Battle of Saucourt
The Battle of Saucourt took place on August 3, 881 between Danish-Norman troops and the army of the Carolingian Empire under Ludwig III. (France) and Karlmann II. Near Saucourt-en-Vimeu in what is now the municipalities of Nibas and Ochancourt in Picardy .
The battle was preceded by Viking incursions into the Frankish Empire.
9,000 Viking warriors are said to have died in the battle . So it is reported:
“Nepos vero illius cum Nordmannis dimicans nobiliter triumphavit; nam novem milia equitum ex eis occidisse perhibetur. "
“His nephew fought against the Normans and triumphed gloriously; because he is said to have killed 9,000 horsemen of them. "
The battle is celebrated in the Old High German Ludwigslied and the Chanson de geste Gormont et Isembart . The text passage in the Ludwigslied reads:
"Lietz her heidine man Obar seo lidan, Thiot Urankono Manon sundiono. Sume sar uerlorane Uuurdun sum erkorane. Haranskara tholata Ther er misselebeta. "
“He sent pagans across the sea to exhort the Franks about their sins. Some were lost immediately, others were chosen [for eternal salvation]. "
They are also mentioned in the annals of St. Bertin . In these it says:
“Louis son frère était retourné en son pays pour s'opposer aux Normands qui, ravageant tout sur leur route, occupaient le monastère de Corbie, la cité d'Amiens et d'autres saints lieux. Après en avoir tué une grande partie et mis les autres en fuite, Louis avec son armée tourna lui-même le dos et prit la fuite sans être poursuivi de personne, montrant ainsi, par le jugement de Dieu, que ce qui s'était fait contre les Normands l'avait été par la vertu non pas humaine mais divine. "
“Ludwig, his brother, had returned to face the Normans, who devastated everything on their way, occupied the Corbie monastery, the city of Amiens and other holy places. After he had killed a large number of them and put the others to flight, Ludwig turned his back and fled without being persecuted by anyone, thus showing by the judgment of God that what was being done against the Normans had happened through divine and not human power. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Reinhold Rau (excerpt.) Annales Fuldenses. In: Sources on the Carolingian Empire history. Third part. Darmstadt 1975
- ^ Translation by Horst Dieter Schlosser