Monks Tell Tales
Monks Tell Tales
This chapter analyzes the kidnapping of Maiolus as it appears in texts written by Cluniac monks in the early eleventh century. These comprise the three earliest accounts of the life of Abbot Maiolus (ca. 1000–1030) and the Five Books of Histories (Historiarum libri quinque) written in the 1040s by the monastic historian Rodulfus Glaber. The chapter illustrates how the telling of the story changed over time, explains why these changes occurred, and deduces what these changes reveal about the spread of knowledge of Muslim peoples and their religion in northern Europe. In the end, none of the hagiographers were attached to an impartial retelling of the events; instead, each of them recounted the abduction episode to fulfill the expectations of his respective audience and to promote his own individual devotional enterprise.
Keywords: Maiolus abduction, Cluniac monks, Five Books of Histories, Historiarum libri quinque, Rodulfus Glaber, Muslim peoples
Cornell Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
