Tales of the past

Abstract

This chapter explores the role of orality in the formation of historical narratives. Rütiner often recorded several different accounts of significant events and did not change earlier entries even if they conflicted with later ones. His notes serve as a reminder that most people in sixteenth-century St Gallen would not have encountered the past in the form of a well-ordered chronicle, but as a set of slightly haphazard, fragmented, and contradictory tales which changed considerably over time. The chapter studies how St Gallers used objects and places as mnemonic devices and how, over time and over many conversations, complex historical events were boiled down into a series of highly symbolic scenes. Changes in the way past events were retold, the chapter argues, offer us important insights into the storytellers’ present and allow us to observe history in the making.