Ansgar, Rimbert and the Forged Foundations of Hamburg-Bremen

Ansgar and Rimbert, ninth-century bishops, missionaries, and fixtures of early medieval history, were clever forgers who wove a complex tapestry of myths about themselves and the diocese that came to be centered at Hamburg and Bremen. This book is the first to overturn the scholarly consensus on the basic reliability of the early sources for their northern missions. In so doing it revises our understanding of Carolingian expansion after Charlemagne, and provides valuable new insight into the political and ecclesiastical history of early medieval Europe.