In the early middle ages the concept of descent did non concentrate on lineage, but was rather vague, a thesis that has been commonly accepted since the research of Karl Schmid. The rare example of the genealogy of the Ostrogothic Amals can be explained by the necessity of legitimizing the Ostrogothic kings in a late antique context while the evidence points to the actual weakness of the Amals' claim to a longstanding lineage. The traditions of the Franks as given by Gregory of Tours, Fredegar and the Liber Historiae Francorum show an awareness of the special status of the Merovingians nevertheless they reach far shorter into the past than the Amals' list. A similar special status can be ascribed to the Bavarian ruling family and with reservations to the Lombard kings descending from the Bavarian princess Theudelinda. However, neither the Franks nor the Bavarians or Lombards seem to have had an awareness of a descent reaching far into the past. The early medieval regal lists in England legitimize the kings through their descent from the god Wodan, but in the case of the Wessex list at the same time root the ancestry in Christian culture by bridging the gap to Noah and Adam and in Anglo-Saxon culture by connecting the Wessex kings to the narrative of Bede. Only in the case of kings or rulers the lineage becomes important. This points to the significance of the ruler. The ruler incorporates his gens and for this reason the origin and descent of the gens as written down in origin-stories like Paul the Deacon, Bede and others is tightly entwined with the fate of the rulers' family. The origin of the gens and the origin of the ruling family cannot be told one without the other. Either the tales are paralleled or more rarely juxtaposed or as in the case of the Frankish table of nations even identical, since the heros eponymos stands as a metaphor for his whole people. Origin and descent in the early middle ages stabilize the emotional identity of a gens and legitimize their ruler while in the high middle ages the emotional identity of a community manifests itself in the histories of the regna and the awareness of descent serves as legitimization for noble families.
