Franks, Northmen and Slavs - Identities and State Formation in Early Medieval Europe
In recent decades, historians attempting to understand the transition from the world of late antiquity with its unitary imperial system to the medieval Europe of separate kingdoms have become increasingly concerned with the role of early medieval gentes, or peoples, in the end of the former and the constitution of the latter. Eleven specialists examine here the role of ethnic identity in the formation of medieval polities on the periphery of the Frankish world in the eighth through eleventh centuries.
What a stunning book this is. Jan Perkowski has selected from various primary and secondary sources, narrowing the field to precisely those areas in which the original Slavic vampire was "born" in men's minds, and shows the wealth of material available to those who seriously wish to research this dark area of human imagination.
THE GREAT family of Slav peoples, which occupies most of eastern and south-eastern Europe and the northern portion of the continent of Asia, is composed of East Slavs (Great Russians, Ukrainians, Byelorussians); West Slavs (Poles, Czechs, Lusations); and South Slavs (Slovenes, Groats, Serbs, Bosnians and Montenegrins, Macedonians and Bulgars). Divided today into five states , the mass of approximately 250,000,000 Slavs is particularly dense and homogeneous from the Oder to the Ural River, and from the Adriatic to the Black Sea.
