Anchor year
842
An oath in two tongues.
On 14 February 842, Louis the German and Charles the Bald swore mutual aid against their brother Lothar. Nithard recorded the oaths in a form of early French and in Old High German. The political partition is often dated to Verdun in 843. This year holds the spoken record.
Is a recorded oath a source object, or only a prelude to the treaty?
Strasbourg · 14 February 842
An oath in two tongues
Louis the German and Charles the Bald swore so the assembled troops could understand. Nithard wrote the words down. The legal partition is often dated to Verdun in 843. This year holds the spoken record. 843 remains the treaty.
TONGUE
The Oaths of Strasbourg
Two Carolingian brothers swore in each other’s language so the assembled troops could understand. The written record is among the earliest substantial texts in a Romance vernacular and in a German vernacular. The empire’s legal split is the Treaty of Verdun, 843.
Before
Louis the Pious had died in 840. Civil war among his sons.
Why
To bind two factions against a third brother. Language was the instrument of trust.
Who
Louis and Charles; their armies; Nithard, a cousin and historian.
Louis the German · Charles the Bald · Nithard
What
A public oath, written down, in two spoken languages of the army.
How
Each king spoke the other’s tongue. Nithard preserved the words.
The hinge
The hinge is speech that had to be understood across a line that was not yet a border.
Where, and when
Strasbourg, on the Rhine. 14 February 842.
14 February 842 · Strasbourg
What they knew
They knew they were splitting a father’s house. They did not know they were depositing a language monument.
What they could not know
Later Romance philology, or that 843 would outrank them in schoolbooks.
Source object
Nithard, Histories, III.5
A near-contemporary Latin history quoting the vernacular oaths.
The object survives.
First record
Nithard, composed in the 840s.
After
Verdun, 843, partitioned the realm. The oaths remain the spoken object.
Later retelling
A birth certificate of French and German. The certificate is later pedagogy.
Limit
Verdun is the legal neighbor. Hiding 843 would fatten 842.
What it does not prove
Does not make 42 a language century. 843 remains the treaty.
Why it entered
Included as an independently dated source object in language. Not because 42 is a word-number.
How we know
- 1. Nithard. Histories, book III, chapter 5. Near-contemporary record of the Oaths of Strasbourg, 14 February 842, quoting early Romance and Old High German.
Method
independent firsthard
Not important to the existing work before this search.
The aperture
Independent-first for language and political ritual. The neighbor 843 is not weaker as a treaty year.
Regions checked
- Europe
- Middle East and North Africa
- East Asia
- South Asia
- Africa
- the Americas
- Central Asia
Included / excluded
- Included: The Oaths
- Excluded: Treaty of Verdun as a 842 event. Verdun is 843.
41 | 42 | 43
Same century. Same research threshold. Matched frames. Neither pane brighter except that the middle year is the selected aperture.
841
Neighbor
Battle of Fontenoy (841) among the brothers. Neighbor is not quieter.
842
Aperture
Independent-first for language and political ritual. The neighbor 843 is not weaker as a treaty year.
843
Neighbor
Treaty of Verdun. Often louder in political history than the oaths.