The Monks of Redon

The Monks of Redon presents for the first time a full text and translation of a unique historical source of the ninth century: an account of the life of a Breton monastery seen from the inside, in the naive but graphic narrative of a contemporary monk. We see how the ascetic traditions of Celtic Brittany and the dynamic religious reforms of the Carolingian emperors, Charlemagne's successors, met at Redon to create a highly successful establishment,even amid frequent warfare, local disorder, and the lurking threat of the Vikings. The text is accompanied by a later, perhaps eleventh-century, version of the life of the founder of Redon. The relationship between the twotexts, their manuscript-tradition, their language, style, and historical background are fully discussed.