Life
?820-880 [Siadhal; Sedulius of Liège]; b. Kildare; made journey
to declare Liège bearing news of victory over the Vikings at Scaith
Necthain [poss. by Rhodri, son of Merfyn]; retained by Bishop Hartgar;
copied numerous classical manuscripts incl. Horace; made an inter-lineated
copy of Greek-Latin Gospels; also copied epistles of St. Paul and works
by Priscian, St. Augustine and others; Irish language marginalia appear
in the work of his scribes; wrote festive poetry in Latin; d. Liège.
DIW.
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Works
Sedulius Scottus (Munich 1906); Helen Waddell, [trans.,] Medieval
Latin Lyrics (1929; 1952); also cited in Frank O’Connor, The
Backward Look (1967).
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Notes
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field
Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 1: may have arrived at court of Charles the Bald
with news of Irish victory over Vikings; friendly with bishops of Cologne,
Munster, and Metz; patronised by Bishop Hartgar at Liege; wrote eulogies
for sons of Louis the Pious; commentaries on Donatus, Eutyches, and Priscian;
commentaries on the Gospel of St Matthew, Eusebian Canons, and works of
Jerome; made interlinear trans. of Greek text of St. Paul’s epistles,
and copied Proverbia Grecorum. Edns, L. Traube, ed., Monumenta
Germaniae Historica, Poetae Latini Aevi Carolini, III (1886); see
also M. Lapidge and R. Sharpe, Bibl. of Medieval Latin from Celtic
Sources (RIA 1985); P. Godman, Ed., Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance
(Lon. 1982).
John Montague, ed., The Faber Book of Irish Verse (1974), selects: “Nunc Viridant Segetes”, ‘I am a writer, I, a musician, Orpheus the second / And the ox that treads out the corn, and your well-wisher I, / I am your champion armed with the weapons of wisdom and logic, / Muse, tell my lord bishop and father his servant is dry.’ (3rd verse of 3). Also “Apologia Pro Vita Sua”: ‘I read and write, I teach or wonder what is truth / I call upon my God night and day. / I eat and freely drink, I make my rhymes, / And snoring sleep, or vigil keep and pray. / And very ’ware of all my shames I am; / O Mary, Christ, have mercy on your man.’ (p. 65.)
W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (IAP 1976; this ed. 1984), Bibl. (Sedulius), S. Hellmann, Sedulius Scottus (Munich 1906, and J. Carne[y], Old Ireland, ed. R. McNally (Dublin 1967), 228-50; for his influence on goliardic poetry, see B. I. Varcho, ‘Die Vorlaufer des Golias’, Speculum 3 (928) 523-79).
Helen Waddell trans. Sedulius Scotus, Life of St. Brigid (Constable [q.d.]). Note also her translations of his poetry in Medieval Latin Lyrics: ‘I read or write, I teach or wonder what is truth, / I call upon my God by night and day. / I eat and freely drink, I make my rhymes, / And snoring sleep, or vigil keep and pray. / And very ware of all my shames I am; / O Mary, Christ, have mercy on your man.’ (Quoted in P. J. Kavanagh, Voices in Ireland, 1994, p.262.)
Nora Chadwick, The Celts (1971; Penguin Edn. 1991): ‘[Rhodri] is named in the Annals of Ulster as having slain Horm (Norse Gormr) the Danish chief, off the coast of Anglesey. This was an outstanding victory, which in all probability would reach the ears of Charles the Bald at his court in Liège where he was seriously threatened by the Danes encamped in strength on the River Seine. At his court was an Irishman, Sedulius Scotus, who about this time composed an ode on the victory over the Danes [‘Sunday Battle’, 876], which was almost certainly Rhodri’s.’ (p.97.). Note also that Rhodri died fighting the Saxons in the following year.
A namesake, Sedulius (obiit. 785),
described as Bishop of Dublin in Gorman’s Martyrology, viz,
Marian Gorman of Donegal. d. 12 Feb. 785. (See George A Little, Dublin
Before the Vikings, 1957, p.100.)
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