The anonymous Saxon poet known as Poeta Saxo, who composed the medieval Latin Annales de gestis Caroli magni imperatoris libri quinque ("Annals of the Deeds of Emperor Charlemagne in Five Books") was probably a monk of Saint Gall or possibly Corvey.
[1] He probably began collecting oral tradition about Charlemagne, the conqueror of the Saxons, 883, but he soon graduated to annalistic texts, such as the Annales regni Francorum as compiled under Einhard, and biographic works, like Einhard's Vita Karoli Magni;[2] he composed his poem between 888 and 891, during the reign of Arnulf of Carinthia, whom he addresses.
About the latter the Poeta writes: Est quoque iam notum: vulgaria carmina magnis / Laudibus eius avos et proavos celebrant, / Pippinos, Carolos, Hludowicos et Theodricos / Et Carlomannos Hlothariosque canunt ("As is well known, vernacular poems celebrate and praise / his grandfathers and great grandfathers; / of Pippin, Charles, Louis, and Theoderic / Carlomann and Lothar are their songs made").
The first critical edition of the Poeta's poem was G. H. Pertz, MGH SS, II (Hanover, 1829), which was replaced by an updated version by Paul von Winterfeld in the Poetarum Latinorum Medii Aevi Tomus IV, i (Berlin, 1909).
Paul von Winterfeld, ed., in Poetarum Latinorum Medii Aevi Tomus IVi in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, (Berlin, 1909)