Ekkehard II (died 23 April 990), called ''Palatinus'' ("the Courtier"), was a monk of the

Abbey of Saint Gall The Abbey of Saint Gall (german: Abtei St. Gallen) is a dissolved abbey (747–1805) in a Catholic religious complex in the city of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The Carolingian-era monastery existed from 719, founded by Saint Othmar on the spo ...

who became known for his

sequence In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is called ...

poetry.

Life

Ekkehard was probably born in the Saint Gall area; he and his cousin Ekkehard III were nephews of

Ekkehard I Ekkehard I ( la, Eccehardus; died 14 January 973), called ''Major'' or ''Senex'' (the Elder), was a monk of the Abbey of Saint Gall. He was of noble birth, of the Jonschwyl family in Toggenburg, and was educated in the monastery of St. Gall; afte ...

(''Ekkehardus Decanus''; 910–973), dean at the abbey and presumed author of the ''

Waltharius ''Waltharius'' is a Latin epic poem founded on German popular tradition relating the exploits of the Visigothic hero Walter of Aquitaine. While its subject matter is taken from early medieval Germanic legend, the epic stands firmly in the Lati ...

'' poem. Ekkehard II was educated by his uncle and the monk Geraldus, who educated also his other nephews,

Notker Physicus Notker Physicus (died 12 November 975), sometimes called Notker II, was a monk at the Abbey of Saint Gall, active as a physician, painter, and composer. Besides ''physicus'' ("the physician"), he was also nicknamed ''piperis granum'' (pepper grai ...

and Burkard, later abbot of the monastery. Ekkehard II likewise became a teacher at the monastery school. A number of his pupils joined the order; others became bishops. About 973 Dowager Duchess Hadwig of Swabia, the widow of Duke Burchard III called Ekkehard II to her seat at

Hohentwiel Hohentwiel is an extinct volcano in the Hegau region of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany The mountain is west of the city of Singen and 20 miles (30 km) from Lake Constance. Hohentwiel began forming, along with the chain of vol ...

Castle. Hadwig, a member of the Imperial

Ottonian dynasty The Ottonian dynasty (german: Ottonen) was a Saxon dynasty of German monarchs (919–1024), named after three of its kings and Holy Roman Emperors named Otto, especially its first Emperor Otto I. It is also known as the Saxon dynasty after ...

, was wont occasionally to visit St. Gall, and eventually asked for and obtained the services of Ekkehard as her

tutor TUTOR, also known as PLATO Author Language, is a programming language developed for use on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign beginning in roughly 1965. TUTOR was initially designed by Paul Tenczar for use in c ...

in the reading of the Latin classics. Nevertheless, he continued to render great services to his monastery, especially on the occasion of the differences between Saint Gall and the nearby Reichenau Monastery under Abbott Ruodmann; in many other ways also Ekkehard proved himself useful to the monks by the influence he had obtained as tutor of the duchess. Ekkehard, erudite and eloquent, also socialised at the court of Emperor

Otto I Otto I (23 November 912 – 7 May 973), traditionally known as Otto the Great (german: Otto der Große, it, Ottone il Grande), was East Frankish king from 936 and Holy Roman Emperor from 962 until his death in 973. He was the oldest son of Henr ...

. Later he became provost of

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, where he died in 990. He was buried in the church of St. Alban, outside the city gates. Ekkehard was the author of various ecclesiastical hymns, known as sequences, all of which are lost, except one (''Summis conatibus nunc'') in honour of Saint Desiderius. The attribution of several other works is uncertain.

Reception

Ekkehard's life was perpetuated by the Saint Gall monk

Ekkehard IV Ekkehard IV ( 980 – c. 1056) was a monk of the Abbey of Saint Gall and the author of the ''Casus sancti Galli'' and ''Liber Benedictionum''. Life According to the testimony in his "Chronicle" (especially in view of his statement that he had heard ...

, when he continued the ' chronicles begun by

Ratpert of St. Gallen Ratpert of St Gallen (c. 855 - c. 911) was a scholar, writer, chronicler and poet at the Abbey of Saint Gall. He wrote in Medieval Latin and in Old High German. Life Ratpert probably entered the monastery as an oblate while still a child. The ...

. His records were the basis for the 1855 historic novel ''Ekkehard'' by

Joseph Victor von Scheffel Joseph Victor von Scheffel (16 February 1826 – 9 April 1886) was a German poet and novelist. Biography He was born at Karlsruhe. His father, a retired major in the Baden army, was a civil engineer and member of the commission for regulating the ...

, which became hugely successful. Johann Joseph Abert's 1878 opera ''Ekkehard'' is based on Scheffel's book. A German TV miniseries on Ekkehard's life was produced in 1989–90.

Sources

* {{Authority control 10th-century births 990 deaths Monks at Saint Gall