Liber Historiae Francorum - review

Winning the right call himself first, Bernard S. Bachrach enables us to view one of the few original Latin narrative histories, Liber Historiae Francorum, scribed during Merovingian Gaul translated into English by Bachrach himself.

Inviting us to view his translation in the context of understanding the late seventh century man who wrote it, Bachrach gives a nod to the creative restraints and censorship such a literate person may have had to succumb.

In Latin, sapiens means “a wise man”. Given the author of this story is unknown, for the purpose of this review I will call him Sapiens.

“Let us set out the beginnings of the Kings” Sapiens opens as he relates the origins of the Frankish tribes. Beginning the history, as told in the old oral tradition, he relates how the few Trojans who survived the Greek invasions fled north to Sicambria and their established their new home. Eventually, he relates, they win a reputation among the Romans as the “Franks” which meant “Fierce”.

Assigning word fame to each King, Sapiens pauses at Merovech, the founding namesake of the famed Merovingian King line of the Franks. Describing the saga when Merovech allies with the Romans and fellow Germanic tribes, he proudly tells the tale of this fierce Frank who set Attila and his Huns on their heals in defeat.

Ancient Gossip, intrigue, and romance are related by Sapiens, many which are corroborated in other texts of the time period. We hear of the womanizing behaviors of one King Childeric and his eventual love affair with the neighboring Thuringian Queen Basina whom becomes his wife and bears the next brace of Kings. We hear of the dance between King Clovis and Queen Clothilde as she eventually persuades him to abandon his Pagan Gods for Christianity. Even though baptism is purported to have resulted in the death two infant Merovingian offspring, 3000 of his warlords are consecrated along with him. Sapiens quotes the concentrating bishop as he entreats Clovis to: “. . .adore what you have burned, burn what you a have adored. . .”
We get a peek into the actual taming of the tribes’ psyche when one trusted roman counselor convinces King Clovis to ask for tribute “. . .instead of laying waste to the fields, despoiling the meadows, cutting the vines. . .”
In Clovis’ epitaph, Sapiens professes “He killed a great many kings and a great number of his relatives.”

A subsequent emergent Merovingian King Clothar is documented seeking savage retribution when Sapiens reports he `. . .went through all of Thuringia and depopulated it. . .’ We can only surmise slaughter and mayhem.

In the next brace of Kings Sapiens surfaces the infamous Merovingian blood feud between Queens Brunhilda and Fredegunda depicting numerous murders and tortures committed at their command. One titillating fact surfaces, not known in other texts, when Fredeguda’s husband, King Chilperic, catches her unawares, and discovers her love affair with a certain Duke. Sapiens pulls no punches and professes actual quotes of the Lady’s words when she instigates the immediate murder of her husband before he can seek retribution, somehow laying blame on her sworn enemy, Queen Brunhilda. Also shocking is Sapiens’ statement, if as fact, that Queen Brunhilda murders her own son-King and grandsons, after a family dispute.

Among generations of these kings a surreal norm is unearthed by Sapiens: murders of King after King with the scramasax; Kings taking their wives sisters in their beds; Saint’s relics producing magical vengeance or benevolence upon of Kings depending on the happenstance; wives, sisters, mothers and consorts enjoying amazing influence and counsellorship with their Merovingian lords; Patricide, torture, assassination, tonsure. . . .

Adventure, romance, intrigue, and bloodshed show the best and worst of our Caucasian ancestors through Sapiens’ somewhat censored tale.

We must award Sapiens a 5+ Star review for an amazing first hand saga that survives and is still read 1300+ years after the demise of its author. I can’t help but wonder what he and other fellow scribes might have dared set to word-fame, but was then erased and retribution paid for in blood. . . .

The recipe for taming the Caucasian tribes. . .

During the fifth through the seventh century with the demise of Roman Imperial power Germanic Kings across Europe, specifically the Merovingian clan of the Franks, emerged as clear leaders rivaling all others in fierceness and ability to subjugate.

It was an era when Pagan conversion to Christianity was at its peak and the Patriarchal Catholic Church was up to such a challenge. Their strategy was to produce a quick supply of amazing spiritual avengers for God in the form of saints revealing a mystic past remarkably similar to a pagan god or goddess solicited for comparable miraculous interventions. Methodically they gained a strong foothold in the Germanic and English Kingdoms.

Thus the tribes were slowly taught to fear this new God and his Saints to get them under control with the lash and yoke of superstition. . .

Historically European tribes had little issue with changing direction and adopting other customs and beliefs while organically twisting the dials to achieve personal goals. Clerics over history met their demise quickly if they could not adapt to the symbiotic evolution of culture. As an early adopter of Christianity, Caucasians molded the religion to fit their spiritual needs as civilization became more sophisticated and less superstitious.

The Esoteric Christian movements believe when what was unknown and unknown and unknown becomes known and known and known, we eventually snowball to the present where science and physics give us a mere peek into God’s infinitesimal intelligent design of the universe, no less than the realities of Adam and Eve concepts did to our less sophisticated ancestors.

Mary Doria Russell creates a very entertaining experience in her futuristic depiction of the taming of a similar Feudal society in her novels “The Sparrow” and “Children of God”. They are real page turners – I highly recommend you pick up both of them at the same time so you won’t have to wait to find out what happens in “Children of God” when you ware done with “The Sparrow”.

An image within a name. . .

Alot of people ask about the names in the Merovingian tales that I weave. Some have a hard time keeping them all strait. I’d like to respond with a short story about my father’s mother. . . .

 My father, who’s ancestral roots lie in Denmark, lost his mother when he was only a few days old to “birthing fever”.

A few worn pictures and tales from the relatives who raised him was all he has ever known of his mother. Dad confessed to me, one time, that he was disappointed in his mother’s name: Gertrude. Reason? The name invoked  an image of akward clumsiness in his mind. . .not beauty or grace, which is how he would prefer to remember his mother. Regardless of the few pictures he possesses from the late 1920’s showing a tall, lean,  neatly dressed woman tending her family and posing for portraits, he could not get passed the name.  If he could only have known the images such a name would have conjured among our tribal ancestors. . . .

Like native Americans the Germanic tribes attributed an exemplar meaning when naming a child. According to Dr. Kees C. Nieuwenhuijsen, the following patterns were applied:

 The Germanic tribal name consisted of two roots. The term for the first part is protothema or prothema, and the second part is the deuterothema.

•  Any root word (see Nieuwenhuijsen’s table of roots) can be used for the first part of the name, for both masculine and feminine names.
• The second part has to be gender specific. 
• The second part of a feminine name can not be a weapon however in the earlier centuries many women had warlike names.
• No rhymes between the first and the second part is allowed.
• The  second part could not start with a vowel.

When choosing a name Parents tried to express characteristics that they hoped for in their child. Early Germanic tribal religions embraced reincarnation. One can wonder if the repetition of the names within the Merovingian dynasty were attributed to the claim of a re-birth within the line.

Some common naming roots:

My paternal grandmother, whom my father and I never knew, was blessed by her parents with a name depiciting a woman holding a spear. . .with power and strength. . .both trusted and beloved. . .Ger-trude.   In my minds eye I now see a fierce goddess, beautiful and proud, brave and formidable. . .a name which a young man could have truely been proud.

The Age of the Merovingians. . .Europe Without Borders

Imagine the complete collapse of a civilized society. The riverbanks of law, order, and economic stability have been breached. A powerful people burst over the former banks like a raging river in full flood. . .
One fierce Pagan family line emerges as clear leaders in mayhem of Caucasian tribal dominion. . .the Merovingian Line of Kings and the women that they call wife, consort, mother, daughter, sister. . . .
It was a Europe without borders and laid the foundation for those who would someday be defined as leaders of the modern world.

“The time for extracting a lesson from history is ever at hand for those who are wise.”
Demosthenes,
Athenian orator(384-322 BC)

M3 motorway through the Tara-Skryne valley

There is a lot of buzz on the potential loss of ancient sacred archeological sites within the Tara-Kyrne valley as a result of the M3 motorway under construction in Ireland. As an ancient sacred Caucasian tribal spiritual center such a place’s fate is surely larger than the whims of Irish Politicians. . . .

Notibly those folks could learn a lesson or two from our Native American archaeological preservation laws. . .