Christian Hohenthal: Textens ritualer och historieskrivningens gränser: En undersökning av fyra svenska historieverk från 1400- och 1500-talen

Abstract

The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries witnessed a flourishing of history writing by Swedish authors. This thesis studies four such historical works, namely the Karlskrönika (c. 1452), Ericus Olai’s Chronica regni Gothorum (c. 1471), the Sturekrönika (c. 1497), and Johannes Magnus’s Historia metropolitanae ecclesiae Upsalensis (1536/1557). 

The aim of the study is to elucidate how the authors made use of three forms of ritualised occurrences to comment on the legitimacy of both secular and spiritual leaders. In order to do this, the thesis analyses ritualised time, elec­tions, and funerals. Historians have noted that depictions of rituals in medieval history writing were highly susceptible to politically and ideologically mo­tivated modifications—or even completely invented. In relation to Swedish historio­graphy of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries this topic has, however, previously received limited scholarly interest. Furthermore, by comparing the authors’ accounts with the sources they likely used, the thesis also endeavours to shed light on how and to what degree the authors shaped their accounts to conform to their political and ideological outlook. 

The study shows that authors used ritualised occurrences to thematise the legitimacy of leaders, which is in line with previous observations. In relation to earlier research, the thesis presents a more thorough analysis of what this meant in practice and the nuances and ambiguities connected to these descrip­tions. Generally speaking, these ritualised occurrences provided authors with an opportunity to illustrate the connection between the leader and common­weal of the realm and/or the Church. The analysis shows that there were a variety of ways in which authors could “spin” such occurrences and connect them to specific values that ultimately related to the common good. Not least, the study demonstrates that the descriptions of emotions and frames of mind were important tools when authors gave meaning to these retellings of the past. The analysis also suggests that authors were reluctant to engage in pure invention, at least when writing about ritualised occurrences pertaining to a more recent past.