Warner of Rouen (french: Garnier de Rouen) was a
Norman poet who wrote in
Latin in the first quarter of the 11th century.
Nothing is known about Warner beyond what he relates about himself in his two surviving poems. He describes himself as a servant (''
famulus'') of the Archbishop
Robert II of Rouen (), which suggests that he was either a canon of
Rouen Cathedral or a monk of
Saint-Ouen Abbey. He was educated in the
classics
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
, but the first direct evidence of a school at Rouen dates from 1028.
Warner's two poems are both found in a single 12th-century manuscript, now Paris,
BnF lat. 8121A, at folios 3v–11v. They were both composed during the reign of Robert's brother,
Richard II, Duke of Normandy (996–1026). One is the defence of an unnamed master (''magister'') from the slander of a monk of
Mont-Saint-Michel. The slander is said to have been uttered in Saint-Ouen, suggesting that the master may be the abbot, either Hildebert (died 1006) or Henry (after 1006). In this poem, Warner shows familiarity with the
Benedictine Rule. The master may even be
Benedict of Nursia
Benedict of Nursia ( la, Benedictus Nursiae; it, Benedetto da Norcia; 2 March AD 480 – 21 March AD 548) was an Italian Christian monk, writer, and theologian who is venerated in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Orient ...
. Warner poses as his disciple (''discipulus'').
The other poem is a polemic against an immoral
Irish poet named Moriuht. Untitled in the manuscript, it is conventionally known as ''Moriuht''. Both are written in the form of
epistle
An epistle (; el, ἐπιστολή, ''epistolē,'' "letter") is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as par ...
s addressed to Archbishop Robert. ''Moriuht'' is also addressed to Robert's mother
Gunnor and King
Robert II of France. The poem tells how the grammarian Moriuht left Ireland in search of his abducted wife Glicerium. He is captured and raped by
Vikings, who sell him to a
Northumbrian nunnery. There he plans to impregnate every nun, and with his sons march and conquer Italy. Caught ''in flagrante'', he is expelled. Captured once more by Vikings, he is sold into slavery in
Saxony. On account of his ravenous sexual appetite for both men and women, he is driven out. By magic, he learns that his wife is a slave in Normandy. With money from an unnamed countess, he buys her and ransoms their child. He tries to make a living in Rouen as a poet, but his poetry is awful. Warner includes an example and critiques it, citing
Statius,
Virgil,
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...
and
Bede
Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
.
Notes
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Warner of Rouen
11th-century Normans
11th-century writers in Latin
fr:Garnier de Rouen