A letter from Radegund of Thuringia (after 568)

Translated letter:

To Artachis After the ashes of the fatherland and the fallen heights of relatives, that the Thuringian land bore from the hostile sword, if I spoke of wars lived through in unfortunate strife, to what tears should I, a captured woman, be drawn first? What remains for me to weep? This people pressed by death or the sweet race[family] ruined by various vicissitudes? For the father falling first, the uncle following him each relative fixed a sad wound in me. A last brother remained, but by execrable fate the sand pressed me equally to his tomb. 10 With all those extinct (alas the rough guts of the one grieving!) you who were the one left, Hamalafred, you lie dead. Do I Radegund seek such after long times? that your page brought this to speak to the sad one? I waited so long for such a gift from my loving one and you send me this act of your [military] service? You direct these silken sheepskins to me now to my thought so that, while I draw threads, I the sister have communication with love? Did your care thus counsel powerful grief? Did the first and last messenger give this? 20 Did we rush elsewhere with ample tears in our desires? It was not for the one desiring to be given bitter sweets. I am twisted by solicitous sense, anxious in my bosom: is such fever of the spirit healed by these waters? I did not deserve to see him alive nor to be at his burial, I am pierced by your funeral rites with higher losses. Why do I yet remind you of these things, dear surrogate-son Artachis, to add with my weepings to what you must weep? I ought rather to bring solace to my relative, but sorrow for the dead compels me to speak bitter things. 30 He was not close to me from distant consanguinity, but was a near relative from the brother of my father. For Bertharius was my father, Hermenedfred was his: we were born from brothers, but we are not in the same world. Or you, dear nephew, give me back the peaceful close[relation] and be mine in love what he was before, and I ask that you often seek me with messages to the monastery and that that place be your help with God, that with [your] pious mother this perennial care may give you back honor on the starry throne. 40 Now may the lord give you [both to be] happy in broad present health and future salvation.

Original letter:

Ad Artachin Post patriae cineres et culmina lapsa parentum, quod hostile acie terra Thoringa tulit, si loquar infausto certamine bella peracta, quas prius ad lacrimas femina rapta trahar? Quid mihi flere vacet? Pressam hanc funere gentem an variis vicibus dulce ruisse genus? Nam pater ante cadens et avunculus inde secutus triste mihi vulnus fixit uterque parens. Restiterat germanus apex, sed sorte nefanda me pariter tumulo pressit harena suo. 10 Omnibus extinctis (heu viscera dura dolentis!) qui super unus eras, Hamalafrede, iaces. Sic Radegundis enim post tempora longa requiror? Pertulit haec tristi pagina vestra loqui? Tale venire diu expectavi munus amantis militiaeque tuae hanc mihi mittis opem? Dirigis ista meo nunc serica vellera penso, ut, dum fila traho, soler amore soror? Siccine consuluit valido tua cura dolori? Primus et extremus nuntius ista daret? 20 Nos aliter lacrimis per vota cucurrimus amplis? Non erat optanti dulcia amara dari. Anxia sollicito torquebar pectora sensu: tanta animi febris his recreatur aquis? Cernere non merui vivum nec adesse sepulchro, perferor exequiis altera damna tuis. Cur tamen haec memorem tibi, care Artachis alumne, fletibus atque meis addere flenda tuis? Debueram potius solamina ferre parenti, sed dolor extincti cogit amara loqui. 30 Non fuit ex longa consanguinitate propinquus, sed de fratre patris proximus ille parens. Nam mihi Bertharius pater, illi Hermenefredus: germanis geniti nec sumus orbe pari. Vel tu, care nepos, placidum mihi redde propinquum et sis amore meus quod fuit ille prius, meque monasterio missis rogo saepe requires ac vestro auxilio stet locus iste deo, ut cum matre pia vobis haec cura perennis possit in astrigero reddere digna throno. 40 Nunc dominus tribuat vobis felicibus ut sit praesens larga salus, illa futura decus.

Historical context:

Radegund addressed this epistolary poem to her nephew (technically a first cousin once-removed), Artachis, after he had informed her of the death of his father, her beloved cousin, Hamalafred (Amalfred). In exile after the fall of their native Thuringia, they lived in Constantinople.

Printed source:

Venantii Fortunati, Opera Poetica, ed. Fridericus Leo (Berlin: Weidmann, 1881), Appendix, 278-79.

Date:

after 568