The Uses of the Middle Ages in Modern European States: History, Nationhood and the Search for Origins

Front Matter....Pages i-viii
Introduction....Pages 1-4
Front Matter....Pages 5-5
Transmission and Translation of Medieval Irish Sources in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries....Pages 7-17
The ‘Decline of Norway’: Grief and Fascination in Norwegian Historiography on the Middle Ages....Pages 18-30
‘Braves Step out of the Night of the Barrows’: Regenerating the Heritage of Early Medieval Finland....Pages 31-51
Interpreting the Nordic Past: Icelandic Medieval Manuscripts and the Construction of a Modern Nation....Pages 52-71
Front Matter....Pages 73-73
A Serious Case of Amnesia: the Dutch and their Middle Ages....Pages 75-87
Medieval Myths and the Building of National Identity: the Example of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg....Pages 88-112
An Era of Grandeur. The Middle Ages in Belgian National Historiography, 1830–1914....Pages 113-135
Front Matter....Pages 137-137
To Whom Does Byzantium Belong? Greeks, Turks and the Present of the Medieval Balkans....Pages 139-151
The Image of the Battle of Kosovo (1389) Today: a Historic Event, a Moral Pattern, or the Tool of Political Manipulation....Pages 152-174
Front Matter....Pages 175-175
Italy’s Various Middle Ages....Pages 177-196
Medievalism, the Politics of Memory and Swiss National Identity....Pages 197-220
The Public Instrumentalization of the Middle Ages in Austria since 1945....Pages 221-244
‘Old Czechs Were Hefty Heroes’: the Construction and Reconstruction of Czech National History in its Relationship to the ‘Great’ Medieval Past....Pages 245-258
Conclusion....Pages 259-262
Back Matter....Pages 263-296