734

W

Wace(Robert or William?)(ca. 1100–ca. 1175)Anglo-
Norman author
Born in Jersey in the Channel Islands to a noble family in
about 1100. Wace was educated for an ecclesiastical
career and studied at Caen and PARIS. After he returned
to Caen in about 1130, he was employed by King HENRY
I. He eventually became a canon in about 1160 when he
was patronized by King HENRYII, for Bayeux in 1169. He
died about 1175.
He wrote devotional lives of the saints Margaret and
Nicholas and two metrical chronicles in Norman
French. The Roman de Brutwas completed in 1155 and
dedicated to ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE, the mother of
Henry II. It was an imaginative translation of the Latin
History of the Kings of Britainby GEOFFREY OF MON-
MOUTH, which traced the history of Britain from its
founding by the legendary Brutus the Trojan, including
many aspects of the Arthurian legends. His Roman du
Rouwas a chronicle of the dukes of NORMANDYfrom the
time of ROLLOto that of Wace’s contemporary, Robert II
Curthose (d. 1124). It was written in 1160–62 but never
finished. It had been dedicated to Henry II, but Henry
withdrew his patronage before Wace could complete it.
See alsoANGLO-NORMAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE;
ARTHUR, KING, ANDARTHURIAN LITERATURE; BRUT; ROUND
TABLE.
Further reading:Wace, Arthurian Chronicles,trans.
Eugene Mason. Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1996); Wace, Wace’s Roman de Brut: A History of the
English: Text and Translation, trans. Judith Weiss
(Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1999); Margaret
Evah Houck, Sources of the Roman de Brut of Wace
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1941); J. H.

Philpot, Maistre Wace: A Pioneer in Two Literatures(Lon-

don: Methuen, 1925).

Walahfrid Strabo (ca. 808–849)German Benedictine

abbot, poet, theologian

Born in SWABIA, Walafrid (Strabo means “squinter”) was

raised at the monastery of Reichenau and then at FULDA,

where he was a pupil of HRABANUSMaurus. He became

abbot of Reichenau after having been a teacher of

CHARLESI THEBALD, with whom he retained a tenuous

relationship. He had to flee Reichenau for supporting an

opponent of Charles in 839, only to return in 842. He

died while on mission for Charles on August 8, 849. He

composed poetic works, biblical commentaries, homilies,

and saints’ lives. He was also known for his poetry which

dealt with several subjects, including a polemic against

the erection of a statue of the Ostrogothic king

THEODORICat AACHENand a treatise on the medicinal

plants and flowers of Reichenau’s monastic GARDEN.

Besides his revision of the biography of CHARLEMAGNEby

EINHARD, his most important work was a commentary on

the Scriptures, which remained a standard text for the

rest of the Middle Ages.

See alsoCAROLINGIANRENAISSANCE.

Further reading: Walahfrid Strabo, The Life of St.

Gall, trans. Maud Joynt (Toronto: Macmillan, 1927);

Walahfrid Strabo, Walahfrid Strabo’s Visio Wettini: Text,

Translation and Commentary,ed. David A. Traill (Bern: H.

Lang, 1974); Eleanor Shipley Duckett, Carolingian Por-

traits: A Study in the Ninth Century(Ann Arbor: University

of Michigan Press, 1962), 121–160; M. L. W. Laistner,

Thought and Letters in Western Europe, A.D. 500 to 900