by the itinerant Saint Pirmin, who is said to have fled Spain ahead of the Moorish invaders, with patronage that included Charl ...

up to 939 (continued by

Hermannus Contractus Blessed Hermann of Reichenau (18 July 1013– 24 September 1054), also known by other names, was an 11th-century Benedictine monk and scholar. He composed works on history, music theory, mathematics, and astronomy, as well as many hymn ...

), in

Abbey of Saint Gall The Abbey of Saint Gall (german: Abtei St. Gallen) is a dissolved abbey (747–1805) in a Catholic religious complex in the city of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The Carolingian-era monastery existed from 719, founded by Saint Othmar on the spot ...

up to 926. The St. Gallen version was continued from 927 to 1059 as the '' Annales Sangallenses maiores''. They depict a limited number of events, in short prose, but their value to scholars is in their medieval representational style.

Context

They are notable for their very short, cursory style and limited narrative. To the modern scholar, they might appear to be incomplete, and for that reason, of limited value. However, in recent years, historians such as Hayden White have argued that the style of the chronicles depict a worldview that is distinctly medieval where "things happen to people rather than one in which people do things." For that reason, they provide insight into the medieval mind and what things the people of the Dark Ages considered important.H. White, “The value of narrativity in the representation of reality,” Critical Inquiry (1980): p. 6.

Sources

*''Annales Alamannici'', ed. W. Lendi, Untersuchungen zurfruhalemannischen Annalistik. Die Murbacher Annalen. (Freiburg, 1971)

References

{{reflist Carolingian historiography German chronicles 8th-century Latin books 9th-century Latin books 10th-century Latin books 11th-century Latin books 8th-century Latin writers 8th-century Frankish writers