Hibernicus exul

"Hibernicus exul" (Latin for "Hibernian exile") is the name given to an anonymous Irish poet of the Carolingian Renaissance who lived and wrote in Francia. The poet has been variously identified with both Dungal and Dicuil.

The anonymous exile's most famous work is a fragmentary Latin eclogue praising Charlemagne for his defeat of Tassilo III of Bavaria in 787. The poem, "Ad Karolum Regem" (To King Charles) in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica and "In Praise of Poetry" in Peter Godman's excerpted English translation, is written as a dialogue between poet and Muse (the parts of which are diffictult for modern editors to perfectly discern), an idea picked up by Walahfrid Strabo. [The "editio princeps" is Ernst Dümmler, "MGH", "Poetae Latini medii aevi", I (Berlin, 1881); Peter Godman (1985), "Latin Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance" (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press), pp. 24–25, discusses the poem briefly and provides a critical edition and translation of it, pp 174–79. The poem is the earliest Carolingian eclogue.] The poem begins with a description of Charlemagne and Tassilo, "dux inclitus" (distinguished duke). Charlemagne's gifts to the disobedient Tassilo, Tassilo's ceremonious submission and payment of tribute, and the reconciliation of the two Christian princes are the major themes of the opening part of the work. The remainder is filled by the dialogue of the humble poet with nothing of great worth for the king and the Muse who shows him the immortality of poetry. To the historian, the "exuls poem indicates the high value ascribed to generosity and reconciliation amongst Christians and portrays the defeated duke in a fair light. [Stuart Airlie (1999), "Narratives of Triumph and Rituals of Submission: Charlemagne's Mastering of Bavaria", "Transactions of the Royal Historical Society", Sixth Series, 9"' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0 521 77286 9.), p. 112, demonstrates the Christian moral tone and the evenhanded treatment of Tassilo.] The exaltation of poetry (by a poet) was necessary in a world that concentrated on material and especially martial success. The poet also affirms that secular subjects are equally worthy as sacred ones for versification; one of the earliest Latin Christian defences of courtly/public panegyric.

"Hibernicus exul" also wrote a couple of Latin epigrams illustrating two contrasting pedagogical methods: encouragement and threat. [Godman provides a translation of these two on pp. 178–79.] The first draws on proverbs in the "Disticha Catonis" and goes like this:

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