Heroes in aula Dei: Commemorating Wars and the Fallen in the Time of Charlemagne

Attraverso l'analisi delle fonti storico-letterarie coeve, l'articolo affronta il caso per molti versi particolare dei caduti in guerra nell'età di Carlo Magno e si sofferma in specifico sulla creazione di un nuovo modello ideologico di guerriero cristiano a partire da alcune figure rilevanti quali, per esempio, i prefetti Rolando e Geroldo.

The age of Charlemagne was defined by war, and yet these wars never led to any particular forms of celebration: to celebrate would have meant to allow the possibility of something other than victory, and – since the actions of the King of the Franks and the will of God had become indistinguishable – this could not be done. For the Franks, therefore, the time before a war, or battle, was more important than the aftermath: it was before fighting that the sacred alliance with God had to be reaffirmed, through prayer, fasting and penitence. This meant that there was no space for a cult of the fallen because a victorious army had to be shown to be an army whose ranks included no fatalities. Losses could only be admitted off the actual battlefield, inflicted by ‘perfidious’ enemies. Anyone – of high rank – who died thus could be publicly remembered, but their achievements in battle were not commemorated: these men were celebrated as Christian heroes, figures in whom the bellic and moral virtues united. The Duke, Eric; the Prefect, Gerold and the seneschal, Eggihard: all three fell, all three were heroes in aula Dei