Alexandreis

"Alexandreis, sive Gesta Alexandri Magni" ("The Alexandreid, or The Deeds of Alexander the Great") is a medieval Latin epic poem by Walter of Châtillon, a 12th-century French writer and theologian. An Alexander romance, it tells a fictional version of the story of Alexander the Great. The poem was popular and influential in Walter's own times, even being translated into Icelandic prose as the Alexanderssaga; Matthew of Vendôme and Alan of Lille borrowed from it and Henry of Settimello imitated it, but it is now seldom read. One line is sometimes quoted:

:"Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim" (Wanting to avoid Charybdis, he runs into Scylla.)

Bibliography

*F. J. E. Raby, "A History of Secular Latin Poetry in the Middle Ages" (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934. ISBN 0198143257) vol. 2 pp. 72-80.
*J. Blänsdorf, "Einführung in Walther von Châtillon, Alexandreis" ( http://www.jblaensdorf-mainz.homepage.t-online.de/Walther__Alexandr_/walther__alexandr_.html )

External links

*Latin text of the "Alexandreis" at the [http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost12/Gualterus/gua_al00.html Bibliotheca Augustana]