HELMOLD  , an historian of the 12th

century, was a priest at Bosau near Plon . He was a friend of the two bishops of Oldenburg, Vicelin (d . 1154) and Gerold (d . 1163), who did much to Christianize the Slays . At Bishop Gerold's instigation Helmold wrote his Chronica Slavorum, a history of the conquest and conversion of the Slavonic countries from the time of Charlemagne . For the life and times of Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, Helmold's chronicle, as that of a contemporary who had exceptional means for gaining information, is of first-rate importance . The history was continued down to 1209 by Abbot Arnold of Lubeck . The Chronica were first edited by Siegmund Schorkel (Frankfort a . M., 1556) . The best edition is by J . M . Lappenberg in Mon .

Germ. hist. scriptores, xxi . (1869) . For

critical works on the Chronica see A . Potthast, Bibliotheca hist. med. aevi, s .