ABSTRACT
The image of the peasantry in clerical texts is steeped in distrust, contempt and pity. Out of all the terms used to denote ‘peasant’, only civis and vicinus (both mean ‘neighbour’, ‘full member of a settlement’) express the peasantry’s own view, as belonging to a collectivity of cohabitants. Rusticus, on the other hand, denotes ‘heathen’, ‘uncultivated’ or ‘peasant’; the latter often connoting ‘unreliability’.
The majority of the peasant population followed in the aristocracy’s footsteps in what was surely, in first instance, merely a nominal conversion to Christianity during and after the Frankish expansion. Few documents have survived concerning the repressed pagan beliefs. A cruel penalty clause in the Lex Frisionum is directed at the violation of pagan sanctuaries. Christian texts from the world of mission and pastoral care mention some non-Christian beliefs and rituals and hybrid forms of pagan and Christian practices. However, ‘in-depth’ Christianization was a protracted process. In the early eleventh century we still come across several openly articulated expressions of rejection of the Christian faith.
In the early Middle Ages the vast majority of people, including the peasantry, communicated orally and passed down by word of mouth their knowledge, memories and stories to the next generation. No text has come down to us in written script of the orally produced and transmitted literature of the Low Countries from this period. Narrative motifs drawn from contemporary oral traditions do however feature in hagiographical texts, often in a slightly revised Christianised version. In the ninth century elements drawn from the world of legends were thus included in vitae and miracula. Towards the end of the eleventh century, two folktales were committed to writing by learned men, a very succinct version of the tale of Red Riding Hood and – much richer in narrative material – the burlesque tale about the peasant known as One-Ox.
The few vernacular words from the spoken language that have found their way into the otherwise Latin texts notably and predominantly belong to the world of agriculture, for example terms related to water management and names of animals and plants. The geographical names from the early Middle Ages were drawn from a living vocabulary. These too contain multiple references to agricultural practices, for example words denoting meadow or field, as well as types of dwellings commonly found in rural areas, private farmsteads, hamlets and villages.
