Henry of Livonia and Balthasar Russow: The chronicler as literary artist

Abstract

As vehicles designed for the primary purpose of recording and examining human history, chronicles do not readily invite literary treatment ; with a few notable exceptions they have rarely received it. Generally blunt and prosaic records of facts and events arranged in order of time of occurrence, chronicles have tended, in matters of presentation, to remain doggedly faithful to the restrictions inherent in the Greek root chronos , 'time.' They are usually the first form of historical writing to appear in any culture. In England, for example, both the Anglo-Saxon and medieval Peterborough chronicles, in spite of a certain stylistic vigor, fail to attract the serious historian: they are for the most part primitive and formless testimonials to the human impulse to record events, and the naive sense of cause and effect which they demonstrate radically limits an understanding of even the simplest forms of power. Having dutifully listed dates, places, and occurrences, the earliest chroniclers hesitate to shape, much less probe, history: there is no proportioning according to later historical importance, nor do the earnest clerical recorders pause at crucial moments to examine in depth the characters or motives of those who mold the events which they list. In examining the work of the earliest chroniclers the reader also feels that their conception of their role defeats not only utility but also pleasure. It is true, of course, that the historian, unlike other writers, bears the burden of a primary responsibility to discover and state the truth of things, without regard for either literary effect or the demands of bored