| Abstrakt: |
Based on the example of King Conrad I’s death, this paper wants to contribute to the question of how medieval historiography chose and arranged its contents. It postulates that chroniclers narrated their histories just like medieval authors of fictional literature by using plot schemes. Before King Conrad I died, Ottonian sources tell us, he had called for his brother and designated the Saxonian Duke Henry I king. Former research saw vast similarities between the sources as either evidence for their reliability, as textual references, or regarded them as written result of an oral tradition at the Ottonian court. A comparison with several ( East-/West- ) Franconian and English narratives about other rulers’ deaths ( e. g. Pepin the Younger, William the Conqueror or Saladin ) shows us that not only Ottonian, but chroniclers in general used the same textual elements, which they arranged in a similar order. One reason for this might be references to the Bible and hagiography. However, since there are no obvious linguistic borrowings tangible between the narratives, the death of Conrad I in the Ottonian sources can be interpreted as a variation of narratives, based on a more widespread scheme used probably all over Latin Europe. This scheme was distributed in different ways: by the use of textual models, but also by the adaption of oral narratives. |
