Fama and 13th Century Denmark: A New Approach to Old Sources

Abstract

Fama and thirteenth-century Denmark: A new approach to old sources

The Grand Proceedings (1296–1302), were a series of legal disputes between King Erik VI Menved of Denmark and Archbishop Jens Grand of Lund, arbitrated by Pope Boniface VIII, and were concerned with Grand’s alleged complicity with enemies of the kingdom. While the proceedings have traditionally been interpreted in terms of their political outcomes, in this article I shift attention to the legal procedures themselves and the evidentiary role of fama, which encompasses rumour, reputation, and public opinion. I propose a conceptual framework, the ”Fama Trinity”, comprising those three interrelated components, as a window into the legal instrumentalisation of fama in medieval Scandinavia. Drawing on recent scholarship in sociology, legal history, and medieval studies, I argue the three elements exist in a dynamic, reciprocal relationship and together constitute an analytical lens through which to read medieval sources. I trace fama’s evolution from its ambivalent status in Roman law to its codification as a legal instrument following the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), demonstrating how it came to serve as both evidence and a means of political defamation.

Beyond the Grand Proceedings, I consider the broader applicability of the Fama Trinity in northern European medieval studies, and suggest it can shed new light on a range of Scandinavian sources – for example, papal letters and Scandinavian sagas – in particular their potential for the study of medieval mentalities. By attending to its semantic field rather than treating fama as mere rumour or unreliable noise, new vistas open for understanding medieval society’s concerns, anxieties, norms, and collective imaginary.