treatment of visions of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise
written at the age of eighteen and dedicated to his former
teacher, Wettin of Reichenau; and De cultura hortorum
(or hortulus), a medicinal description and allegorical
interpretation of twenty-three herbs and fl owers. Other
poems include hagiography and praises of important
people (including Louis the Pious and the empress Ju-
dith, mother of Charles the Bald). In the Middle Ages,
he was also famous for his exegesis, much of it based
on the longer works of Rabanus Maurus, including
commentaries on the Pentateuch, the Psalms, and the
canonical epistles. This exegesis remains in need of
further critical study. The Glossa ordinaria, published
as a work of Walafrid in Migne’s Patrologia Latina,
Vols. 113–14, is now known to have been written in
the 12th century and erroneously ascribed to Walafrid
in the 15th.
See also Louis the Pious; Rabanus Maurus
Further Reading
Walafrid Strabo. Poems. MGH Poetae 2.259–473.
Traill, David A., ed. and trans. Walahfrid Strabo’s Visio Wettini:
Tex t, Translation and Commentary. Bern: Lang, 1974.
Duckett, Eleanor Shipley. Carolingian Portraits: A Study in the
Ninth Century. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,
1962, pp.121–60.
Godman, Peter. Poets and Emperors: Frankish Politics and
Carolingian Poetry. Oxford: Clarendon, 1987.
Onnerfors, Alf, Johannes Rathofer, and Fritz Wagner, eds. “Über
Walahfrid Strabos Psalter-Kommentar.” In Literatur und
Sprache im europaischen Mittelalter: Festschrift für Karl
Langosch zum 70. Geburtstag. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft, 1973, pp. 75–121.
E. Ann Matter
WALL AˉDAH BINT AL-MUSTAFKI
Wa l l a ̄ dah, who lived in Córdoba in the eleventh century,
was the daughter of Caliph Muh. ammad al-Mustakfi.
Her house was a meeting place for writers. She had
a tempestuous relationship with the famous poet Ibn
Zaydu ̄n, who dedicated many of his poems to her.
Wa l l a ̄ dah accused him of sleeping both with her slave
and his own secretary, a man by the name of ‘Ali. In
turn, she had affairs with Muhya, a woman poet, and
with the vizir. Her relationship with Ibn Zaydu ̄n ended
badly. Most of her nine extant poems are about him.
Some are delicate love poems, such as: “Expect my
visit at dusk, for I fi nd that night is the best time to hide
secrets. What I feel for you is such that by its side the
sun would not shine, the moon would not rise and the
stars would not begin their nocturnal journey.” Some are
obscene satirical poems: “You are called the hexago-
nous, a name that will endure beyond your life: faggot,
buggerer, philanderer, fucker, cuckold, thief.”
Although Wall a ̄ dah’s lifestyle was unconventional,
her poetry was not. In addition to panegyrical poems,
a genre she seems not to have cultivated, satirical and
love poems were very popular among the poets of al-
Andalus. The works of women poets, for the most part,
took the form of a dialogue with their male counterparts.
In accordance with this fashion, Wall a ̄ dah’s love and
satirical poems consist of dialogues with Ibn Zaydu ̄n.
However, if she followed established genres, she did
so with originality and fl air. Wall a ̄ dah held her own
against the best male poets of her time. Indeed, she was
considered brilliant.
It is said that Wall a ̄ dah had the following two verses
embroidered on her tunic: “By God, I was made for
glory and I proudly follow my own path” and “I offer
my cheek to whomever loves me and give a kiss to
whomever desires me.” She seems to have followed
her mottos, because she became a legendary poet and
lover who has excited the imagination of readers for
centuries.
See also Ibn Zaydu ̄nFurther Reading
Garulo, T. Diwan de las poetisas de al-Andalus. Madrid, 1986.
Sobh, M. Poetisas arábigo-andaluzas. Granada, n.d.
Cristina GonzálezWALTER OF CHÂTILLON (fl. 1160–1190)
One of most celebrated poets of the twelfth century,
whose Alexandreis reveals the author’s interest in the
East and in world geography.
Despite Walter of Châtillon’s reputation as an ex-
traordinary poet in Latin, we know little about his life.
He was born near Lille, then in the county of Flanders.
After studying at schools in France (probably at Paris,
possibly at Reims or Orléans), he taught at a number of
schools in northern France, including one at Châtillon.
After studying at Bologna, he joined the court of Wil-
liam, archbishop of Reims, who eventually made Walter
a canon, probably of Amiens. In addition to numerous
lyrics in Latin on a wide variety of subjects (religious,
erotic, and satirical) and a treatise against the Jews, Wal-
ter wrote his best-known work, the Alexandreis (between
1171 and 1181), which he dedicated to Archbishop
William. The Alexandreis, a ten-book epic in dactylic
hexameters, takes its form, diction, and style from the
classical epic tradition. Its primary model is Lucan’s
Bellum civile, its primary historical source, Quintus
Curtius Rufus’s Historia Alexandri Magni.
Although the Alexandreis, which covers the life of
Alexander the Great, is more restrained than some ver-
sions of the story in the Alexander romance tradition, itWALTER OF CHÂTILLON