Widukind of Corvey

Widukind of Corvey was a Saxon historical chronicler, named after the famous Saxon national hero Widukind. Widukind was born in 925 and died after 973 at Corvey in Lower Saxony.

Widukind entered cloisters at Corvey around 940. He dedicated his works to the Saxon people. He left very important historical accounts of the times of Henry I the Fowler and Otto I the Great. Widukind wrote as a Saxon, proud of his people and history. He did not mention the Pope. A manuscript of his Res gestae saxonicae sive annalium libri tres was first published in Basel in 1532 and is today in the British Library. The best edition is in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptores, edited by G. Waitz (Hanover and Berlin 1826).

Widukind of Corvey started with the wars of Theuderich I, King of Austrasia and the Thuringii, in which the Saxons played a large part. He continued to the times of the Saxon, Ottonen of the Holy Roman Empire. He dedicated his writings to the daughter of Emperor Otto I the Great, Matilda, abbess of Quedlinburg, the descendant of the Saxon leader Widukind.