by Alec Muffett
Notker the Stammerer (Latin: Notker Balbulus) (c. 840 – 6 April 912), also called Notker the Poet or Notker of Saint Gall, was a musician, author, poet, and Benedictine monk at the Abbey of Saint Gall in modern Switzerland. He is commonly accepted to be the Monk of Saint Gall (Monachus Sangallensis), the author of De Carolo Magno, a book of anecdotes about the Emperor Charlemagne.
via Notker the Stammerer – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
I’d not encountered him before, butI knew of Michael the Stammerer one of the Byzantine emperors.
Also, more proximately but less regally, Le Pétomane.
Though in general I’d say Douglas’s knack was holding big, bold mirrors up to the absurdities in life so big most people never spotted them. All-too-plausible names like that were just a sideline. Terry Pratchet is the past master with wonderful references like Sator Square, Long Hogsmeat, Sto Lat and Llamedos.
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