Candidus of Fulda: Vita Eigilis Metrica

This is the verse life of Eigil, abbot of Fulda (818 to 822), the companion to the prose life written by the Fulda monk Candidus. A short metrical preface presents the poem as sung by Candidus for his brother Modestus, recalling the deeds and the death of their father; the text notes that Candidus was called Bruun by his own name. The main poem, in hexameters, opens by recalling the aged father Eigil and the earlier abbot Baugulf, and goes on to describe scenes of monastic life, such as a feast at which a bishop is received, readings and conversation follow, and the old abbot departs blessed.

Written in Latin verse of a learned and sometimes strained kind, the poem shows the literary ambitions of the Fulda school under Hrabanus Maurus, where poetry was cultivated alongside biblical study. Together with the prose life it forms an opus geminum, a paired prose and verse treatment of the same subject, a form inherited from late antique authors such as Sedulius and practised by Carolingian writers. It also preserves details of the abbey’s liturgy and buildings in Eigil’s time.