Stürme auf See und Dürren an Land: zur Wetter- und Witterungsrekonstruktion im frühmittelalterlichen Nordwest- und Westeuropa nach Schriftquellen

Abstract

The article investigates the reliability primarily of historical annals for the reconstruction of the weather and atmospheric conditions in the period from the sixth to the tenth centuries, above all in north-western Europe. One chief focus lies here on reports pertaining to marine weather, whose representativeness regarding the overall chronicle sources is analyzed by means of references to insular and continental sources. It becomes evident that a periodically structured history of weather and atmospheric conditions is possible and can furthermore be placed in a context with scientific data cited here only summarily. Exceptional events such as the "St. Stephen's Flood" of 26 December 838 as well as references to weather in the Old Nordic historiography are treated separately in order to draw appropriate attention the mechanisms of literary reflections, and thus also to the reliability of these references for a history of weather in ge neral and of marine weather in particular.