A journey to the promised land : crusading theology in the Historia de profectione Danorum in Hierosolymam (c. 1200)
"Towards the end of the 1190s a Norwegian canon - his name is unknown - composed a dramatic account of a Danish-Norwegian expedition which, as part of the so-called Third Crusade, had left for Jerusalem some years earlier. Since 1187 Jerusalem had been in Muslim hands, and the Danish and Norwegian travellers set out to join in the liberation of the city. They came too late to fight, however, since a peace arrangement had been agreed upon by the Christian and Muslim leaders shortly before their arrival. In spite of this the canon makes the most of the heroic nature of the enterprise, drawing upon a series of literary and theological themes used in connection with crusading in the twelfth century. While the national allegiance of the author and its impact has been a prevailing object of previous research, this book demonstrates the presence of an international literary and theological tradition in the work. It is further argued that the author by appropriating this discourse is able to depict the enterprise as more successful than in fact it was. Though they never actually joined in the fighting for Jerusalem, the members of the expedition are nevertheless depicted as true followers of Christ, and those who die during the journey are hailed as His true martyrs."--BOOK JACKET
Print Book, English, 2001
Museum Tusculanum Press : University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 2001
84 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
9788772897141, 9788763506069, 8772897147, 8763506068
49229013