Ekkehard I the Elder

Ekkehard I the Elder (born c. 910, Toggenburg?, Alemannia [now in Switzerland]—died Jan. 14, 973, Sankt Gallen) was a teacher, monk, hymnist, and poet whom some scholars regard as the author of Waltharius, a celebrated Latin heroic poem based on the life of King Walter of Aquitaine. Of noble birth, Ekkehard was educated at the Benedictine monastery of Sankt Gallen (St. Gall) in Switzerland, then one of Europe’s greatest centres of learning, at which he...