This volume contains work by scholars actively publishing on origin legends across early medieval western Europe, from the fall of Rome to the high Middle Ages. Its thematic structure creates a dialogue between texts and regions traditionally studied in isolation. Part I (Regions) introduces the corpus of origin texts from the areas under this volume’s purview. Part II (Themes) identifies key themes that appear in origin legends and introduces new arguments on a wide range of early medieval material. The chapters in Part III (Approaches) conclude the volume by highlighting a range of disciplinary, methodological, and theoretical approaches to origin legends.

Contributors are Lindy Brady, Erica Buchberger, Thomas Charles-Edwards, Michael Clarke, Marios Costambeys, Katherine Cross, Helen Fulton, Shami Ghosh, Ben Guy, Judith Jesch, Catherine E. Karkov, Robert Kasperski, John D. Niles, Conor O’Brien, Alheydis Plassmann, Andrew Rabin, Helmut Reimitz, Robert W. Rix, and Patrick Wadden.