WALAFRID, vii'lii-frfd (WALAFRIED, WALAHFRID), STRABO: Theologian of the first half of the ninth century; b. in Swabia about 808; d. at Reichenau, an island in Lake Constants, Aug. 18, 849. He was at an early age admitted to the monastery of Reichenau, where he made great progress in his studies; later (826-829) 'he studied under Rabanus Maurus (q.v.), at Fulda; thence he went to the court of Louis le D6bonnaire, becoming chaplain to the Empress Judith and tutor to her son Charles (the Bald). As a partizan of Lothair he received the abbey of Reichenau in 838, but was soon obliged to leave it; he was, however, reinstated in 842.

Walafrid's poems entitle him: to rank as one of the classical writers of the Carolingian period. They include epigrams, eulogies, hymns, and two long poems on saints; the larger poem, written when Walafrid was eighteen years of age, describes a vision of the monk Wettin at Reichenau in 824, and is the earliest instance of versified "visions," which later became so popular. While at court Walafrid wrote De imagine Tetrici, inspired by the equestrian statue of Theodoric the Great before the palace at Aachen. His epistles, in hexameters or distichs, to princes and prelates are also of interest. His Liber de cutters hortorum is a'poetical description of the cloister garden. Walafrid revised the biographies of the St. Gall abbots Gallus and Othmar. Special consideration is due to his De exordiis et incrementis rerum ecclesiasticarum (written 840-842, printed in Hettorp's Scriptores, Cologne, 1568), a compendium of Christian archeology in thirty-two books, still interesting because of its occasional addition of vernacular terms for the objects discussed. He took a middle course between superstitious iconolatry and Greek iconoclasm; his eucharistic doctrine was evidently not the transubstantiation of Paschasius Radbertus (q.v.), his famous contemporary. His chief renown was won by the great exegetic compilation in which he had the major part, the Glossy ordinaries. This, for nearly five centuries, served as the main source of Biblical science for the West, and was reissued again and again, usually with the work of Lyres, until the

seventeenth century. In the oldest edition (4 vols., n.p., n.d.) the Latin text of the Bible is surrounded by the glosses, a rich collection of citations from the Church Fathers elucidating the text. Between the lines of the text are brief scholia, written by Anselm of Laon in the twelfth century. Walafrid's own glosses are, in general, apt and scholarly. They in clude explanations of the names and problems which occasion them, though the majority are devoted to mystical-allegorical exegesis; several glosses, even from the same author, may be given on a single pas sage. The names of many of the authors cited are given, the most frequent being Jerome, Gregory, IaidorE: of Seville, and Bede; Ambrose and Chrysos tom are quoted more sparingly. Other names pre dominate in individual books; as Cassiodorus in the Psalms, Origen in Numbers, and "Esicius" (Hesy chius) in Leviticus. Many glosses appear without the author's name. These, it has been suggested, were written by Walafrid himself, since his name (" Strabo ") is frequently appended to glosses, espe cially in the first part of the work; these anonymous glosses have also been ascribed to his teacher Rabanua Maurus.

(A. Hauck.)

Bibliography: Walafrid'a Carmius, ed. E. Dümmler with commentary, etc., are in MGH, Poet. Lest. awi Carol., ii (1884), 259-473; and the Opera are in MPL, cxiii. and cxiv. Consult: Histoire littéraire de la France, v. 59-76; J. C. F. Bahr, Geschichte der römischen Literatur im karolingyschen Zeitalter, pp. 100-105, 217-219, 398-401, Carlsruhe, 1840; C. P. Bock, Die Reiterstatue des OstgotheukBuigs Theodorich . . zu Aachen, pp. 1-160, Bonn, 1844; J. König, in Freiburger Di6cesau-Archiv-Organ . . der Erzdibcese Freiburg, iii (1868), 317-464; A. Ebert, Allgemeine Geschichte der Litteratur des Mittelalters, ii. 145-166, Leipsic, 1800; idem, in the Sitzungsberichte of the Saxon Academy, 1878, pp. 100 sqq.; NA, iv (1879), 270 sqq., xxi (1895), 301 sqq. (by Dümmler), x (1885), 166-169 (by J: Hiimer), xxii (1896), 755, xxviii (1903), 507 (by P. von Winterfeld), xxvi (1901), 745 (by M. Manitius); J. von Schlosser in the Sitzungsberichte of the Vienna Academy, cxxiii (1891), 167-175; Hauck, KD, ii. 654 sqq.; Ceillier, Auteurs sacrés, xii. 410-417; Schaff, Christian Church, iv. 729-733; AL, xii. 1177-80.