ABSTRACT
Adam of Bremen, known solely by his work Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, was presumably a canon from a cathedral school in Bavaria or Franconia (Bamberg?). He arrived in Bremen 1066/7 at the request of Archbishop Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen (1043–1072) and became the archbishop’s “expert” in missionary matters. After extensive studies in his new field, he wrote the Descriptio insularum aquilonis, which forms the fourth book of his Gesta. The first three books contain the story of the archbishops, beginning, after an introduction on the Saxons, with the first three bishops of Bremen (-845) (Book 1:11–23). Adam deals extensively with Ansgar (d. 865), the monk of Corvey and missionary of Scandinavia, thereby reproducing the general outlook of Rimbert’s Vita Anskarii in making Ansgar archbishop of Hamburg in 832, having him succeed to the vacant bishopric of Bremen in 847 (1:15–34). For the period ca. 950 to Alebrand (d. 1043) (1:35–63, 2:1–82), Adam had access to sources in the cathedral archive of Bremen concerning ecclesiastical matters, such as lists of suffragan bishops consecrated. But he stresses as a most valuable informant the Danish king Sven Estridsen (1047–1074/ 5), whom he visited in Denmark probably around 1068/9. Missionary bishops returning to Bremen with reports also afforded valuable information. In Book 3:1–71 (3:72–78 is a transitional passage to the Description), Adam, in a grandiose way, creates a portrait of the tragic decline of Archbishop Adalbert and his betrayal, yet faithfulness toward the religious duties of his office. Adam wants to prove that whatever Adalbert did wrong, he never forgot his task to care for the Scandinavian mission, and, therefore, that the archbishopric is indispensable for the spread of the Gospel to Scandinavia.
