Besides these commentaries, (2) Homilies,^1271 upon the festivals of the church year and (3)Miscellanies, "The Body and Blood of the Lord,"^1272 which is an extract from his commentary on
1st Cor., "Epitome of sacred history,"^1273 substantially though not entirely an extract from Rufinus’
Latin translation of Eusebius’ "Ecclesiastical history," and an ascetic piece in three books, "The
love for the heavenly country."^1274
§ 169. Walahfrid Strabo.
I. Walafridus Strabus, Fuldensis monachus: Opera, in Migne, Tom. CXIII.-CXIV. His Carmina
have been edited in a very thorough manner by Ernst Dümmler: Poetae Latini aevi Carolini.
Tom. II. (Berlin, 1884), pp. 259–473.
II. For his life see the Preface of Dümmler and Ebert, II. 145–166. Cf. also for his works besides
Ebert, Ceillier, XII. 410–417; Hist. Lit. de la France, V. 59–76; Bähr, pp. 100–105, 398–401.
Walahfrid, poet and commentator, theologian and teacher, was born of obscure parentage in
Alemannia about 809, and educated in the Benedictine abbey school of Reichenau on the island in
Lake Constance. His cognomen Strabus or, generally, Strabo was given to him because he squinted,
but was by himself assumed as his name.^1275 From 826 to 829 he studied at Fulda under Rabanus
Maurus. There he formed a friendship with Gottschalk, and there he appears to have lived all alone
in a cell, the better perhaps to study.^1276 On leaving Fulda he went to Aix la Chapelle, and was
befriended by Hilduin, the lord chancellor, who introduced him to the emperor Louis the Pious.
The latter was much pleased with him and appreciating his scholarship made him tutor to his son
Charles. The empress Judith was also particularly friendly to him. In 838 Louis the Pious appointed
him abbot of Reichenau, but two years later Louis the German drove him from his post and he went
to Spires, where he lived until 842, when the same Louis restored him to his abbotship, probably
at the solicitation of Grimald, his chancellor.^1277 In 849 he went over to France on a diplomatic
mission from Louis the German to Charles the Bald, but died on August 18th of that year while
crossing the Loire, and was buried at Reichenau.^1278
Walahfrid was a very amiable, genial and witty man, possessed remarkable attainments in
both ecclesiastical and classical literature, and was moreover a poet with a dash of genius, and in
this latter respect is a contrast to the merely mechanical versifiers of the period. He began writing
poetry while a mere boy, and in the course of his comparatively brief life produced many poems,
several of them of considerable length.
His Writings embrace
(^1271) Homiliae, Migne, CXVIII. col. 11-816.
(^1272) De corpore et sanguine Domini, CXVIII. col. 815-818.
(^1273) Historiae sacrae Epitome, ibid. col. 817-874.
(^1274) De varietate librorum, sive de amore coelestis patriae, ibid. col. 875-958.
(^1275) E. g. in Preface to his epitome of Raban’s commentary on Leviticus. Migne, CXIV. col. 795.
(^1276) Ebert, p. 147.
(^127780)
Dümmler, l.c. 261.
(^1278) XV. Kal. Sept. Dümmler, l.c. 261.