Conspicuously by their absence: Long-haired Kings, Symbolic Capital, Sacred Kingship and other contemporary myths

Resumo

The character of post-Roman government has long been a central issue in understanding the transition from the Roman Empire to the Early Medieval kingdoms. One of the models for understanding the process focuses on the transition of a somewhat rational Roman government to a sacred ‘Germanic’ kingship. Even though this interpretation has long been disproved, it has been brought back to life in a new form, as a reading in cultural anthropology, using as a case example the Long-Haired Merovingian Kings. This article questioned this new approach and reviews the flaws of the historiographic bases of this interpretation and proposes a new reading of the sources.