Introduction Gerd Althoff, Johannes Fried and Patrick J. Geary; 1. Authority and legitimation of royal policy and action: the case of Henry II Stefan Weinfurter; 2. King Henry II of Germany: royal self-representation and historical memory John W. Bernhardt; 3. The variability of rituals in the Middle Ages Gerd Althoff; 4. Rebels and rituals: from demonstrations of enmity to criminal justice Hanna Vollrath; 5. Oblivion between orality and textuality in the tenth century Patrick J. Geary; 6. Text and ritual in ninth-century political culture: Rome, 864 Philippe Buc; 7. The concept of time in the historiography of the eleventh and twelfth centuries Hans-Werner Goetz; 8. Constructing the past by means of the present: historiographical foundations of medieval institutions, dynasties, peoples, and communities Bernd Schneidmüller; 9. Topographies of memory: center and periphery in High Medieval France Amy G. Remensnyder; 10. Challenging the culture of memoria: dead men, oblivion, and the 'faithless widow' in the Middle Ages Bernhard Jussen; 11. Artistic and literary representations of family consciousness John B. Freed; 12. The strange pilgrimage of Odo of Deuil Beate Schuster; 13. The Rhineland massacres of Jews in the First Crusade: memories medieval and modern David Nirenberg; 14. The martyr, the tomb, and the matron: constructing the (Masculine) 'Past' as a female power base Felice Lifshitz.