Gregory of Tours in his Histories (4.28), and Venantius Fortunatus in a poem (6.5) On Galswinth, recount how a lamp burning before the grave of *Galswinth (Visigothic princess, wife of King Chilperic, ob. c.569/570, S02996), fell to the ground but miraculously remained intact. Written in Latin in north-west Gaul, 569/594.
E08292
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)
Literary - Poems
Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours, Histories (Historiae) 4.28
In this chapter, the last of a group of four chapters (Histories 4.25-28) outlining (and for the most part condemning) the marriage practices of the Frankish kings, Gregory tells of Chilperic's marriage to Galswinth, the daughter of Athanagild, the ruler of Visigothic Spain. Gregory tells how Chilperic, inspired by his brother Sigibert's marriage to Galswinth's younger sister Brunhild, sought and obtained the hand of Galswinth; how she converted from her native Arianism to Catholicism and was initially received with honour by Chilperic; but how the couple fell out because Chilperic refused to abandon his earlier wife, Fredegund.
Ad extremum enim suggillari iussit a puero, mortuamque repperit in strato. Post cuius obitum Deus virtutem magnam ostendit. Lyghnus enim ille, qui fune suspensus coram sepulchrum eius ardebat, nullo tangente, disrupto fune, in pavimento conruit et, fugientem ante eum duritiam pavimenti, tamquam in aliquod molle elimentum discendit, atque medius est suffossus nec omnino contritus. Quod non sine magno miraculo videntibus fuit. Rex autem cum eam mortuam deflessit, post paucos dies Fredegundem recepit in matrimonio. Post quod factum reputantes ei fratres, quod sua emissione antedicta regina fuerit interfecta, eum a regno deieciunt.
'In the end [Chilperic] ordered [Galswinth] to be strangled by a servant, and found her dead in bed. After her death God displayed a great wonder. A lamp suspended on a cord burned at her tomb. Without anyone touching it, the cord broke, the lamp fell to the floor and, as the hardness of the paving gave way before it, fell as though into some soft material and was buried up to its middle, completely undamaged. To those who saw it, this was not possible without a great miracle. Although the king wept for her death, a few days later he took Fredegund in marriage. His brothers, considering what had happened, and believing that the above mentioned queen had been killed at his orders, drove him from his kingdom.'
Text: Krusch and Levison, 161.
Translation: B. Ward-Perkins and Simon Loseby.
Summary: B. Ward-Perkins
Venantius Fortunatus, Poems 6.5 (De Gelesuintha, 'On Galswinth'), 273-280
From a long poem (of 370 lines), Fortunatus' second longest. It is structured around a series of laments by Galswinth and the women closest to her: first by her mother Goisuinth, at the prospect of her daughter leaving her for ever to be married in Francia, and then by Galswinth at the pain, first of leaving her native city of Toledo, and then Spain. Galswinth's journey to Rouen is outlined (during which Fortunatus saw her as she passed through Poitiers), and her marriage is then briefly mentioned, along with the universal affection she won through her kindness and her conversion to the Catholic faith (lines 237-246). No details of her death are given, other than to mention its suddenness. There follow a lament by Galswinth's nurse (nutrix) over the lifeless body, and an account of Galswinth's burial:
Interea vehitur tristi lacrimata feretro
soluit et exequias obsequialis amor,
Ducitur, ornatur, deponitur, undique fletur, [275]
conditur et tumulo sic peregrina suo.
Nascitur hic subito rerum mirabile signum:
dum pendens lychnus lucet ad obsequium,
decidit in lapidem nec vergit et integer arsit;
nec vitrum saxis nec perit ignis aquis. [280]
'Meanwhile to the accompaniment of tears she was carried out on a sad bier and devoted love performed her funeral rites. She was carried out, dressed in finery, laid in the ground, wept for by all, and buried, though a foreigner, in a tomb all her own. Suddenly a remarkable miracle came about in that place: a lamp that hung there ministering light fell to the stone floor, but intact continued burning: rock did not break the glass nor liquid douse the flame.'
There follow two more laments: by Galswinth's sister Brunhild, on hearing of her death, and by her mother Goisuinth, when the news reaches Spain. Fortunatus closes his poem with some words of consolation: Galswinth is now in heaven in the company of saints Stephen, Peter and Mary (lines 353-370). As evidence of her salvation, Fortunatus, in lines 365-366, returns to the miracle at her grave:
Vitae signa tenet, vitreo cum vase cadente [365]
non aqua restinxit nec petra fregi humi.
'She had a pledge of life, for when a glass lamp fell, liquid did not put it out nor the stony ground break it.'
Text: Leo 1881, 143-144 and 146.
Translation: Roberts 2017, 395 and 401.
Summary: B. Ward-Perkins.
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
MiraclesMiracle after death
Power over objects
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesMonarchs and their family
Women
Source
Gregory of Tours and his Histories:Gregory of Tours wrote the Histories (Historiae) during his episcopate in Tours (573–594). They constitute the longest and most detailed historical work of the post-Roman West. Gregory's focus is Gaul under its Frankish kings, above all the territories of Tours and (to a lesser extent) Clermont, where he had been born and brought up. Much of his work tells of the years when, as bishop of an important see, he was himself centrally involved in Frankish politics. The Histories are often wrongly referred to as a History of the Franks. Although the work does contain a history of the rulers of Francia, it also includes much hagiographical material, and Gregory himself gave it the simple title the 'ten books of Histories' (decem libri historiarum), when he produced a list of his own writings (Histories 10.31).
The Histories consist of ten books whose scope and contents differ considerably. Book 1 skims rapidly through world history, with biblical and secular material from the Creation to the death in AD 397 of Martin of Tours (Gregory’s hero and predecessor as bishop). It covers 5596 years. In Book 2, which covers 114 years, the focus moves firmly into Gaul, covering the years up to the death of Clovis in 511. Books 3 and 4, which cover 37 and 27 years respectively, then move fairly swiftly on, closing with the death of king Sigibert in 575. With Book 5, through to the final Book 10, the pace slows markedly, and the detail swells, with only between two and four years covered in each of the last six books, breaking off in 591. These books are organised in annual form, based on the regnal years of Childebert II (r. 575-595/6).
There continues to be much discussion over when precisely Gregory wrote specific parts of the Histories, though there is general agreement that none of it was written before 575 and, of course, none of it after Gregory's death, which is believed to have occurred in 594. Essentially, scholars are divided over whether Gregory wrote the Histories sequentially as the years from 575 unfolded, with little or no revision thereafter, or whether he composed the whole work over the space of a few years shortly before his death and after 585 (see Murray 2015 for the arguments on both sides). For an understanding of the political history of the time, and Gregory's attitude to it, precisely when the various books were written is of great importance; but for what he wrote about the saints, the precise date of composition is of little significance, because Gregory's attitude to saints, their relics and their miracles did not change significantly during his writing-life. We have therefore chosen to date Gregory's writing of our entries only within the broadest possible parameters: with a terminus post quem of 575 for the early books of the Histories, and thereafter the year of the events described, and a terminus ante quem of 594, set by Gregory's death.
(Bryan Ward-Perkins, David Lambert)
For general discussions of the Histories see:
Goffart, W., The Narrators of Barbarian History (A.D. 550–800): Jordanes, Gregory of Tours, Bede, and Paul the Deacon (Princeton, 1988), 119–127.
Murray, A.C., "The Composition of the Histories of Gregory of Tours and Its Bearing on the Political Narrative," in: A.C. Murray (ed.), A Companion to Gregory of Tours (Leiden and Boston, 2015), 63–101.
Pizarro, J.M., "Gregory of Tours and the Literary Imagination: Genre, Narrative Style, Sources, and Models in the Histories," in: Murray, A Companion to Gregory of Tours, 337–374.
Venantius Fortunatus and his Poems (Carmina):
Venantius Fortunatus was born in northern Italy, near Treviso, and educated at Ravenna. In the early 560s he crossed the Alps into Merovingian Gaul, where he spent the rest of his life, making his living primarily through writing Latin poetry for the aristocracy of northern Gaul, both secular and ecclesiastical. His first datable commission in Gaul is a poem to celebrate the wedding in 566 of the Austrasian royal couple, Sigibert and Brunhild (Galswinth's younger sister). His principal patrons were Radegund and Agnes, the royal founder and the first abbess of the monastery of the Holy Cross at Poitiers, as well as Gregory of Tours, Leontius, bishop of Bordeaux, and Felix, bishop of Nantes, but he also wrote poems for several kings and for many other members of the aristocracy. In addition to occasional poems for his patrons, Fortunatus wrote a four-book epic poem about Martin of Tours, and several works of prose and verse hagiography. The latter part of his life was spent in Poitiers, and in the 590s he became bishop of the city; he is presumed to have died early in the 7th century. For Fortunatus' life, see Brennan 1985; George 1992, 18-34; Reydellet 1994-2004, vol. 1, vii-xxviii; Pietri and Heijmans 2013, 801-22, 'Fortunatus'.
The eleven books of Poems (Carmina) by Fortunatus were almost certainly collected and published at three different times: Books 1 to 7, which are dedicated to Gregory of Tours, in 576; Books 8 and 9 after 584, probably in 590/591; and Books 10-11 only after their author's death. A further group of poems, outside the structure of the books, and known from only one manuscript, has been published in modern editions as an Appendix to the eleven books. For further discussion, see Reydellet 1994-2004, vol. 1, lxviii-lxxi; George 1992, 208-211. And for an overview of Fortunatus' treatment of the cult of saints, see Roberts 2009, 165-243.
For general discussion of Fortunatus and his poetry:
Brennan, B., "The Career of Venantius Fortunatus," Traditio 41 (1985), 49-78.
George, J., Venantius Fortunatus: A Latin Poet in Merovingian Gaul (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992).
Roberts, M., The Humblest Sparrow: The Poetry of Venantius Fortunatus (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2009).
Roberts, M., "Venantius Fortunatus and Gregory of Tours: Poetry and Patronage," in: A.C. Murray (ed.), A Companion to Gregory of Tours (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2015), 35-59.
Poem 6.5:
Although one of Fortunatus' very longest poems, 6.5 'On Galswinth' contains no explicit reference to the person who commissioned it. However, its exclusive focus on Visigothic women – Galswinth herself, her mother Goisunth, her sister Brunhild and (briefly) her unnamed nurse – strongly suggests it was written for her birth-family (her Frankish husband, Chilperic, is not even named; indeed does not feature in the poem, except as the abstract other party to a marriage). Brunhild, Galswinth's sister and the wife of King Sigibert, is its most likely sponsor – Book 6 (which Fortunatus himself assembled) opens with his long poem celebrating the marriage of Sigibert and Brunhild, followed by a shorter poem in praise, first of Sigibert, and then of Brunhild.
The poem is discussed in G. Davis, ‘Ad sidera notus: Strategies of Lament and Consolation in Fortunatus’ De Geleswintha,' Agon 1 (1967), 118-34; and M. Roberts, 'Venantius Fortunatus’ Elegy on the Death of Galswintha (Carm. 6.5),' in R. W. Mathisen and D. Shanzer (eds.), Society and Culture in Late Antique Gaul: Revisiting the Sources (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001), 298-312.
Discussion
These two passages tell, in similar terms, of a miraculous event that occurred at the grave of Galswinth, the Visigothic princess who married the Frankish king Chilperic in c.568, but died not long afterwards. A lamp burning at her grave, which Fortunatus tells us was of glass, fell on the stone pavement, but did not break. According to Fortunatus it continued burning, while Gregory even states that the paving yielded before it, in order to cushion its fall.Gregory and Fortunatus knew each other well, and their accounts are very unlikely to be independent of each other. That by Fortunatus is almost certainly earlier than Gregory's: it reads like a poem written quite soon after Galswinth's death (in 569/570), and was certainly written before 576 (when Fortunatus assembled Books 1-7 of his poems and presented them to Gregory); whereas the current scholarly consensus is that Gregory did not begin writing his Histories before 575.
In Gregory's account Chilperic had Galswinth murdered, in order to be able to lead a tranquil life with his earlier wife, Fredegund. The truth of this, or the extent to which contemporaries thought it, is unclear and much debated, because Gregory's attitude towards Chilperic and Fredegund is generally very hostile. Fortunatus tells us only that the death was sudden; but it is possible that he deliberately omitted any details he had heard, as inappropriate or impolitic for inclusion in the context of his poem.
What was believed to have happened to Galswinth is of central importance for an understanding of Gregory of Tours and of the dynastic politics of Francia in the later 6th century, but is somewhat peripheral to our project on the Cult of Saints. But, in the context of the project, it is notable that both Gregory and Fortunatus recount an unquestionable miracle at Galswinth's grave, similar (but even more dramatic) than the many accounts we have in Gregory of lamps that miraculously continued to burn (without the addition of fresh oil) in the presence of saintly bodies (see, for instance, E00067, E00515 and E02679). Fortunatus at the end of his poem explicitly cites the miracle at Galswinth's grave as evidence that she is with other saints in heaven.
Despite these two accounts of a miracle at her grave, sufficient to demonstrate Galswinth's presence in heaven, there is no evidence that she attracted active cult.
Bibliography
Edition (Gregory of Tours):Krusch, B., and Levison, W., Gregorii episcopi Turonensis Libri historiarum X (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum I.1; 2nd ed.; Hannover, 1951).
Translation:
Thorpe, L., Gregory of Tours, The History of the Franks (Penguin Classics; London, 1974).
Editions (Venantius Fortunatus):
Leo, F., Venanti Honori Clementiani Fortunati presbyteri Italici opera poetica (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi 4.1; Berlin: Apud Weidmannos, 1881).
Reydellet, M., Venance Fortunat, Poèmes, 3 vols. (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1994-2004). (With parallel French translation)
Steinmann, K. Die Gelesuintha-Elegie des Venantius Fortunatus (Carm. VI. 5): Text, Übersetzung, Interpretationen (Zürich, 1975). (Doctoral dissertation with text, German translation and commentary)
Translations:
Roberts, M., Poems: Venantius Fortunatus (Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 46; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017). (With parallel Latin text)
George, J., Venantius Fortunatus, Personal and Political Poems (Translated Texts for Historians 23; Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1995), 40-50.
Bryan Ward-Perkins
10/07/2024
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S02996 | Galswinth, Visigothic princess, wife of Chilperic, ob. c.569/570 | Certain |
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