Criminal History, 198
For the context of these translations click here.
PDFs of entries 1-183 (several of Karlheinz Deschner’s
books abridged into two) can be read here and here.
Arnulf storming the Norman defences on the River Dyle, 891 (engraving).
‘… a battle cry to the heavens’
Arnulf, who had been characterised by the battles in the south-eastern Marches, had been entrusted with the administration of the old Slovenian duchy of Carinthia, his actual power base in the east, by his father, the Bavarian king Carloman, shortly after 876 after the removal of several border counts; hence his nickname ‘of Carinthia’. However, while he was able to expand in Lower Pannonia, he initially failed (with his paralysed father) in the northern Danube region due to opposition from within Bavaria. His opponents, first Count Ermbert of Isengau, then Margrave Aribo, won the support of Arnulf’s powerful relatives, Louis the Younger and Charles III the Fat, his father’s brothers, who were able to assert themselves in Bavaria.
After all, Arnulf had learnt political tactics, he had learnt to bide his time and, of course, to fight. He had proven himself as a warhorse, including at Elsloo in 882 as commander of the Bavarian army against the Normans, where he had admittedly been unable to achieve anything. At the same time, he defeated them in mid-October 891 at Leuven on the Dyle (now Belgium). Incidentally, this was a declared act of revenge. Shortly before, in June, an ‘army of Christians, oh pain, as a result of his sins’ had been defeated at the Geule and one of the army leaders, Archbishop Sunderold of Mainz, appointed by Arnulf, had fallen (Regino von Prüm).
But now, at the Dyle, ‘God gave them strength from heaven’. This was obvious as the Alemanni, who had also been mobilised, had previously turned back with excuses and ‘crept back home from the king’. But how pithily he urged ‘the noble lords of the Franks’: ‘You men, since you honour the Lord and have always been invincible when you have defended your homeland under God´s grace, take courage when you think of avenging the pious blood of your parents that has been shed against your enemies, who after all are quite pagan and frenzied… Now, warriors, now that you have the criminals themselves before your eyes, follow me… Not to avenge our dishonour, but that of the Almighty, we attack our enemies in God´s name’ (Annales Fuldenses).
The pious Franks now ‘raised a battle cry to heaven’ and were promptly answered, which is not always the case. But now that ‘the Christians were attacking with murder’, they threw the pagans ‘in heaps’ into the river, ‘by the hundreds and thousands… so that their corpses dammed up the water’ [emphasis added by Ed.]. Two kings, Siegfried and Gottfried, were killed, sixteen royal standards were sent to Bavaria in triumph and processions were ordered. Arnulf himself ‘marched with the whole army, singing praises to God, who gave such victory to his own…’
For, yes, indeed, only uno homine had lost the Christian side (what a devil that must have been!), but the other tanta milia hominum Catholic historiography! There were ‘criminals’ there but at the same time, as the annalist proudly emphasises to enhance his achievement, ‘the Danes fought, the bravest of the Normans’, who had ‘never before’ been defeated in an entrenchment. For centuries, people in Leuven celebrated this marvellous victory, since the Normans had at least spared the East Frankish Empire (a final raid to Bonn and Prüm the following year aside).
It was a marvellous year in general.
For in 891, when Bishop Embricho of Regensburg died old and ‘happy’, Regensburg also burned down: ‘by divine vengeance, suddenly and miraculously engulfed in flames, burned on 10 August with all buildings, including churches, except the house of St. Emmeram the Martyr and the church of St. Cassian, which, although located in the middle of the city, were protected against the fire by God’. There, divine vengeance devoured (almost) the entire city, including churches; there, however, two church buildings were saved ‘for God’s sake’ (Annales Fuldenses).
O this marvellous work of the Lord!
‘The paths are often crooked and yet straight,
on which you let the children go to you;
there it often looks wondrous,
but in the end your high counsel triumphs.’