Book 3

Chapter VIII.

After these things three dukes of the Langobards, that is, Amo. Zaban, and Rodanus, invaded Gaul, [1] and Amo indeed, taking the way of Ebredunum (Embrun), approached as far as Machoavilla (Manosque) [2] which Mummulus had acquired by gift of the king, and there he fixed his tents. Zaban however, going down by way of the city of Dea (Die), [3] came to Valentia [4] (Valence), while Rodanus approached the city of Gratianopolis (Grenoble). Amo indeed subdued the province of Arelate (Aries) with the cities which lie around, and coming up to Stony Field itself, which lies by the city of Massilia (Marseilles), he laid waste everything he could find, and laying siege to Aquae (Aix) [5] he received twenty-two pounds of silver [6] and departed from that place. Rodanus also and Zaban in like manner destroyed by fire and rapine the places to which they had come. When these things were reported to Mummulus the patrician, he came with a strong band and fought first with Rodanus who was besieging Gratianopolis and killed many of his army, and compelled Rodanus himself, wounded by a lance, to flee to the tops of the mountains, from whence, dashing through the winding ways of the woods with five hundred men who had remained to him, he came to Zaban, who was then besieging the city of Valentia (Valence), and reported to him all the things that had been done. And when they had come to the city of Ebredunum, in like manner plundering everything, Mummulus came to meet them with a countless army, and when battle was joined he overcame them. Then Zaban and Rodanus making their way again to Italy came to Secusium (Susa), which city Sisinnius, then master of soldiers, was holding on behalf of the emperor. The servant of Mummulus, coming to him, handed him a letter sent by Mummulus and said that the latter was quickly approaching. When they learned this, Zaban and Rodanus at once departed thence to their own homes. When Amo heard these things, having collected all his booty, he set out to return to Italy, but being hindered by the snows, he abandoned the greater part of his booty and was able with difficulty to break through the Alpine path with his followers, and thus he came to his own country.[7]

[1] A. D. 575. Zaban had invaded the Swiss dominions of Gunthram the year before but had been defeated and escaped to Italy (Hodgkin, V, 219).
[2] On the river Druentia (Durance), (Abel) near Avignon (Hodgkin, V, 221).
[3] In the department of Drome (Abel), on the Drome.
[4] On the Rhone at the confluence of Isere (Hodgkin, V, 221).
[5] Aquae Sextiae near Marseilles.
[6] Only L.66 sterling, a small ransom (Hodgkin, V, 221, note 2).
[7] These incursions seem to have been followed by an extension of the territory of king- Gunthram to the Italian side of the Alps, including both Susa and Aosta. The Langobard invasions of Gaul were not renewed (Hodg., V, 223, 4). Mummulus afterwards rebelled against Gunthram and was slain (id., 224).


Chapter IX.

In these days upon the approach of the Franks the fortress of Anagnis (Nano), [1] which was situated above Tridentum (Trent) within the boundary of Italy, surrendered to them. For this reason the count [2] of the Langobards from Lagaris (Lagerthal), Ragilo by name, came and plundered Anagnis. While he was returning with his booty he was slain with many of his followers in the field of Rotalian [3] by Chramnichis, the leader of the Franks, who went to meet him. And this Chramnichis shortly afterwards came and devastated Tridentum. [4] And Euin, duke of Tridentum, followed and killed him with his companions in the place which is called Salurnis (Salurn), and shook out of him all the booty he had taken, and when the Franks had been driven out he took again the whole territory of Tridentum.

[1] In the Val. di Non. A. U. 577, see Muratori Annals, Vol. Ill, p. 498. Hartmann (II, I, 81) believes that this was a Byzantine (not Langobard) fortress when surrendered.
[2] As to the rank, powers, etc., of a count of the Langobards, see note to Book 11, ch. 32.
[3] The date of this invasion of the Franks is placed by Hodgkin at 575-584 (VI, 27; V, 227). The chronology is very doubtful, but it preceded the elevation of Authari to the throne (Hartmann, II, l, 81). The Rotalian field is the meadow plain at the confluence of the Noce and the Adige.
[4] That is the land around Trent. It is not likely the city was taken (Hodgkin, VI, 28).


Chapter X.

At this time Sigispert, king of the Franks, was killed by the treachery of Hilperic, his brother, with whom he had waged war, and Childepert his son, still a little boy, with Brunihilde his mother, took up the management of his kingdom. [1] Euin, also, duke of the people of Tridentum, of whom we have spoken, took as his wife the daughter of Garibald, king of the Bavarians.

[1] See supra, II, 10. The Frankish kingdom was, after the death of Theudepert in 548 (see note to II, 2, supra), of his child Theudebald in 555, and of Childepert in 558, again united under one monarch, Chlotochar I (Lothair), who ruled for three years over the whole kingdom and died in 561, whereupon it was divided among his four sons, one of whom, Charibert, died in 567, and the number of sovereigns was reduced to three.
There were four great divisions of the monarchy :
(1) Austrasia, assigned to Sigispert, which extended from Rheims across the Rhine an unknown distance into Germany.
(2) Neustria, the portion of Chilperic or Hilperic, comprising the Netherlands, Picardy, Normandy and Maine.
(3) Burgundy, the domain of Gunthram, embracing the region watered by the Rhone (except Provence), also Switzerland and some land in the center of Gaul.
(4) Aquitaine, stretching from the Loire to the Pyrenees, which was split up and contended for by all (Hodgkin, V, 199, 203).
Sigispert, the youngest and best of the three brothers, determined to wed a princess of his own rank and married, in 566, Brunihilde, daughter of Athanagild, the Visigothic king of Spain, whom he seems to have loved with genuine affection. Chilperic, cruel, lustful, avaricious, "the Nero and Herod of the time," took to himself many mistresses, but at last determined to follow his brother's example and sought the hand of Galswintha, another daughter of Athanagild, who reluctantly came from Spain to become his bride, and received as her ''morning gift'' Bordeaux and four other cities in southwestern Gaul. But Fredegundis, one of Childperic's former concubines, a fiend incarnate, but incomparable in her powers of fascination, recovered the king's affections. Galswintha was strangled, and Chilperic married her rival. His brothers endeavored to cast out so wicked an offender, and it was determined that the "morning gift" of the murdered queen should be given to her sister Brunihilde in atonement for the crime (Hodgkin, V, 204—208). Chilperic refused, and Sigispert and Gunthram sought to dethrone him. He was shut up in Tournay, and a large portion of his subjects determined to acclaim as their sovereign, Sigispert, who was raised on a shield and hailed as king by the army, but almost in the moment of his triumph, two serving men rushed upon him and dealt him a mortal wound. The weapon, it was said, had been poisoned by Fredegundis. Sigispert's son Childepert, a child of five years, was carried back to Metz, the capital of Austrasia, was accepted as his father's successor, and reigned for twenty-one years under the tutelage of the Austrasian nobles and of his mother Brunihilde, who now lived to avenge her husband's death. She sought to accomplish this by a marriage with Merovech, the son of Chilperic by a former wife. Merovech was afterwards suspected of conspiring against his father, and died, some say at his own desire, and others that it was by order of Fredegundis. Chilperic's rule became detestable, and in 584 he too was murdered by an unknown assassin, leaving a child three years old, Chlotochar, destined at a later time to reunite the Frankish dominions (Hodgkin, 208-214). The Langobard invasion of Italy (A. D. 568) occurred just after the murder of Galswintha (A. D. 567), and the subsequent forays into Gaul were made possible by the dissensions among the Frankish sovereigns. These invasions appear to be mere robber raids. Most of them occurred during the ten years' interregnum while the dukes were ruling the cities of Italy without a king, and the feud between the Franks and the Langobards which thus began, ripened into an indelible national instinct and prepared the way, after the lapse of two centuries, for the destruction of the kingdom of the Langobards by Charlemagne (Hodgkin, V, 198, 199).
An interesting question arises whether there is any connection between the characters and scenes in this Frankish drama of intrigue and revenge, and the legend of Siegfried as developed in the Elder Edda, the Saga of the Volsungs and the Niebelungen Lied. The resemblance of some of the names of the heroes is very striking; that of Sigispert, for instance, to Siegfried or Sigurd, Gunthram to Gunther, Brunihilde to Brunhild. Gunther in the legend, as well as in the history, is king of Burgundy; Siegfried is treacherously slain; there is a bitter jealousy and feud between two rival queens, and in the Niebelungen Lied the character of Siegfried's widow becomes transformed by his death, and she devotes her life to avenge his assassination, and marries a foreign prince for the purpose. It is well known that certain historical characters were actually introduced into the legend. Etzel or Atli was Attila the Hun, and the Dietrich of Berne of the Niebelungen, was Theoderic the Great. Moreover, the setting of the legend recalls the times not only of the migration of the nations, but of the Merovingians, and it is this latter period which exercised the best influence upon the story. The kings are like the Merovingians, and their management of the state resembles that of the times of Gunthram and Sigispert (Scherer, Hist. German Lit., ch. 5). On the other hand, the parts are differently assigned. In the poem, Siegfried marries Kriemhild, not Brunhild, though according to the Icelandic version, it is the latter to whom his love was first pledged. The stories vary from the history in nearly all their details, and there may be reason for the belief that the Siegfried legend in some form was of earlier origin than the time of Sigispert. Still it can hardly be doubted that much of the coloring, if not the principal incidents of the story, came from this dark period in the history of the Frankish monarchy, and there seems quite as much reason to identify Siegfried and Brunhild with the sovereigns of Austrasia as to consider them, as many do, the mere personifications of natural phenomena, the development of the season myth!
Referring to the legend of buried treasure discovered by Gunthram (see chap. 34 infra), Hodgkin (V, 202) remarks: "Treasures buried in long departed days by kings of old, mysterious caves, reptile guides or reptile guardians - are we not transported by this strange legend into the very atmosphere of the Niebelungen Lied? And if the good king Gunthram passed for the fortunate finder of the Dragon-hoard, his brothers and their queens, by their wars, their reconciliations and their terrible avengings, must surely have suggested the main argument of that most tragical epic, the very name of one of whose heroines, Brunichildis, is identical with the name of the queen of Austrasia.''