Concept

Eilmer of Malmesbury

Summary

Eilmer of Malmesbury (also known as Oliver due to a scribe's miscopying, or Elmer, or Æthelmær) was an 11th-century English Benedictine monk best known for his early attempt at a gliding flight using wings. Eilmer was a monk of Malmesbury Abbey who wrote on astrology. All that is known of him is from the Gesta regum Anglorum (Deeds of the English Kings), written by the eminent medieval historian William of Malmesbury in about 1125. Being a fellow monk of the same abbey, William almost certainly obtained his account directly from people who knew Eilmer when he was an old man. Later scholars, such as the American historian of technology Lynn White, have attempted to estimate Eilmer's date of birth based on a quotation in William's Deeds about Halley's Comet, which appeared in 1066. However, William recorded Eilmer's quotation not to establish his age, but to show that a prophecy was fulfilled when the Normans invaded England. You've come, have you? – You've come, you source of tears to many mothers. It is long since I saw you; but as I see you now you are much more terrible, for I see you brandishing the downfall of my country. If Eilmer had seen Halley's Comet 76 years earlier in 989, he could have been born about 984, making him about five or six years old when he first saw the comet, and therefore old enough to remember it. However the periodicity of comets was probably unknown in Eilmer's time, and so his remark "It is long since I saw you" could have referred to a different, later comet. Since it is known that Eilmer was an "old man" in 1066, and that he had made the flight attempt "in his youth", the event is placed some time during the early 11th century, perhaps in its first decade. Beyond those based on William's account, there are no other known sources documenting Eilmer's life. William records that, in Eilmer's youth, he had read and believed the Greek myth of Daedalus. Thus, Eilmer fixed wings to his hands and feet and launched himself from the top of a tower at Malmesbury Abbey: He was a man learned for those times, of ripe old age, and in his early youth had hazarded a deed of remarkable boldness.

Official source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eilmer_of_Malmesbury

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.