Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/306

 288 THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE [chap. ters.* In epic spirit and heroic action these Latin poems are surpassed by the Anglo-Saxon and old German paraphrases of Scripture.^ Lengthy narratives in hexameter or in elegiac coup- lets continued to be written by clerical hands through the Carolingian period and the time of the German Ottos. Among them were Vitae Sanctorum. An example of these is the Vita Sancti Germani written (cir. 876) by Heiricus.^ It consisted of six books of hexameters, each preceded by a prefatio written in some other metre. The poem was founded on an older prose Vita, and tells the story of the saint's entire life. The subject was not epical, nor was its treatment heroic* Of somewhat greater epic possi- bilities was the subject of Ermoldus Nigellus' poem (cir. 827), In honorem Hludovicij consisting of four books of elegiac couplets.* But again, it is the whole life of the hero that is told, and the narrative is not made to revolve around a central event, so as to give it an epic unity. In this respect, the unknown author of the Gesta Berengarii Imperatoris ^ did better ; his five books tell the career of Berengarius in gaining the imperial crown, and stop when the crown is won. On the other hand, the poem of the famous nun of 1 Avitus' Devil is exceptional in this respect. 2 E.g., the Saxon Genesis and the Old German Heliand. « Traube, Poet. Lat. Aev. Car., Ill, 432-517; Ebert, Allge. Ges., II, 289. op. cit., Ill, 567-609. Fortunatus, about three centuries before, wrote a Life of St. Martin in four books of hexameters, based on the Life by Sulpicius Severus. » Poet. Lat. Aev. Car., II, 1-79. • lb., IV, 354-403 J see Ebert, Allge. Ges., Ill, 138-143.
 * A similar life in metre is Milo's Vita S. Armandi, Traube,