Helinand of Froidmont facts for kids

Helinand of Froidmont (born around 1150, died probably 1237) was a talented writer from the Middle Ages. He was a poet, a historian who wrote chronicles, and a religious writer.

Helinand's Life Story

Helinand was born around 1150 in a place called Pronleroy in France. His parents were from Flanders. He studied with a teacher named Ralph of Beauvais.

Helinand was a skilled minstrel, which is like a singer and entertainer. He was liked by King Philip Augustus and enjoyed life for a while. But around 1190, he decided to become a Cistercian monk at the Froidmont monastery in the diocese of Beauvais.

He changed from someone who enjoyed worldly pleasures to a very religious and disciplined monk. He spent his free time studying religious topics. After he became a priest, he spent his time preaching and writing.

Historians are not sure exactly when he died, but it was probably around 1223, 1229, or 1237. The Church in Beauvais honors him as a saint and celebrates his special day on February 3.

Sometimes, Helinand of Froidmont is confused with another Cistercian monk named Helinand of Perseigne. However, there is no real proof that they were the same person.

Helinand's Writings

Chronicon (World History)

Helinand is most famous for his book called Chronicon. This was a huge world history written in Latin. It had forty-nine books, but less than half of them have survived today. He worked on this history from 1211 to 1223.

Helinand included many of his own writings in the Chronicon. These included moral lessons, twenty-eight sermons for Church holidays, and a letter encouraging a monk to return to his monastery. The Chronicon itself was mostly a collection of texts from many different sources.

Another famous writer named Vincent of Beauvais used Helinand's Chronicon to help him write his own world history, called Speculum Historiale.

The parts of the Chronicon that still exist include:

• Books 1-18, which cover history from the creation of the world to the death of Alexander the Great.
• Pieces from Books 19-44, which were copied into Vincent of Beauvais's Speculum Maius.
• Books 45-49, which cover the period from 634 to 1204. These later books were also used by another Cistercian monk, Aubri de Trois-Fontaines, for his own history.

Some people thought Helinand's history wasn't very good for facts. However, Helinand often stopped his story to tell readers when his sources disagreed. He tried to make sense of them, much like a scholar would.

The Chronicon mainly followed a timeline. But Helinand often went off-topic to talk about the Bible, write against astrology, or discuss saints and their stories. He also wrote about animals or included parts from Latin literature. He is often quoted for his ideas about the meaning of the word "graal," which is the Holy Grail. The Chronicon is important not just as a history book, but also for these interesting side notes. For example, he wrote about the flight of Eilmer of Malmesbury, who tried to fly with wings.

Other Works

Helinand also wrote a work in Old French called Les Vers de la Mort ("Verses of Death"). He wrote this shortly after becoming a monk, between 1194 and 1197. In this poem, Helinand asks Death to remind his friends to leave behind worldly things.

The poem has fifty stanzas, each with twelve lines. This style was later copied by other poets and is called the "helinandian stanza." In the poem, Death is shown as an active force everywhere. Helinand doesn't use scary details, except for the title, which plays on the words "vers" (worms) and "vers" (verses). This poem shows Helinand's talent as a trouvère, which was a type of medieval poet. He was a bit like a very early version of later French poets such as François Villon.

As a well-known preacher, Helinand wrote more than sixty Latin sermons. His sermons were written in a clear Latin style. They showed that he knew a lot about both ancient non-religious poets and the important early Christian writers called the Fathers of the Church.

See also

In Spanish: Helinando de Froidemont para niños