The concept of "contingency" provides new insights into the transition between the Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages besides well-known master and research narratives. Natural disasters, famines, coincidences as well as the sudden change of social political structures, death, violence or threat of violence and the associated limitation of the personal freedom marked the experiences of humans in the Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. The contingency experience can be characterised not only as an everyday day life experience but as a fundamental experience. The contributions in this volume analyse the contingency experiences and strategies in coping with them from the 5th century to the 8th century in Gaul and neighbouring areas in the dynamics between (Roman) imperium and ("Barbarian") regna.