The Medieval Elbe
Slavs and Germans on the Frontier

The Deeds of Wiprecht

Ekbert II


Hence, his rival, Margrave Ekbert of Brunswick, strove to attack his lands with a large army. He soon passed by the castle at Teuchern. Having heard this, Wiprecht ordered his men to grab their arms immediately and to attack that man, who was imagining nothing of the sort. The margrave, terrified by the unexpected attack, considered the safety of flight. But with his adversaries seriously pressing upon him in pursuit, the fight was engaged near the same castle. There, a certain miles, who was most dear to Ekbert, attacked Wiprecht with a lance. He thrust through Wiprecht’s shield and knocked out two of his teeth. Wiprecht immediately pierced him with his sword and, with due retaliation, divided his forehead down the middle. Then he turned the margrave’s whole multitude to flight. In the year of the Lord 1081. In the year of the Lord 1082. In the year of the Lord 1083. In the year of the Lord 1084. In the year of the Lord 1085. In the year of the Lord 1086. In the year of the Lord 1087. In the year of the Lord 1088. In the year of the Lord 1089. In the year of the Lord 1090. Margrave Ekbert, having enlarged his army, was again thinking about attacking Wiprecht's territories. But before he drew near to them, he died dishonourably in a certain mill.

Analysis

Note that this short section wedges into the annal format a short story of Wiprecht's fateful encounter with Ekbert II, erstwhile margrave of Meissen, casting him as Wiprecht's local rival before his famously ignomineous death.  Since Ekbert is mentioned nowhere else in the Deeds, these two paragraphs must be the work of the same author. However, in between there appears a catalog of emtpy years, including those in which the Italian expedition, described earlier in the Deeds, took place.  Whether the Ekbert author found these blank years and used them to anchor his two paragraphs, or whether he penned these years himself in an effort not only to date (correctly) Ekbert's death in 1090 but to suggest Wiprecht's tooth was knocked out in fighting with Ekbert's man much earlier.   Obscured here altogether is Ekbert's complicated role in the rebellion against King Henry IV, whose crown he is said to have claimed for himself, not long before his murder.