Angelbert

Angilbert Angelbert was a Frankish soldier and poet, possibly from Aquitaine. His "Verses on the Battle that was Fought at Fontenoy" are a first-hand description of the Battle of Fontenoy of 25 June 841, in which he participated with the army of Lothair I. They are an important piece of battle literature from the twilight of the Carolingian Renaissance. Quotes thumb|Woe unto that day of mourning! Never in the round of yearsBe it numbered in men's annals! Be it banished from all mind,Never gleam of sun shine on it, never dawn its dusk awake. thumb|On the side alike of Louis, on the side of Charles alike,Lies the field in white enshrouded, in the vestments of the dead,As it lies when birds in autumn settle white from off the shore. Fontaneto fontem dicunt, villam quoque rustici,ubi strages et ruina Francorum de sanguine;orrent campi, orrent silvae, orrent ipsi paludes.Gramen illud ros et ymber nec humectat pluvia,in quo fortes ceciderunt, proelio doctissimi,pater, mater, soror, frater, quos amici fleverant.Hoc autem scelus peractum, quod descripsi ritmice,Angelbertus ego vidi pugnansque cum aliis,solus de multis remansi prima frontis acie. Fontenoy they call its fountain, manor to the peasant known,There the slaughter, there the ruin, of the blood of Frankish race;Plains and forest shiver, shudder; horror wakes the silent marsh.Neither dew nor shower nor rainfall yields its freshness to that field,Where they fell, the strong men fighting, shrewdest in the battle's skill,Father, mother, sister, brother, friends, the dead with tears have wept.And this deed of crime accomplished, which I here in verse have told,Angibert myself I witnessed, fighting with the other men,I alone of all remaining, in the battle's foremost line. "The Battle of Fontenoy", sts. 6–8 (tr. Duckett) Ima vallis retrospexi, verticemque iuieri,Ubi suos inimicos rex fortis HlothariusExpugnabat fugientes usque forum rivulli. I saw the valley depths, I saw the plain of testWhere that strong king Lothair beat down and broke his foes,Until they fled unto the river, sore-distressed. "The Battle of Fontenoy", st. 9 (tr. Jones) Karoli de parte vero, Hludovici pariteralbent campi vestimentis mortuorum lineis,velut solent in autumno albescere avibus. On the side alike of Louis, on the side of Charles alike,Lies the field in white enshrouded, in the vestments of the dead,As it lies when birds in autumn settle white from off the shore. "The Battle of Fontenoy", st. 10 (tr. Duckett) Maledicta dies illa, nec in anni circulonumeretur, sed radatur ab omni memoria,iubar solis illi desit, aurora crepusculo.Noxque illa, nox amara, noxque dura nimium,in qua fortes ceciderunt, proelio doctissimi,pater, mater, soror, frater, quos amici fleverant. Woe unto that day of mourning! Never in the round of yearsBe it numbered in men's annals! Be it banished from all mind,Never gleam of sun shine on it, never dawn its dusk awake.Night it was, a night most bitter, harder than we could endure,When they fell, the brave men fighting, shrewdest in the battle's skill,Father, mother, sister, brother, friends, the dead with tears have wept. "The Battle of Fontenoy", sts. 12–13 (tr. Duckett) O luctum atque lamentum! nudati sunt mortui.horum carnes vultur, corvus, lupus vorant acriter;orrent, carent sepulturis, vanum iacet cadaver. O the grief and the bewailing! there they lie, the naked dead,On their bodies wolves and crows and vultures ravin and are fed,There they lie, unburied horror, idle corpses that were men. "The Battle of Fontenoy", st. 14 (tr. Waddell) Ploratum et ululatum nec describo amplius;unusquique quantum potest restringatque lacrimas;pro illorum animabus deprecemur dominum. Now the wailing, the lamenting, now no longer will I tell;Each, so far as in him lieth, let him stay his weeping now;On their souls may He have mercy, let us pray the Lord of all. "The Battle of Fontenoy", st. 15 (tr. Duckett) Bibliography Howard Mumford Jones, in Philip Schuyler Allen, The Romanesque Lyric: Studies in Its Background and Development from Petronius to the Cambridge Songs, 50–1050 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1928) p. 228–229, 345–346 Helen Waddell, Medieval Latin Lyrics (London: Constable & Co, 1929) pp. 102–105 Eleanor Shipley Duckett, Carolingian Portraits: A Study in the Ninth Century (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1962) pp. 139–141 External links Category:Poets from France