Global Medieval Sourcebook A Digital Repository of Medieval Texts

Making History: Chronicles, Legends and Anecdotes

This collection brings together works of history by medieval authors. Some concern the writer's own time, while others reach back much further into the past, to where legend, history, and religion become more difficult to distinguish.

An example of a medieval historian writing about his own age is Fernão Lopes, whose prologue to the Chronicle of King Peter is included in this collection. Other texts seek to tell the entire history of the world, including material we would usually consider religious rather than historical (examples of this include the Chronicle [Prologue] by Jakob Twinger and the Prologue to the Book of Histories). Yet other texts retell events in ancient or legendary history, for example, the Trojan War or the death of King Arthur of Britain. Reading these works can help us to understand both how the genre of historical writing developed through time and how medieval people thought about the history of the world: its patterns, its form, and even its meaning.

An account of how the Cypriots gained victory over Alexandria

ذكر كيفية ظفر القبرسي بالإسكندرية

Chronicle [Prologue]

Cronica [vorrede]

Chronicle of King Peter I [Prologue]

Chronica del Rey D. Pedro [Prologo]

Death of King John

Smrt krále Jana

Everything's destined toward demise

كل شيء مصيره للزوال

First Decade of Asia, Chapter 1

Primeira Década da Asia, Capitulo I

How Sir John of Acre, butler of France, who was on guard, was deceived b...

Comment mesire Jehan d'Acre, bouteillier de France qui faisait le guet fu dec...

Of the names of the Prussian false gods

Vonn dem namen der Preuschen abgöttir

On Bohmit [Muhammad] the Heretic

Ѡ Бохмитѣ еретицѣ

On Roman Origins of the Lithuanians

Сталосѧ єсть воплощеє сн҃а Бж҃ьего

On the Origin of the Pastoral Care

De origine Regulae pastoralis

Prologue to Republics of the World

Prologo a las Republicas del Mundo

Prologue to the Book of Histories

Li prologue ou livre des estoires

Regarding an outrageous incident at the University of Paris

De enormis casu in Universitate Parisiensis

Song IV "Go quickly, little letter"

Carmen IV "Cartula, perge cito"

The Burial of Arthur

Claddedigaeth Arthur

The Captivity of Peter Perény, István Majlád and Bálint Török

Príni Péternek, Majlát Istvánnak és Terek Bálintnak fogságokról

The Lay of Ludwig

Das Ludwigslied

The Loss of Buda and Captivity of Bálint Török

Buda veszéséröl és Terek Bálint fogságárol

The Miracle of the Mother of God of the Sign (The Tale of the Battle bet...

слⷡ҇о ѡ҆ ꙁнаменїи ст҇ыѧ бц҇а в лⷮ҇ѣ • ҂ѕ̑ • х̑ • о҇ꙁ е • сътво

The Song of Gutenberg

Gutenberglied

The Tale of Dracula the Voivode

сказанїе ѡ дракоулѣ воеводѣ

The Tale of Solomon and Kitrovas

ѡ҆ Китоврасѣ ѿ палеи

The Testament of Magnus

Рᲂукописание , магнᲈша королѧ свѣискаго

The Trojan War

Der Trojanerkrieg

Tuán mac Cairill—it was heard

Tuán mac Cairill ro clos

“Can you make out twilight’s ruins?”

“هل عرفت الغداة من أطلال”