Between 1159 and 1162 a monk fromTegernsee in Bavaria completed The Play of the Antichrist. The play,perhaps performed in the open air, relates how theGerman emperor, to whom several embassies hadsubmitted dominium,becomes embroiled in a battle with the Antichrist.The latter is seconded by Hypocrites. The Antichristsummons the other kings – the kings of the Franks,the Greeks and the Babylonians, and the heathenGentilitas, King of Jerusalem – ‘to help him stemthis mad Teutonic flood’, and they fight. The armyof the Antichrist is defeated. Afterwards, the Kingof the Teutons returns to his throne and sings:‘Bloodshed must preserve our fatherland’s honour /And the fatherland’s valour drive out all herenemies. / Law is squandered when blood is for sale/ And blood will keep the Empire’s dignity.’

This dark, belligerent utterance about the wielding ofsheer, bloody, imperial power forms the benchmarkand counterpoint for ethnic reputations in courtliterature, contrasting the Teutons with the Frenchand English. Indeed, in the twelfth century, writersat the centres of power engaged popular ethnotypesrhetorically in competing narratives of courtliness,urbanity, manliness, rationality and power setagainst this violent backdrop. In their histories,poetry and epic narratives produced for the warrioraristocracy, the French, the Teutons and theEnglish, the subjects of this chapter, jostled atthe courts over claims to cultural and militarydominance in which north-western Europe waspresented as the seat of power and civilization. Thecultural appropriation of climate theory invitedpoets and historians to comment upon the manners ofthe French, Teutons and English within ageographical framework, the French positioningthemselves as the rational, disciplined andcourageous receptors of the translatio studii and chivalry in thedomesticated space of sacred, douce northern France. The Normans andEnglish attempted to stake similar claims, but thelatter focused on the status of urbanity andintelligence rather than military qualities,presumably in response to England’s recent conquestby the Normans. The Germans’ reputation, consideredagents of barbaric, crude violence in a harsherclimate, yet holders and defenders of Christian,imperial dominium, wasdouble-edged.