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Helmold of Bosau (c. 1120 – after 1177) was aSaxonhistorian of the 12th century and apriest atBosau nearPlön. He was a friend of the two bishops ofOldenburg in Holstein,Vicelinus (died 1154) and Gerold (died 1163), who did much to Christianize thePolabian Slavs.[1][2]
Helmold was born nearGoslar. He grew up inHolstein, and received his instruction inBrunswick from Gerold, the futurebishop of Oldenburg (1139–42). Later he came under the direction ofVicelinus, the Apostle of theWends, first in the Augustinian monastery ofFaldera, afterwards known asNeumünster (1147–53). He became adeacon about 1150, and finally became a parish priest in 1156 at Bosau onGroßer Plöner See.
At Bishop Gerold's instigation Helmold wrote hisChronica Slavorum, a history of the conquest and conversion of thePolabian Slavs from the time ofCharlemagne[1] (about 800) to 1171. The purpose of this chronicle was to demonstrate how Christianity and the German nationality gradually succeeded in gaining a footing among the Wends, especially in the eastern portion of Holstein. As an eyewitness he gives a clear description in fluent Latin of Vicelinus's missionary labors, of the founding of the bishopric in Oldenburg, of the transfer of this bishopric toLübeck when German commerce at the latter place had become more important than in the former city, of the spread of German influence among the Wends, of the merciless subjugation and extermination of these, and of the summoning to their lands of foreign settlers, principallyWestphalian andDutch. The work is divided into two parts: the first covers a period closing with the year 1168, while the second continues to the year 1171. This second part, however, was written subsequently to 1172.
Helmold was a critical historian, callingHenry the Lion "out for money", and criticizing theWendish Crusades. He said that among the troops ofHenry the Lion during the Wendish Crusade, there was "only talk of money, never about Christianity" and missionary conversion of the Slavs.
Helmold drew his knowledge of the earliest period from the church history ofAdam of Bremen and the Saxon records bearing onHenry IV, besides the life ofWillehadus, the list ofAnsgarius, and perhaps also a life of Vicelinus, but the summaries which he made of these records are unreliable. He is, however, the most important source of information for the history of his own period, his account of which rests on the verbal information of Vicelinus and of Gerold. His fund of information becomes noticeably meager after the latter's death in 1163. His trustworthiness was seriously questioned in the 19th century (see particularly Sehirren,Beiträge zur Kritik holsteinischer Geschichtsquellen, Leipzig, 1876) owing to his antagonism towards theArchbishops of Bremen and his partiality for the Oldenburg-Lübeck bishopric, but it should not be supposed that he was guilty of an intentional falsification of facts. The chronicle was first published in 1556 atFrankfurt, and later inMonumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores, XXI (1868), 11-99, and in "Script. rer. Germ."
Henry the Lion, Duke ofSaxony, was Helmold's patron. The chronicle was continued down to 1209 by AbbotArnold of Lübeck.[1]
TheChronica was first edited in 1556 bySiegmund Schorkel, in Frankfort am Main.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Helmold".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 249.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Schlager, Patricius (1910). "Helmold".Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7.
