Primary Texts in English Translation

Nearly all the primary sources for the East Frankish and then German kingdoms contain some information about encounters, usually military, between Germans and the Slavs living near, along, or beyond the Elbe. Many of these have been translated into English, with helpful annotations and introductions.

Listed chronologically according to the time of their composition, those of most direct relevance to Germans and Slavs around the Elbe and beyond include:

Medieval Slavic Lives of Saints and Princes, trans. Marvin Kantor (University of Michigan Press, 1983)

Origins of Christianity in Bohemia: Sources and Commentary, trans. Marvin Kantor (Northwestern University Press, 1990)

Widukind of Corvey, Deeds of the Saxons, trans. Bernard S. Bachrach and David S. Bachrach (Catholic University Press, 2014)

Saints of the Christianization Age of Central Europe (Tenth-Eleventh Centuries), ed. Gábor Klaniczay (Central European University Press, 2013)

Ottonian Germany: The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg, trans. David A. Warner (Manchester University Press, 2001)

Adam of Bremen, History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen, trans. Francis J. Tschan (Columbia University Press, 2002; orig. 1959)

The Annals of Lampert of Hersfeld, trans. I. S. Robinson (Manchester University Press, 2015)

The Saxon War by Bruno of Merseburg [partial], trans. Graham Loud

Hartvic, “Life of King Stephen of Hungary,” trans. Nora Berend, in Medieval Hagiography:  An Anthology, ed. Thomas Head (New York, 2000), pp. 375-98

“The Deeds of Wiprecht of Groitzsch,” trans. Jonathan Lyon and Lisa Wolverton, in Noble Society: Five Lives from Twelfth-Century Germany, trans. Jonathan Lyon (Manchester University Press, 2017), pp. 22-91

The Deeds of the Princes of the Poles, trans. Frank Schaer, et al. (Central European University Press, 2003)

Cosmas of Prague, The Chronicle of the Czechs, trans. Lisa Wolverton (Catholic University of America Press, 2009)

“The Life of Bishop Otto of Bamberg, by a Monk of Prüfening,” trans. Jonathan R. Lyon, in Noble Society: Five Lives from Twelfth-Century Germany, trans. Jonathan Lyon (Manchester University Press, 2017), pp. 92-149

The Life of Otto, Apostle of Pomerania, 1060-1139, by Ebo and Herbordus, trans. Charles Robinson (MacMillan, 1920)

Helmold of Bosau, The Chronicle of the Slavs, trans. Francis Joseph Tschan (Columbia University Press, 1935)

Arnold of Lübeck, Chronicle, trans. Graham A. Loud (Routledge, 2019)

Henricus Lettus, The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, trans. James A. Brundage (Columbia University Press, 1961)

Other Texts with Passing Information about the Borderlands

Charlemagne and Louis the Pious: Lives by Einhard, Notker, Ermoldus, Thegan, and the Astronomer, trans. Thomas F.X. Noble (Penn State University Press, 2009)

The Annals of Fulda: Ninth-Century Histories, Volume II, trans. Timothy Reuter (Manchester University Press, 1992)

History and Politics in Late Carolingian and Ottonian Europe: The Chronicle of Regino of Prüm and Adalbert of Magdeburg, trans. Simon MacLean (Manchester University Press, 2009)

Warfare and Politics in Medieval Germany, ca. 1000: On the Variety of Our Times by Alpert of Metz, trans. David S. Bachrach (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2012)

Eleventh-Century Germany: The Swabian Chronicles, trans. I. S. Robinson, (Manchester University Press, 2008)

Chronicles of the Investiture Contest: Frutolf of Michelsberg and his Continuators, trans. T. J. H. McCarthy (Manchester University Press, 2014)

Otto of Freising, The Two Cities: A Chronicle of Universal History to the Year 1146 A.D., trans. Charles Christopher Mierow (Columbia University Press, 2002)

Otto of Freising and Rahewin, The Deeds of Frederick Barbarossa, trans. Charles Christopher Mierow (Columbia University Press, 2004)

Other Texts about Medieval Central Europe

Willibald, “The Life of Saint Boniface,” trans. C. H. Talbot, in Soldiers of Christ:  Saints and Saints’ Lives from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Thomas Noble and Thomas Head, eds. (University Park, 1995), pp. 107-40

Huneberc of Heidenheim, “The Hodoeporicon of Saint Willibald,” trans. C. H. Talbot, in Soldiers of Christ, pp. 141-64

Eigil, “The Life of St. Sturm,” trans. C. H. Talbot, in Soldiers of Christ: Saints and Saints’ Lives from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Thomas Noble and Thomas Head, eds. (University Park, 1995), pp. 165-87

Alcuin, “The Life of Saint Willibrord,” trans. C. H. Talbot, in Soldiers of Christ, pp. 189-212

Rudolf, “The Life of Saint Leoba,” trans. C. H. Talbot, in Soldiers of Christ, pp. 255-78

“The Life of Willehad,” trans. Peter J. Potter and Thomas F.X. Noble, in Soldiers of Christ, pp. 279-91

Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, “The Establishment of the Monastery of Gandersheim,” trans. Mary Bernardine Bregman, ed. Thomas Head, in Medieval Hagiography: An Anthology, ed. Thomas Head (New York, 2000), pp. 237-54

Anchoress & Abbess in Ninth-Century Saxony: The Lives of Liutbirga of Wendhausen and Hathumoda of Gandersheim, trans. Frederick S. Paxton (Catholic University of America Press, 2009)

Liudprand of Cremona, The Complete Works of Liudprand of Cremona, trans. Paolo Squatriti (Catholic University of America Press, 2007)

Queenship and Sanctity: The Lives of Mathilda and Epitaph of Adelheid, trans. Sean Gilsdorf (Catholic University of America Press, 2004)

The Histories of a Medieval German City, Worms c. 1000-c. 1300: Translation and Commentary, trans. David S. Bachrach (Ashgate, 2014)

“Life of Burchard of Worms,” trans. William North, Internet Medieval Sourcebook

The Papal Reform of the Eleventh Century: Lives of Pope Leo IX and Pope Gregory VII, trans. I. S. Robinson (Manchester University Press, 2004)

Imperial Lives and Letters in the Eleventh Century, trans. Theodor E. Mommsen and Karl F. Morrison (Columbia University Press, 1962)

Maureen C. Miller, Power and the Holy in the Age of the Investiture Conflict: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005)

Brian Tierney, The Crisis of Church and State 1050-1300 (University of Toronto Press, 1964)

The Jews and the Crusaders: The Hebrew Chronicles of the First and Second Crusades, ed. and trans. Shlomo Eidelberg (University of Wisconsin Press, 1977)

“Das Annolied,” trans. James Schultz, in Sovereignty and Salvation in the Vernacular, 1050-1150 (Kalamazoo, 2000)

Norbert and Early Norbertine Spirituality, trans. Theodore J. Antry and Carol Neel (Paulist Press, 2007)

A Warrior Bishop of the Twelfth Century: The Deeds of Albero of Trier, by Balderich, trans. Brian A. Pavlac (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2008)

Noble Society: Five Lives from Twelfth-Century Germany, trans. Jonathan Lyon (Manchester University Press, 2017)

Barbarossa in Italy, trans. Thomas Carson (Italica Press, 1994)

The Crusade of Frederick Barbarossa: The History of the Expedition of the Emperor and Related Texts, trans. Graham Loud (Ashgate, 2010)

Book in Honor of Augustus (Liber ad Honorem Augusti) by Pietro da Eboli, trans. Gwyneth Hood (ACMRS, 2012)