Preface

dedicated to the ninth-century monk and poet Notker of St Gall, traditionally dubbed "the stammerer," and his Liber Ymnorum.Usually, the subject chosen for such occasions is expected to reflect a central feature of the speaker's interests.Latin liturgical texts, mostly of poetic provenance, were -and still are -among the principal subjects of my scholarly activities.The choice of Notker and his seminal role for the history of the sequence as the subject of the lecture thus seemed perfectly natural, given the continuous and substantial focus of my work on this distinctly medieval poetic genre.The slightly provocative title of the lecture ("The Poet as Hero?") gestured to another field of interest over this period in the work of the Freiburg collective Helden -Heroisierungen -Heroismen.The work of the scholars and students at this collaborative research center not only stimulated my interest in narratives of posthumous idealization, but also fostered deeper awareness of the interconnections between heroic and hagiographical discourse.In this, Notker proved exemplary, revealing the subtle but profound ways by which human poetic creativity is transformed through retrospective idealization into the product of divine inspiration.The subject continued to be on my mind when, shortly after retiring from Freiburg, I was able to spend several months at the Centre for Medieval Studies and the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto.My sojourn provided a welcome opportunity to return to the subject and to expand what were hardly more than provisional explorations.It also gave me the opportunity to reshape earlier versions of the present work in lectures.If they have now materialized as a publication under the imprint of the Institute, it is a lovely way of bringing these endeavors full circle, while offering something in return for an inspiring and rewarding experience that also opened new doors.Back now, however, to the Liber Ymnorum.Treating it as an authorial work remains essential to my argument, for this groundbreaking achievement is inextricably linked with its originator Notker, remembered and venerated at St Gall since the tenth century as the one "who made the sequences," qui sequentias com-

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