Theatre Reappears In Bits And Pieces As We Move Onward Into The Tenth Century

The old empire of Charlemagne* crumbles under Viking attacks. But enormous strides in acquiring international culture are being made through a little known and unlikely means, the traveling Jewish trader. In the region of the Crimea the Jewish kingdom of Khazaria* dominates, barring the way of the Vikings advance from the north and Islamic armies from the south. The pagan nations of this region held a great debate on the relative values of current religions and the Jews won. They are invited to rule. Khazaria* occupies the lower reaches of the Volga and northern Caucacus. The multilingual Jews are not carriers of either Christian or Moslem creed and are literate in at least one other language. This makes them eminently suited for foreign trade since they are admitted everywhere. In the geography text, Book of the Roads, there is a chapter entitled "The Routes of the Jewish Merchants Called Radanites." (from the Persian rah'dan meaning "he who knows the way") which describes the incredible range of territory these Jews regularly traveled. Unfortunately, at about this time, China becomes xenophobic (fear of foreigners) and the mongolian Tartars ring China, blocking trade. This change in trade enables Venice to develop trade monopolies and many of the Jews retire from trade to the Spanish islands of Minorca and Majorca where they teach navigation.

This may seem a bit obscure, but it will blossom later with the navigation skills to discover America.

The tenth century is also the time when Flanders (up there in the Low Countries) becomes the center of cloth production for Europe. Obviously they are beginning to become pretty wealthy too.

900's - A secular play, Ecbasis Captivi* has as its subject matter stories from Aesop's Fables*. 911 The Vikings in France (known as Normans) under their leader, Rollo, appear on the lower

Seine. Charles the Simple*, king of the West Franks, offers to give them a grant of land if they become Christians. They do and he does, and their territory comes to be called Normandy (the land of the Normans.) They settle in, learn French, and will figure greatly in much later fighting and conquering.

*911 - We are beginning to hear about secular entertainment at Christmas revels. There are fun things like a popular ventriloquist farce of late antiquity, Comedia Bile* that features a bunch of talking fish. This one survives into the fifteenth century as one of the star acts of the mimes*.

912 The Russian Vikings under Oleg* have a confederacy of towns and provinces ruled by Viking princes and, for the time being, have the eastern Slavs under control.

c. 925 At this time we find the earliest extant reference to the trope*, an Easter church recitation of dialog between the Angels and the three Marys at Christ's tomb:

Angels: Whom seek ye in the tomb, O Christians? The three Marys: Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified, O Heavenly Beings. Angels: He is not here, he is risen as he foretold. Go and announce that he is risen from the tomb.*

10th century Liturgical Drama (performed by and for the clergy) is widely done in Benedictine monasteries, especially in France (Limoges and Fleury), Switzerland (St. Gall), Germany (Richenau) and Spain (Ripoll.)

930 The Viking settlement on Iceland has at least twenty thousand people and a democratic government, the Althing*, an all island parliament.

Theatre Reappears In Bits And Pieces As We Move Onward Into The Tenth Century