An assessment of the role of the Middle Ages in national historiography and in modern conceptions of national identity, looking at relatively young nations, and regions which claim national traditions but were slow to achieve, or regain, separate statehood. Examples range from Ireland and Iceland through Austria and Italy to Finland and Greece.

BERNADETTE CUNNINGHAM Deputy Librarian, the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, Republic of IrelandDEREK FEWSTER Researcher in the Department of History, the University of Helsinki, FinlandGU?MUNDUR HÁLFDANARSON Professor of History, the University of Iceland MICHEL MARGUE Professor of History at the University of Luxembourg MAURO MORETTI Professor in the Department of Human Sciences, Siena Foreign University, Italy JAN EIVIND MYHRE Professor of Modern History, the University of Oslo, NorwayJOHANNES NIEHOFF-PANAGIOTIDIS Professor of Byzantine Studies, the Free University Berlin, Germany PIT PÉPORTÉ Researcher in the Department of History, the University of Luxembourg ILARIA PORCIANI Professor of Contemporary History, the University of Bologna, ItalyPETER RAEDTS Professor of Medieval History, Radboud University Nijmegen, the NetherlandsFRANTI EK MAHEL Vice-director, the Centre for Medieval Studies, Czech Academy of Sciences, the Czech RepublicMARKO UICA Lecturer in the Department of History, the University of Belgrade, Serbia JO TOLLEBEEK Professor of Cultural History, the Catholic University of Leuven, BelgiumHERWIG WOLFRAM Emeritus Professor of Medieval History, University of Vienna, Austria

List of Contributors Introduction; G.Marchal PART I: CELTS AND SCANDINAVIA Transmission and Translation of Medieval Irish Sources in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries; B.Cunningham The 'Decline of Norway': Grief and Fascination in Norwegian Historiography on the Middle Ages; J.E.Myhre 'Braves Step out of the Night of the Barrows': Regenerating the Heritage of Early Medieval Finland; D.Fewster Interpreting the Nordic Past: Icelandic Medieval Manuscripts and the Construction of a Modern Nation; G.Hálfdanarson PART II: BENELUX A Serious Case of Amnesia: The Dutch and their Middle Ages; P.Raedts Medieval Myths and the Building of National Identity: the Example of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg; M.Margue& P.Péporté An Era of Grandeur: The Middle Ages in Belgian National Historiography, 1830-1914; J.Tollebeek PART III: BALKANS To Whom Does Byzantium Belong? Greeks, Turks and the Present of the Medieval Balkans; J.Niehoff-Panagiotidis The Image of the Kosovo Battle (1389) Today: A Historic Event, a Moral Pattern, or the Tool of Political Manipulation; M.¦uica PART IV: CENTRAL EUROPE Italy's Various Middle Ages; M.Moretti& I.Porciani Medievalism and Swiss National Identity; G.Marchal   The Public Instrumentalization of the Middle Ages in Austria since 1945; H.Wolfram 'Old Czechs were Hefty Heroes': The Construction and Reconstruction of Czech National History in its Relationship to the 'Great' Medieval Past; F.¦mahel Conclusion; R.J.W.Evans Bibliography Index