Page:History of the Franks.djvu/11

 the narrative records of civilization inaccessible to those whose reading is confined to English texts, few are of greater historical interest than the History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours. The reason that it has remained so long untranslated into English is clear, however, to any one who has ever seriously considered the problem of which at least a partial solution is offered here. In the first place, although part of Gregory's narrative deals with events and men of great importance, there are long sections dealing with happenings which in themselves are not worth our remembering. Yet, if one views the work as a source for the history of society rather than merely as a narrative of the acts of kings, queens, or saints, it is often these relatively unimportant events which are most instructive and interesting; for Gregory's picture of manners and customs is given by way of a story of what real people actually did and said. It follows from this, that, if our main interest in the History of the Franks is in its picture of the life and customs of the times, we must find that picture in what is often but a repetition of royal murders, social disorder, and turmoil, lightened only by the equally persistent repetition of saintly virtue. The editorial problem of how much or how little of such data to include is naturally one of considerable difficulty. In the next place, the historical value of the text varies, according as Gregory dealt with past or present; so that, viewed as a narrative of fact, the later portions have a much greater claim for preservation than the earlier. If one were attempting to show what Gregory contributed to our knowledge, one would be obliged to concentrate, therefore, upon these later sections, and even there the value varies. But, viewing the History of the Franks as itself an exhibit of the age which it records, we find ourselves often more interested in what Gregory does not know of the past than in what he does know of the present. In the very limitation of outlook, in the choice of incident and arrangement of perspective, the narrative of distant events