Source tactics 1

Annals of Xanten, 845-853

________________________________________

The Mid-Ninth century is often taken as the low point of Western European civilization. The Annals of the Abbey of Xanten, (near the mouth of the River Rhine), express the situation.

845

Twice in the canton of Worms there was an earthquake; the first in the night following Palm Sunday, the second in the holy night of Christ's resurrection. In the same year the heathen broke in upon the Christians at many points, but more than twelve thousand of then were killed by the Frisians. Another party of invaders devastated Gaul; of these more than six hundred men perished. Yet owing to his indolence, Charles [the Bald, the rule of France] agreed to give them many thousands of pounds of gold and silver if they would leave Gaul, and this they did. Nevertheless the cloisters of the most of the saints were destroyed, and many of the Christians were lead away captive.

846

According to their custom the Northmen plundered eastern and western Frisia and burned down the town of Dordrecht, with two other villages, before the eyes of Lothair [The Emperor], who was then in the castle of Nimwegen, but could not punish the crime. The Northmen, with their boast filled with immense booty, including both men and goods, returned to their own country.

At this same time, as no one can mention or hear without great sadness, the mother of all the churches, the basilica of the apostle Peter, was taken and plundered by the Moors, or Saracens, who had already occupied the region of Beneventum. The Saracens, moreover, slaughtered all the Christians whom they found outside the walls of Rome, either within or without this church. They also carried men and women away prisoners. They tore down, among many others, the altar of the blessed Peter, and their crimes from day to day bring sorrow to Christians. Pope Sergius departed life this year.

From James Harvey Robinson, ed., Readings in European History: Vol. I: (Boston:: Ginn and co., 1904), 158-161, Reprinted in Leon Bernard and Theodore B. Hodges, eds. Readings in European History, (New York: Macmillan, 1958), 95-96.

- shows how the vikings conduct their raids and the tactics to maximise profit

- shows that they were paid off to leave Gaul and that they left after being paid

- they have a tactic of taking slaves, this is to improve the quality of life back home as due to the climate workers are needed to increase production

-  this source was likely written as a record of attacks on the land and actions taken because of these attacks - probably written by a scribe in service of the church
-the values of the source were probably religious and looked down on the Norsemen as heretics

-origin - primary source - written at time
- the source is almost entirely objective with the only noticeable bias being that the author referring to the destruction of the basilica of peter being plunderer and various other religious crimes