Citation:
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Abstract:
Treats the ninth-century Carolingian panegyrist Ermold Nigellus (aka Ermoldus Nigellus, Ermold the Black, Ermold le Noir, Ermoldo Nigello). In the late 820s, Ermold wrote a four-book panegyric in elegiac couplets to honor emperor Louis the Pious (r. 813-840), ostensibly to attain release from his exile. Argues that Ermold inserts himself into his poetry to remind his royal patrons of his usefulness as a propagandist, while carefully emphasizing his un-threatening status by rhetorical self-deprecation. Ermold balances between self-promotion and self-deprecation, as can be seen even in his sobriquet Nigellus (“little black one”), which may serve as a humble self-comparison to the famous poet and scholar Alcuin, who was known as Albinus (“the white”). Ermold’s authorial strategies shed light on the formation of Carolingian ideology by panegyric, which promotes rulers while allowing the promoters to benefit from their work.