Selected Carolingian poetry

 

Poem from the 7th or 8th century. (Trans from John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality:Gay people in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century, pp. 186-7)

 

O Wondrous idol of Venus

Of whose substance there is nothing imperfect

May the creator protect you, he who made the stars and skies

And established the sea and the earth.

May you never feel the sting of Fates’ designs:

My Clotho, who spins the thread of life, cherish you.

I hail you, youth, not merely rhetorically

But in the most heartfelt way I implore Lachesis

The sister of Atropos, not to be careless with you.

May you have as companions Neptune and Thetis[1]

While you are carried on the River Athesis

Shall I love you wherever you go, since I have loved you [until now]?

Or what shall I do in my misery, when I no longer see you?

 

Hard marrow from mother’s bones

Created men from thrown stones

Of which one is this young boy,

Who can ignore tearful sobs when I am heartbroken, my rival will rejoice

I shall weep as the doe whose fawn has fled.

 

Alcuin, Selections from a letter to a bishop (Trans from John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality:Gay people in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century, p. 190

 

I think of your love and friendship with such sweet memories reverend bishop, that I long for that lovely time when I may be able to clutch the neck of your sweetness with the fingers of my desires.  Alas, if only it were granted to me, as it was to Habakkuk [Dan. 14:32-38] to be transported to you, how would I sink into your embraces,… how would cover, with tightly pressed lips, not only your eyes, ears, and mouth but also your every finger and your toes, not only once, but many times.

 

Alcuin.  Sections from a poem, possibly to the same bishop (see above). (Trans from John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality:Gay people in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century, pp. 189-190

 

Love has pierced my heart with its flame [. . .]

And love always burns with fresh fire.

Neither land nor sea, hills nor woods nor mountains

Can impede or block the path to him,

Loving father, who ever licks your breast,

And who washes, beloved, your chest with his tears

. . . .All joys are changed into sad mournings,

Nothing is permanent, everything will pass.

Let me therefore flee to you with my whole heart,

And do you flee to me from the vanishing world….

 

Walahfrid Strabo From Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance, ed. Peter Godman (1985) p. 217 and (Trans from John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality:Gay people in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century, pp. 191-2.  Written to his friend, Liutger.

 

 

On Friendship

 

Dearest, you come suddently, and suddently, dearest, you depart:

I hear, I do not see, yet inwardly I see, and inwardly

I embrace you, fleeing in body, but not in love.

For as certain as I have been, I am and shall always be

That I am cherished in your heart, and you in mine.

Nor shall time persuade me, nor you, of anything else. . . .

 

When the clear moon shines in splendour from the sky,

Stand beneath the heavens, gazing with wonder as you behold

How it gleams with light from the bright lamp of the moon,

And with its radiance embraces dear ones

Divided in body but conjoined by love in their minds.

If we could not gaze upon each other’s beloved face,

At least let this moonlight serve as a pledge of our affection.

Your faithful friend has sent you these little verses;

if for your part the bond of loyalty remains firm,

I now pray that you may be happy and prosper forever and ever.


[1] Deucalion and Pyrrha, the only survivors of the deluge, restored humankind by throwing bones stones over their shoulders.  This followed the oracle that a new race would spring from the “bones of your mother” i.e. earth.