Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."
Updated 11-20-08
Huneberc of Heidenheim
/Hugeburc /Hygeburg (fl. 778-786)
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"NO ONE EVER AGAIN SHALL SAY IT IS ALL NONSENSE."
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Huneberc was born in Wessex, in south-central England; sometime after 761 she went from England to join a Benedictine monastery at Heidenheim (in Thuringia). The monastery had been founded in 752 by her relatives, Willibald (701-786/7) and Wynnebald (702-761). It was a "double" monastery: at the start, Wynnebald was abbot of the men and his sister Walburga abbess of the women. After Wynnebald's death, Walburga ruled both men and women. It was under Walberga that Huneberc began her life at Heidenheim.
Sometime before 787 Huneberc wrote two works: Vita Willibaldi episcopi Eischstetensis and Vita Wynnebaldi abbatis Heidenheimensis, the lives of her two kinsmen. Only the preface to the combined whole and the Vita Willibaldi have been translated; the latter is usually called the Hodoeporicon (literally, "relation of a voyage"). It is Willibald's account of his travels some fifty years earlier, as told to Huneberc and others while he was visiting Heidenheim in 778.
We know about Huneberc only what she tells us in her preface to the vitae: she is young, she is from "the same genealogical root" as the two men of whom she will write, she knows herself "capable of describing" the scenes she will present, and she knows that she can "place in the hands of readers something worthy of remembrance."
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print.
Information about secondary sources.
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1. The Hodoeporicon, preceded by Huneberc's preface to the whole Vita Willibaldi...et vita Wynnebaldi..., both translated by Charles H. Talbot (1954); Talbot's introduction and notes are also given (for excerpts from a different translation, see below, under "In print").
2. An alternate version of the
preface by Thomas Head (here called "prologue")
to the vitae. (In her preface, Huneberc needed to defend
her telling of Willibald's secular adventures because in the
view of at least her clerical readers the pre-priestly life was
unimportant. She also needed to defend a mere woman's writing
about a bishop and an abbot; note that her three uses of the
"humility topos" are each followed by a "however"
or a "but.")
3. About half way down the page, a biography of Walburga that
includes a description of and brief passage from Huneberc's other
work, Vita
Wynnebaldi.
4. Essays, etc.:
(a) The opening of Pauline Head's 2002 article, "Who Is the Nun from Heidenheim? A Study of Hugeburc's Vita Willibaldi" (for information on the full article, see below, under "Secondary sources").
(b) At Lina Eckenstein's book, Woman Under Monasticism (1896), link to the chapter, "Anglo-Saxon Nuns Abroad." There, use your browser's search function to go to "Heidenheim"; you will find a summary of the Hodoeporicon and a brief description of the Vita Wynnebaldi. When Eckenstein wrote, the name of the writer of the two works was unknown (the footnote suggests it was Walburga); the author was identified as "Huneberc" only in 1931.
(c) An essay by Marianne Dorman, "Hugeberc the Scribe."
(d) The entries in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia on Huneberc's kinsmen, Willibald and Wynnebald; and on her kinswoman and abbess, Walburga. (The author of the latter entry was one of those who thought that Walburga wrote Huneberc's two vitae.)
5. For historical background:
(a) In this 1999 essay by Thomas Head, "The Development of Hagiography and the Cult of Saints in Western Christendom to the Year 1000," click on "The 'barbarian' or successor kingdoms (sixth through the eighth century)."
(b) Suzanne Fonay Wemple's 1981 essay, "Scholarship in Women's Communities" covers the period from 500 to 900; Huneberc is briefly mentioned.
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[This collection contains Talbot's translation of the main part of the Hodoeporicon and Head's translation of the preface. The translations are available online, but the book's introductions, by Thomas F.X. Noble and by Head, are useful for background on the period:]
Soldiers of Christ: saints and saints' lives from late antiquity
and the early Middle Ages / edited by Thomas F.X. Noble and Thomas
Head. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press,
c1995. (xliv, 383 p.: map)
LC#: BX4659.E85 S65 19; ISBN: 0271013443, 0271013451
Includes bibliographical references (p. [363]-369) and indexes
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[John Wilkinson's collection of translations include substantial excerpts from the main part of the Hodoeporicon. Wilkinson excludes "interpolations and florid phrases" (p .233), which of course are often where Huneberc's own style is revealed; however, what is given is an interesting alternative to the Talbot version. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Jerusalem pilgrims before the Crusades [newly translated with
supporting documents and notes by] John Wilkinson. Warminster,
England: Aris & Phillips, c2002 [2nd ed.]. (xii, 420 p.:
ill., maps)
LC#: BX2320.5.P19 J47; ISBN: 0856687464
Previous ed.: 1977. Translation of 22 texts dealing with Christian
pilgrimage to the Holy Land, with introd. and gazetteer by J.
Wilkinson. Includes bibliographical references (p. 407-409) and
indexes
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"...not on the basis of legends or untrustworthy stories."
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[Wilkinson's introduction gives a brief passage from Huneberc's preface:]
We should realize that this account is given not on the basis of legends or untrustworthy stories, but, as it were, under his [Willibald's] own watchful eye, as he told it to us by word of mouth. We decided to listen to him, and to take it down at his dictation. With me were two deacons who heard it on Tuesday 23 June. [p.22]
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"...to travel to distant foreign lands and find out all
about them."
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[In 720, 20-year-old Willibald urged his father and younger brother Wynnebald to leave their home in Hampshire for a pilgrimage to Rome:]
[Willibald] was eager to go on pilgrimage and travel to distant foreign lands and find out all about them. When he had decided to brave the perils of the pathless sea he went immediately to his father.... He begged him earnestly to advise him on the project and to give him permission; but not content with that, he asked his father to go with him. He invited him to share in this hazardous enterprise....
At first his father declined, excusing himself from the journey on the plea that he could not leave his wife and small children. It would be cruel, and unchristian, he said, to deprive them of his protection and to leave them at the mercy of others. [Talbot, p.148]
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"They passed safely through the ambushes of the fierce and
arrogant soldiery."
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[Willibald convinced his father and brother. The three men started out, but the father died on the way (there is no further mention of his "wife and small children"); after burying him at Lucca in Tuscany, the two sons continued on:]
Immediately afterwards they set out on their way, going steadily on foot through the vast land of Italy, through the deep valleys, over the craggy mountains, across the level plains, climbing upwards towards the peaks of the Apennines.
And after they had gazed on the peaks covered with snow and wreathed in banks of cloud, with the help of God and the support of his saints they passed safely through the ambushes of the fierce and arrogant soldiery and came with all their relatives and company to the shrine of St Peter, Prince of the Apostles. [Talbot, p.149]
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"I have seen...fellow-tribesmen of theirs."
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[In 723, without Wynnebald but with other travelers, Willibald went from Rome toward Jerusalem and the land around it, all of which had been in the control of Muslim rulers since the mid-600s. In the next year they reached the coast of Syria:]
At that point there were seven other people making the journey with Willibald. The heathen Saracens, who had discovered that some strange travellers had arrived, suddenly arrested them and took them prisoner. Not knowing what country they had come from, they took them to be spies.
They took their prisoners along to a rich old gentleman so that he could have a look at them. So the old gentleman asked them from where they came and what kind of business they had been sent to do. They replied by telling him the exact reason for their whole journey from the time it started. Then the old gentleman answered as follows: "Many times I have seen people coming here, fellow-tribesmen of theirs, from those parts of the world. They mean no harm. All they want to do is fulfill their law." [Wilkinson, p.236]
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"They have committed no crime against us."
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[The travellers were allowed to go to the local governor to seek permits to go to Jerusalem, but he had them imprisoned. Three Christians who did business with the government, went on the prisoners' behalf to the Syrian caliph:]
So, later on, when all three appeared before the King and.... told him all the details, the King asked what country they came from. They replied, "These men have come from some western shore, where the sun goes down. We know of no land beyond theirs, nothing but water."
The King answered, "Why should we punish them? They have committed no crime against us. Give them their permit and let them go!" [Wilkinson, pp.237-39]
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"They would at once have inflicted on them the death penalty."
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[The Muslims were perhaps too trusting. After more than two years of visiting all the pilgrim sites around Jerusalem, Willibald left to go up to Constantinople; as he prepared to leave, he did a bit of smuggling. Huneberc seems quite proud of his outwitting the "heathen" customs inspectors:]
Earlier on, when he was in Jerusalem... Willibald had bought had bought himself some balsam and put it into a flagon. Then he took a cane which was hollow, and put it down inside, filling it with mineral oil. When he had put it inside the flagon, he cut the cane to the same height as the flagon, so that the edges were level with each other. Then he stoppered the flagon.
And when they came to Tyre, the citizens arrested them and searched all their baggage in case they were concealing anything, and if they had found anything they would at once have inflicted on them the death penalty.
So they held a thorough search of everything , but found nothing apart from this one flagon belonging to Willibald. They opened it, and smelt to find what was inside it. But when they smelt the mineral oil (which was on top, inside the cane) and failed to find the balsam (underneath the mineral oil, in the flagon), they let them go. [Wilkinson, p.247]
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"Willibald... was inquisitive and eager to see what this
Hell was like."
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[After at least two years in Constantinople, Willibald sailed back to Italy and stopped to sightsee at a volcano (popularly believed to be an entrance to Hell). Note the comparison Huneberc uses to convey the scene to Germans and Anglo-Saxons who had never seen a volcano. (The reference to snow is one of those that Wilkinson omits as "padding" [p.22]):]
Willibald, who was inquisitive and eager to see what this Hell was like inside, wanted to climb to the top of the mountain underneath which the crater lay; but he was unable to do so because the ashes of black tartar, which had risen to the edge of the crater, lay there in heaps: and like the snow which, when it drops from heaven with its falling masses of flakes, heaps them up into mounts, the ashes lay piled in heaps on the top of the mountain and prevented Willibald from going any farther. [Talbot, p.160]
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"...to set them all down and pass them on."
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[Instead of going back to England, Willibald joined the Benedictines at Monte Cassino and stayed there for 10 years, until Pope Gregory III sent him to work for the missionary Boniface in Germany. Within two years, he was made a bishop; ten years after that he and Wynnebald founded the Heidenheim monastery. In closing, Huneberc again emphasizes the factual basis of her report, as opposed to the "legends or untrustworthy stories," referred to in the prologue:]
The lengthy account of Willibald's journey is now ended and done.... And we have attempted to find out about every detail, to set them all down and pass them on. We heard them from none other than himself, and wrote them down at his dictation in the monastery of Heidenheim. I had as my witnesses his deacons and several other clergy of his. I say this in order that no one ever again shall say it is all nonsense. [Wilkinson, p. 251]
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[This collection of translations by Talbot includes the print version of the preface to the vitae and the Hodoeporicon used online:]
Talbot, Charles H., ed. and tr. The Anglo-Saxon missionaries
in Germany; being the lives of SS. Willibrord, Boniface, Sturm,
Leoba, and Lebuin, together with the Hodoeporicon of St. Willibald
and a selection from the correspondence of St. Boniface (The
Makers of Christendom). New York, Sheed and Ward, 1954. ( xx,
234 p.)
LC#: BR754.A1 T3
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[Elizabeth Alvida Petroff's anthology includes all but one paragraph of Talbot's translation. Note, though, that Petroff's introduction errs in the name of Huneberc's monastery and in describing her as abbess. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Medieval women's visionary literature / [edited by] Elizabeth
Alvilda Petroff. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. (xii,
402 p.)
LC#: BR53 .M4 1986; ISBN: 0195037111, 019503712X
Bibliography: p. 373-391.
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[Pauline Head's article shows Huneberc's going beyond the conventions of hagiography and revealing her own enthusiasms in the details she chooses to give of Willibald's pilgrimage and in the metaphors that tie together the prologue and the text. Quoted passages are translated by Head and Lara Hinchberger. (Four-fifths of the way down the page, see the issue's table of contents online.):]
Head, Pauline. Who is the nun from Heidenheim? A study of
Hugeburc's Vita Willibaldi. Medium Aevum, 71 ( 2002),
29-46.
LC#: PB1 .M49; ISSN: 0025-8385
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[Ora Limor's article compares the report written by Adomnan on a 670s pilgrim, Arculf, with Huneberc's report on Willibald. Limor looks at the purposes of the reports and their contents, finding Huneberc's the more dynamic presentation of her hero's adventures. (Halfway down the page, see the issue's table of contents online.):]
Limor, Ora. Pilgrims and Authors: Adomnan's De locis sanctis
and Hugeburc's Hodoeporicon Sancti Willibaldi. Revue Benedictine,
114 (2004), pp. 253-275.
LC#: BX3001 .R4; ISSN: 0035-0893, 0035-0393
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[In Maribel Dietz' study, one chapter, "Christian Travel
in the Early Islamic Period," includes a discussion of the
Hodoeporicon (pp. 200-211). In describing Willibald's
travels, Dietz points out what Huneberc did and did not emphasize,
and suggests what is thus revealed about both Willibald and Huneberc.
Quoted passages are given in Dietz' translation, with the original
Latin in the notes. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Dietz, Maribel. Wandering monks, virgins, and pilgrims: ascetic
travel in the Mediterranean world, A.D. 300-800. University Park,
Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, c2005. (ix, 270 p.)
LC#: BX2435 .D54 2005; ISBN: 0271026774
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[Peter Dronke briefly discusses Huneberc's prologue at the end
of his chapter "From Perpetua to the Eighth Century,"
and translates her opening lines. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Dronke, Peter. Women writers of the Middle Ages: a critical
study of texts from Perpetua (d. 203) to Marguerite Porete (d.1310).
Cambridge [Cambridgeshire]; New York: Cambridge University Press,
1984. (xi, 338 p.)
LC#: PN671 .D7 1984; ISBN: 0521255805, 0521275733
Includes indexes. Bibliography: p. 320-332
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[Although its focus is on the architectural evidence for the churches of Huneberc's kinsmen Willibald and Wynnebald, the opening of David Parsons' article (pp. 31-40) provides useful historical background on Heidenheim and on the missionaries' activities. (See the issue's table of contents online, with a link to the article abstract.):]
Parsons, David. Some churches of the Anglo-Saxon missionaries
in southern Germany: A review of the evidence. Early Medieval
Europe, 8 (1999), 31-67.
LC#: D111 .E185; ISSN: 0963-9462
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Updated 11-20-08