Eike of Repgow

His ancestors had moved to the Gau of Serimunt, south of Magdeburg, in the 12th century, where they acquired land in the village of Reppichau (in present-day Saxony-Anhalt).

He was versed both in Canon and Roman law; so it is thought that he was educated at a cathedral school, possibly in Halberstadt, or more likely at Magdeburg under Archbishop Wichmann von Seeburg.

[3] It is clear that he was a respected personage, but his precise place in the feudal hierarchy is not known with certainty, since he is sometimes listed among the free nobles and sometimes among the bondsmen (Dienstmannen).

As the author writes in the verse prologue of the Sachsenspiegel, he first wrote it in Latin and later, with some reluctance, at the wishes of Count Hoyer of Falkenstein, translated it into German.

However, the current consensus is that the Vetus auctor de beneficiis is indeed the Latin original of the feudal law section of the Sachsenspiegel.

[8] The origin of the modern German saying "Wer zuerst kommt, mahlt zuerst" ("first come, first served", literally he who comes first, grinds first) can be traced to Eike of Repgow, who wrote (in the Sachsenspiegel) Die ok irst to der molen kumt, die sal erst malen (in modern English: He who comes to the mill first shall grind first).