Quellengattung: Annalen

As the marked text excerpt is meant to show, the contents of high medieval annals are characterized by the compact way they convey information. A look at the syntax reveals a paratactical series of main clauses. This style refers clearly to the contemporary use-value of this genre:
judgements about historical events by the author (here, negative language about the beginning of the Investiture Contest) are generally quite simple and strongly subjective (note the author's choice of adjectives).
The spatial scope of the reports reflects what came to the attention of these cloistered observers and seemed important to them. Thus, there are highly significant entries about political news between reports on local agriculture. It is precisely for these reasons that annals are particularly valuable "witnesses to monastic culture, monastic interests, and monastic perspectives." (Goetz, Proseminar, p. 123).
Annals were exchanged between various monasteries such that one copied from the annals of others and extended a text if and to the extent that it corresponded to one's own needs. Some information found in one annalistic text can thus be found in the same form in other annals. Heinrich Pertz noted, long ago, that Hermann von Reichenau drew on the Augsburg Year-Books when he composed his chronicle. Knowing how
Die various annals depended upon each other is necessary if one is to establish criteria cor the evaluation of each source. The critical editions of the MGH are very useful in this regard because their critical apparatus contains references to such relationships.