ELMOLDO (HELMOLD). – Chronicler, born ca. 1118–22, a disciple of Geroldo, bishop of Lübeck, he spent his youth, until 1155, in the monastery of Faldera, later called Neumünster, in Holstein. From 1156, probably until his death (1177), he lived as a parish priest in Bosau.
He wrote a Chronica Slocorum (up to 1171), a work of singular value because it was partly based on personal memories. In addition to the civil history of the emperors, it speaks of St. Ansgar, St. Vicelin, and the second Crusade of the bishoprics of Ratzeburg and Schwerin. It was continued by Abbot Arnold of Lübeck (v.).
BIBL.: For editions, translations, and older literature, cf. A. Potthart, Bibl. hist. medii aest., I, 2nd ed., Berlin 1896, p. 576. The most recent edition was prepared by B. Schmedler, Helmoldi presbyteri Beauviensis chronica Slocorum, 2nd ed., Hannover and Leipzig 1909; I. C. M. Laurent and W. Wattenbach, Helmold's Chronik der Slocum, Leipzig 1910; E. Freys, s. V. in LThK, IV, col. 952.