An interesting series of gems came to our attention while going through Florin Curta’s writings (in this case a reader forwarded a copy of his “Slavs in the Making” – on which at a later point) is the fact that he sometimes manages to list fairly obscure and less known sources regarding Suavic history. His latest book tries to take on Martin of Braga’s barbarian list which features Suavs (for that see here). To do so he brings up two poems that mention Suavs in a similar fashion (in singular Sclavus). Here they are:

Hartgarius Episcopus Ad Eberhardum

The first is a poem by Sedullius Scottus found in a Brussels codex (10615-729 or perhaps 10725) at folio 214, the Hartgarius Episcopus Ad Eberhardum. Sedulius was probably an Irish monk (Siadhal? Shiel?) who migrated along with a bunch of other Irish monks to Liege in Belgium sometime between 840 and 851. The group became guests of the local bishop Hartgar, to whom Sedullius wrote a few poems (all as per R.W. Dyson from his “Sedullius Scottus De Rectoribus Christianis ‘On Christian Rulers'”). The poem in question is poem 53. The Belgians have not put up the manuscript yet so here are a couple of earlier editions. For a current version, you can see Sedulii Scotti Carmina, ed. Jean Meyers (Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Medievalis, 117).

Item Waldrammi De Quo Supra

This is a poem by Waltram or Waldram of Saint Gall comes from a Saint Gall codex (381). The codex itself is dated to about 930. This part of a pair of poems that were written for the Emperor Charles the Fat who, apparently, swung by the Abbey of Saint Gallen in 833 (as per Curta).

Here is the original. By the way, you gotta love Carolingian minuscule – so much better than the chicken scratch writing of later medieval authors.

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