Fredegar (Pseudo)

FREDEGAR (PSEUDO). - Under this name, no older than the 16th century (it is claimed to be either the Latin form of the surname of the humanist Freher or an invention of the historian Goldast), it has been agreed to place a Chronicle of the Franks that runs from 584 to 652, followed by some chapters relating to general history that stops around 660 (ed. Br. Krusch, in MGH, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum, II, pp. 18-193). There are three anonymous authors who worked on it, two of whom were of Burgundian origin (the first, deeply versed in the events he narrates, stops at 613 or 616, the second at 642) and one of Austrasian origin. Among them they have in common only their exceedingly barbarous language. Despite the passionateness found in it, this Chronicle is a source of the first order for Merovingian history. In the manuscripts that contain it, it forms part of a collection that includes the chronicles of St. Jerome, of Hydatius, the Liber generationis, the chronicle of Isidore of Seville, the Historia epitomata and finally, in the 6th position (Berlin Cheltenham ms.: In Nomine Domini Jhesu Christi, incipit Chronica sexta) or in the 4th position (Paris ms.: Incipium capetolaris cronica libri quarti), the chronicle of F. himself. The Chronicle of pseudo-F. was then continued down to 768 by various authors and carried by the Royal Annals down to 829.