ABSTRACT
This article explores the cultural ramifications framing the composition of Adam’s Gesta, contextualizing both his work and the circum-Baltic missionary efforts amid the theological and philosophical concerns that were at the forefront of eleventh-century intellectual discourse. The fact that Adam’s target audiences were ecclesiastical authorities, adept at recognizing subtle intertextual nuances, strongly suggests there is much more to his written endeavour than mere evangelizing. What was driving such a keen interest in the North among this demographic? And further: what was the source of this simultaneous fascination and repulsion?
Engaging the concept of horror vacui as a critical apparatus, this article traces the early medieval development of this idea across multiple cultural strata, putting it in dialogue with the unease and urgency regarding the North which colours Adam’s account. I contend that the missionary efforts of the Hamburg-Bremen diocese are no mere attempts to colonize, but rather reflect deeper eschatological anxieties of living on the very edge of the known. The ultimate northern periphery emerges as a startlingly central stage for the unfolding of world history, exuding a gravitational pull of apocalyptic proportion, the cosmological ramifications of which were not lost on Gesta’s contemporaries. As shown, Adam’s account curates these medieval clerical attitudes towards the Scandinavian North in some of their earliest iterations.
