Alcuin of York or Alcuinus (circa 735 – 19 May 804) aka Ealhwine, Albinus or Flaccus was an English scholar and teacher at the court of Charlemagne in 780s and 790s becoming the Abbot of Tours in 796. Slavs appear in two of his letters which we present here (translation is courtesy of P.D. King) both from the collection in the Monumenta Alcuiniana, an 1873 work by Ernst Dümmler, W. Wattenbach and Philipp Jaffé. The same may also be seen in Epistolae IV.2. in the MGH (1895).
Alcuin to an unknown abbot
“Wilti et Vionudi”
(late 789)
“Be of good cheer, brother, and labour manfully in God’s service, fasting, praying and keeping vigils, as you have been doing hitherto. Give my beloved bishop Willehad a thousand greetings. It grieves me greatly that he and I are separated. Would that I might see him and complete my life’s course as a peregrinus! Only pray for me, that the Lord God in HIs mercy may guide my ways.”
“Send me a letter to tell me how you are and what you are doing; and how favourably the Saxons are responding to your preaching; and whether there is any hope of the conversion of the Danes; and if the Wiltzites, or Wends, whom the king has recently secured are accepting the Christian faith; and what is happening in those parts; and what the lord king is going to do about the attack by the Huns.”
“Greet all those who are with you, serving God. Labour manfully in the work which you have begun, that you may receive the supreme crown from GOd. For it is not he who begins but he who endures until the end who shall be saved [compare Matthew 10, 22].”
“May divine grace aid and preserve you wherever you may be.”
Alcuin to Colcu
“Sclavos, quos nos Vionudos dicimus”
(early 790)
“I rejoiced with all my heart, [that] I own, to hear that your fatherhood was enjoying good health and good fortune. And since I thought that you would be eager to know of our progress and of recent events in the world, I have been at pains to inform you prudence, through this unpolished letter of mine, of what I have seen and heard.”
“In the first place, your belovedness should know that by God’s mercy HIs holy church in Europe enjoys peace, gains ground and grows greater. For the Old Saxons and all the peoples of the Frisians have been converted to the faith of Christ under pressure from king Charles, who has won some over by rewards, others by threats. Moreover, the said king last year fell upon the Slavs, whom we call Wends, with an army and subjected them to his authority.”
“Two years ago, furthermore, the Greeks descended upon Italy with a fleet but were overcome by the dukes of the aforementioned king and fled to their ships. Their dead are said to have numbered 4000 and the prisoners 1000. In like manner, the Avars too, whom we call Huns burst into Italy but returned home with ignominy after defat by the Christians. They also attacked Bavaria; those invaders too were defatted by the Christian army and scattered…”
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