“Thronging Students by the Fleetload": The Early Echternach Manuscripts and Post-Whitby Relations between Ireland and Anglo-Saxon England

Abstract

This paper explores what the early Echternach manuscripts can tell us about relations between Ireland and Anglo-Saxon England in the eighth century. Although the scriptorium at Echternach (in modern-day Luxembourg) was part of a continental monastic house, it was founded at the end of the seventh century by Willibrord, an Anglo-Saxon. Willibrord was educated in Ireland (likely at Rath Melsigi) and manuscript evidence suggests that this Irish monastery provided both personnel and manuscripts for the initial missionaries. This paper will discuss what the evidence provided by these early Echternach-affiliated manuscripts can tell us about Hiberno-Saxon relations. The evidence from the eighth-century Echternach scriptorium suggests a much more complicated relationship than simply the Irish influencing the Anglo-Saxons in England: instead we find a tri-lingual manuscript culture (Latin, Old Irish, Old English) with influences coming from both the Irish and English. This paper will then further explain what this culture of mutual appreciation, teaching, and learning (with an overall goal focused on missionary conversion and manuscript production) can tell us about Hiberno-Saxon scholarly cooperation.