Gillis, Bryan Matthew, Religious Horror and Holy War in Viking Age Francia, (Renovatio – Studies in the Carolingian World), Budapest: Trivent Publishing, 2021

Bryan Gillis’s book is the first of a new series of books on the Carolingian world that seeks to shed new light on one of the most fundamental periods of medieval Europe. The author, who is also the main editor of this series, teaches early medieval history at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. In his book, Gillis explores the use of what he labels “horror rhetoric” by West-Francian authors in response to the misery befalling the kingdom from the 880s until the 920s, which were a result of Viking incursions and the Christian soldiers’ response to them. Due to the sudden nature of these incursions, Christian soldiers often had to muster abruptly and would resort to robbing fellow Christians in a desperate attempt to gain supplies so they could respond to these raids. In the book’s preface (1 – 4), which serves as a brief introduction to the work, Gillis argues that the use of tropes of religious horror to depict plundering Christian soldiers as monsters “served as a form of spiritual weaponry in the clergy’s attempts to correct and condemn wayward military men” (1). Monsters could serve many purposes in medieval texts and an investigation of the use of these tropes might give insights into the Carolingian perception of these phenomena (2 – 3).

The book is structured into four parts in the form of case studies. It should be noted that the arguments are presented in an essay-style “[that] suggests historical and intellectual collections rather than making a more traditional argument” (3). Section one (7 – 31) focuses on Carloman II’s (r. 879 – 884) use of horror as a trope to graphically condemn his sinning and plundering soldiers in 884 in his capitulary of Ver from 884. Carloman had been engaging the Northmen since 879 and framed this struggle as part of the Christian struggle against evil, which existed both in pagan Northmen as well as in Christian sinners. Christian sins such as plundering fellow Christian subjects caused divine wrath to be exacted through the Vikings (10 – 12). This was based on a long-standing tradition, which, as the author points out, can be found in writings from the Church Fathers and Gregory of Tours (16 – 18), but the Carolingian’s use of horrifying rhetoric to describe these soldiers as monsters increased the impact of these messages (18 – 19). Part two (35 – 64) centres around hymns in which the faithful attempt to protect themselves from enemies within the church through prayer, using horror rhetoric to reveal the dreadful nature of the offenders and to call upon supernatural entities for protection and punishment (35). Horror rhetoric was intended as a trope to move not only the mortal audience but also the deity to protect his flock (64).

Segment three (67 – 97) reveals how Abbo of Saint-Germain-des-Prés emphasised the heroism of Count Odo and Bishop Gauzlin of Paris, in conjunction with the supernatural aid of Saint-Germain, in his epic Bella Parisiacae Urbis. This poem from the 890s covers the Viking siege of Paris of 885 – 886. Gillis argues that Abbo’s vivid portrayal of gruesome details of war and how it was experienced by the soldiers formed an integral part of their heroic exploits, alongside the importance of praying when earthly military efforts were insufficient (67 – 68). The last part of the book (101 – 131) again focuses on Abbo of Saint-Germain, who created a collection of sermons for simple priests in which he offered clear explanations of the Gospels and other helpful things to salvage the souls of his readers and listeners (101 – 102). Two of these seem to have been directed at an audience of soldiers, and another one at a priestly readership, because the latter only contains a condemnation of robbing soldiers. On the contrary, in the first two sermons, Abbo attempts to convince the soldiers to return to the proper ways of Christendom and redirect their hostility from their fellow Christians to the pagan enemy. He does so by respectively offering them a chance to return to the church’s fold to potentially become martial heroes and by horrifying soldiers about their fate in the afterlife if they would not repent from their ways (103 – 104).

All in all, these sections comprise well-developed arguments and provide valuable insights into the use of “horror rhetoric” by West-Francian authors during the late Carolingian age. A broad range of different types of sources demonstrates the extent of the use of horrifying tropes in various kinds of material such as epic poetry, hymns, sermons and capitularies. It shows how war shakes societies to their very cores, resulting in soldiers plundering even their own people, and how clerical authors, or even King Carloman II himself, perceived and responded to these atrocities, making it a valuable study for those interested in Carolingian cultures of war. Gillis contextualizes his findings on the Carolingians in the tradition of older Frankish writers, such as Gregory of Tours, and the Church Fathers, enabling him to point out how exactly the Carolingians built upon and innovated these literary fundaments. For some, the author’s use of the concept of holy war might raise some eyebrows (cf. 1, 3, 72, 103, 108, 130). This idea recently received criticism from Hans-Werner Goetz who argues that it is an artificial modern construct since, in the thoroughly Christian worldview of early medieval authors, almost every war was perceived through religious criteria. It would, therefore, have been fruitful had the author engaged with Goetz’s arguments. However, this is but a minor quibble in an excellent book, which offers an engaging read into the dramatisation of warfare through horrifying means.

The book’s essay-style chapters combined with the lack of a lengthy introduction and conclusion, aside from the preface and some brief comments at the end of the last part (1 – 4, 127 – 131), leave it up to the reader to determine the main arguments of the book. This invites the reader to choose which chapters focus on material that is especially interesting to them, but it might render it less suitable for students at the beginning of their study. Nevertheless, for scholars as well as advanced students this study will provide a stimulating read, generously available in open access through the publisher’s website.