The name Hibernicus exul, Latin for 'Irish exile,' is nearly all that is known about the putative author of a writer who lived at the time of Charlemagne during the 8th century AD. Besides the following pedagogical epigram, the Irish exile wrote an encomium as a tribute to Charlemagne for the latter's defeat of King Tassillo III of Bavaria in 787 AD. A number of his poems are still extant, and are kept at the Vatican Library. It is possible that the writer might have been the Irish monk, Dicuill, who wrote on astronomical and geographical issues, as well accounts of his travels to the offshore islands of Scotland and Ireland. His works have been cited for evidence that Irish adventurers and holy men might have ranged as far as the Faroe Islans, which lie north of Scotland towards the Arctic Circle. Those Irishmen might have lived in the Faroes long before the Vikings.
Learn now, boys! The age for learning passes swiftly,
time goes by, as the heavens revolve the days fllow.
Just as the swift charger gallops eagerly over the fields,
so youth flies by without lingering as it passes.
The pliant tip of the twig curves beneath an easy pressure, 
but no one can bend the stiff boughs.
While your minds happen to be receptive, my friends,
waste no time and learn the divine commands of God.
Do not squander the period generously granted to you,
for without learning the life of man perishes.


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