Theodoric the Goth

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[Footnote 172: Or Herrat.]

Then Erka desired to see her dear friend, Master Hildebrand, and spake
to him too of the true friendship which was now about to be severed, in
remembrance whereof she gave him a ring of gold. And then sending for
Attila she spake to him of her coming death. "Thus wilt thou become a
widower", said she, "but so thou wilt not long remain. Choose,
therefore, a good and loving wife, for if thou choosest a wicked woman
she may work much harm to thee and many others beside. Good King Attila!
take no wife out of Nibelungen-land, nor from the race of Aldrian, for
if thou dost, thou wilt sorely repent of it, and harm unspeakable will
be wrought to thee and the children whom she may bear thee". Soon after
she had spoken these words, she gave up the ghost; and great was the
lamentation in all Hun-land when they heard that the good Queen Erka was
no more in life.

The warning given by the dying queen was, like most such warnings,
unheeded. After three years of widowerhood, Attila sent one of his
nephews into Nibelungen-land[173] to ask for the hand of
Chriemhild,[174] daughter of Aldrian, loveliest and wisest of the women
of her time; but maddened by secret grief for the loss of her first
husband, Siegfried,[175] who had been slain by her brothers, Hagen[176]
and King Gunther. The suit prospered; with strange blindness of heart,
King Gunther gave his consent to the union of the sister who was his
deadliest enemy with the mightiest king in Europe. For seven years
Chriemhild waited for her revenge; then came that invitation to the
Nibelungs to visit the court of Attila, which, in the infatuation of
their souls, King Gunther and his brethren accepted, taking with them a
chosen band of a thousand warriors. The scheme of vengeance prepared by
Chriemhild, the quarrel which she provoked at the banquet, the terrible
slaughter suffered and inflicted by the Nibelungs in the palace garden,
their desperate rush into the palace-hall, the stand made therein by
their ever-dwindling band on the pavement which was slippery with the
gore of heroes--all this has been sung by a hundred minstrels, and need
not here be repeated. We have only to do with the share Theodoric and
his friends took in the fatal combat. Long the Amalungs stood utterly
aloof from the fray, grieving sorely that so many of their friends on
both sides were falling by one another's hands. For to the Nibelungs, as
well as to Attila and the Huns, were they bound by the ties of
guest-friendship, and in happier days Theodoric had ridden with Gunther
and with Hagen, to test the mettle of their knights against the chivalry
of Britain. So Theodoric and his men stood on the battlement of his
palace, which looked down on the garden of Attila, and watched from afar
the ghastly conflict. But at length they saw the good Margrave Rudiger,
the ally of the Amals on so many a hard-fought battle-field, fall by the
hand of his own daughter's husband, the young prince, Giselher; and then
could Theodoric bear it no longer, but cried, saying: "Now is my best
friend, Margrave Rudiger, dead. Take your weapons, comrades, and let us
avenge his fall". He descended into the street. He forced his way into
the palace-hall. Terrible was the clang of the strong sword Ecke-sax on
the helmets of the Nibelungs. Many of them fell before him, but alas!
many of his faithful Amals fell there also, far from their home. At
length, in all that stately palace-hall, there remained but four men
still able to deal blows, and these were Theodoric and Master Hildebrand
of the Amalungs, Hagen and Giselher of their foes. And Hagen stood up to
fight with Theodoric, and Giselher with Hildebrand. Then, as King
Attila came from his tower to watch the combat, Hagen shouted to him:
"It were a knightly deed to let young Giselher go unhurt, for he is
innocent of the death of Siegfried the Swift". "Yea, truly", said
Giselher; "Chriemhild, my sister, knows that I was a little child of
five years old in my mother's bed when her husband was killed. I am
innocent of this blood-feud, yet care I not to live now that my brethren
are slain". Therewith he closed in fight with Master Hildebrand, and
soon received his death-wound from the old hero.

[Footnote 173: Burgundy.]

[Footnote 174: In the "Wilkina-Saga", Grimhild.]

[Footnote 175: In the "Wilkina-Saga", Sigurd.]

[Footnote 176: In the "Nibelungen-lied", Hagen is only a kinsman; in the
"Wilkina-Saga", a brother of Gunther and Chriemhild.]

Now there remained but one terrible encounter, that between Hagen and
Theodoric. Hagen said: "It seems that here our friendship must come to
an end, great as it has ever been. Let us each fight bravely for his
life, and knight-like, call on no man for aid". Theodoric answered:
"Truly, I will let none meddle in this encounter, but will fight it with
warlike skill and knightliness". They fought long and hard, and
exchanged grievous blows, and both were weary and both were wounded.
Then Theodoric waxed exceeding wroth with himself for not overcoming his
foe, and said: "Truly, this is a shame for me to stand here all the day
and not to be able to vanquish the elfin's son". "Why should the elfin's
son be worse than the son of the devil himself?" answered Hagen.[177] At
that Theodoric was seized with such fury that fiery breath issued from
his mouth. Hagen's coat of mail was heated red-hot by this breath of
fire, and he was forced to cry out: "I give myself up. Anything to end
this torture and doff my red-hot armour. If I were a fish, and not a
man, I should be broiled in this burning panoply". Then Theodoric sat
down and began to unbrace his adversary's armour; and while he was doing
this, Queen Chriemhild came into the hall with a blazing torch, which
she thrust into the mouth of one after another of the prostrate
warriors, her brothers, to see if they were already dead, and to slay
them if they were still living. Beholding this, Theodoric said to
Attila: "See how that devil, Chriemhild, thy wife, torments her
brethren, the noble heroes. See how many brave men, Huns and Amalungs
and Nibelungs, have yielded up their life for her sake. And in like
fashion would she bring thee and me to death, if she had the power".
"Truly, she is a devil", answered Attila. "Do thou slay her; and it had
been a good deed if thou hadst done it seven nights ago. Then would many
a noble knight be still living who now is dead". And with that Theodoric
sprang up and clove Chriemhild in twain.

[Footnote 177: The myth of Hagen's being begotten by an elfin apparition
while King Aldrian was absent from his realm is mentioned in the
"Wilkina-Saga" (Cap. 150), but there has been no previous allusion to
the alleged demonic origin of Theodoric.]

Theodoric bore the sore-wounded Hagen to his palace and bound up his
wounds; but they were mortal, and in a few days Hagen died, having
bequeathed to the woman who nursed him the secret of the great Nibelung
hoard, for the sake of which he had slain Siegfried the Swift.

In the terrible encounter there had fallen one thousand Nibelungs, being
all their host, and four thousand Huns and Amalungs. No battle is more
celebrated in the old German Sagas than this. But Hun-land was wasted by
reason of the death of so many valiant warriors, and thus had come to
pass all the evil which the good Queen Erka had foretold.

And now after thirty-two years of exile, and with so many of his brave
followers dead, Theodoric's heart pined more than ever for his native
land, and he said to Master Hildebrand: "I would rather die in Verona
than live any longer in Hun-land". To return with an army was hopeless,
so scanty a remnant was left of the Amalungs. The only hope was to steal
back secretly and try if it were possible to find friends enough in the
old home to win back the crown. Master Hildebrand knew of one thing
which made the outlook less desperate: "I have heard that the Duke who
rules over Verona is a brave knight named Alebrand; and I cannot but
think that this is my son, born of my wife, Uta, shortly after I fled
hither". So they got together four horses, two for Theodoric and
Hildebrand, one for the lady, Herauda, Theodoric's wife, and one to
carry their raiment and store of silver and gold; and after leave taken
of Attila, who wept bitterly at Theodoric's departure, and prayed him to
stay till he could fit out another army for his service, they set forth
from Susat and rode westward night and day, avoiding the towns and the
haunts of wayfarers. On their road they were met by a band of two and
thirty knights commanded by Earl Elsung, a kinsman of that Elsung of
Verona, whom Theodoric's grandfather, Samson, had slain. The blood-feud
was now old, but Elsung yearned to avenge it on Theodoric. The lady
Herauda wept when she saw so many well-armed knights approaching, but
Theodoric bade her be of joyous heart till she saw one of her two
protectors fall, and that, he deemed, would never be. And in truth, in
the fight that followed, so well did the aged Hildebrand wield the sword
Gram, the wondrous sword of Siegfried the Swift, and such mighty blows
dealt Theodoric with Ecke-sax, that Earl Elsung himself and sixteen of
his men were left dead on the field. The rest fled, all but a nephew of
Elsung, a brave young knight. Him also Hildebrand vanquished in fight,
and from him, as ransom for his life, the victors received great tidings
from Amalungen-land. For he told them that Hermanric was grievously
sick, and that the remedies which the false Sibich had persuaded him to
resort to had left him far weaker than before, and, in short, the great
Hermanric was already as good as dead.

They came next in their journey to a castle which was held by Duke Lewis
and his son Conrad. To them Master Hildebrand, riding forward, made
himself known, and from them he received joyous welcome. They rode back
with him into the forest, where Theodoric was tarrying with the Lady
Herauda, and bent the knee before him. For they had heard that Hermanric
was dead, and though the false Sibich aspired to be king after him, both
they and all the people in those parts chose rather to obey Theodoric,
and had sent a messenger into Hun-land to pray him to return. Theodoric
received Duke Lewis graciously, but would not enter into his castle,
for he had sworn that Verona should be the first stronghold in
Amalungen-land within whose walls he would enter.

Now of Verona the lord was (as Hildebrand had heard) his son Alebrand,
born after he had left the country. He was a brave knight, and a
courteous, but fiery, and when the aged Hildebrand, riding towards
Verona, met him in the way, the two champions rushed at one another, and
fought long and desperately. The battle ceased from the mere weariness
of the fighters once and again. At every pause each knight, the old and
the young, asked the other of his name, and each refused to tell his
name till he had heard that of his antagonist. And this, though all the
time Hildebrand more than guessed that it was his own son from whom he
was receiving, and to whom he was dealing, such dreadful blows. At
length, after Hildebrand had given his opponent a great gaping wound in
the thigh, he fell upon him and bore him to the earth, and then with his
sword at his breast said: "Tell me thy name or thou shalt die". "I care
not for life", said the other, "since so old a man has vanquished me".
"If thou wilt preserve thy life, tell me straightway if thou art my son
Alebrand; if so, I am thy father, Hildebrand". "If thou art my father
Hildebrand, I am thy son Alebrand", said the younger hero. And with that
they both arose, threw their arms around each other's necks, and kissed
one another; and both were right glad, and they mounted their horses and
rode towards Verona. From the gates the Lady Uta, Alebrand's mother, was
coming forth to meet her son; but she wept and wailed when she saw his
streaming wound, and said: "Oh, my son, why art thou so sore wounded,
and who is that aged man that is following thee?" Alebrand answered:
"For this wound I need have no shame, sith it was given me by my father,
Hildebrand, and it is he who rides behind me". Then was the mother
overjoyed, and greeted her husband lovingly, and with great gladness
they entered into the city, where Hildebrand tarried for the night, and
the Lady Uta bound up the wounds of Alebrand.[178]

[Footnote 178: The combat between Hildebrand and Alebrand, the impetuous
father and the impetuous son, too proud to let words take the place of
blows, is, with some variations, a favourite theme of German minstrels.
In the "Hildebrands-hed" (beginning of the 9th century) the son is named
Hadubrand, and he insists on the fight because he looks upon the
so-called Hildebrand as an imposter (Grimm: "Deutsche Heldensage", 25).]

After this Theodoric's course was easy. He was received with joyous
welcome by the citizens of his native Verona, as he rode through the
streets on his faithful Falke, Master Hildebrand of the long white beard
holding high his banner. Alebrand handed back to his keeping Verona and
all Amalungen-land, which he had received to hold from the dead
Hermanric. Theodoric sat in the high-seat of the palace; the people
brought him rich presents, and all the nobles took him for their
rightful lord and ruler.

The false Sibich marched against him with a larger army, thirteen
thousand to Theodoric's eight thousand; but Theodoric and Hildebrand
rode as they pleased through the armed throng, dealing death on every
side; and Duke Alebrand, engaging Sibich in single combat, after long
fight, waxed exceeding wroth, and smiting a dreadful blow, clove him
through from the shoulder to the saddle-bow. Then all the Romans gave up
the strife, and fell at Theodoric's feet, praying him to be their lord.
So was Theodoric crowned in the city of Rome; and now he was king over
all the lands which had once owned the sway of Hermanric.

It needs not to tell at length of the deeds of Theodoric after he had
recovered his kingdom. He caused a statue to be cast in copper of
himself, seated on his good steed Falke, and this statue many pilgrims
to Rome have seen.[179]

[Footnote 179: It is suggested that this is probably the equestrian
statue of Marcus Aurelius on the Capitoline Hill.]

Also a statue of himself, standing on a high tower, brandishing his good
sword Ecke-sax towards the north; and this statue is at Verona.

In his old age he and many of his subjects turned to the Christian
faith. One of those that were baptized along with him was Master
Hildebrand, who died soon after his conversion, being either one hundred
and eighty or two hundred years old. Theodoric's wife, Herauda, died
also about this time, a good woman and much loved of the people for all
her gracious deeds, even as her cousin, Erka, had been loved by the
Huns. After Herauda's death Theodoric married Isold, widow of Hertnit,
King of Bergara,[180] whose husband had been slain by a terrible dragon,
which Theodoric vanquished. She was fair to look upon and wise of heart.

[Footnote 180: Identified by Von der Hagen with Garda; but is it not
Bulgaria?] And after these things it came to pass that old King Attila
died, being enticed by Aldrian, the son of Hagen, into the cave where
the great Nibelung hoard lay hidden. And when he was in the recesses of
the mountain, gloating over the wondrous treasure, Aldrian passed
swiftly forth and closed the doors of the cave and left him to perish of
hunger in the midst of the greatest treasure that was in the world. Thus
Aldrian avenged the death of his father and of all the Nibelungs. But
Theodoric was made king over Hun-land by the help of his friends in that
realm, and thus he became the mightiest king in the world.

Of all his old warriors only Heime was left, and Heime had buried
himself in a convent, where he sang psalms every day with the monks, and
did penance for his sins. Theodoric, hearing that he was there, sought
him out, but long time Heime denied that he was Heime. "Much snow has
fallen", said Theodoric, "on my head and on thine since our steeds drank
the stream dry in Friesland. Our hair was then yellow as gold, and fell
in curls over our shoulders; now is it white as a dove". And then he
plied him with one memory after another of the joyous old times of the
battle and the banquet, till at length Heime confessed, and said: "Good
lord Theodoric, I do remember all of which thou hast spoken, and now
will I go forth with thee from this place". And with that he fetched his
armour from the convent-chest, and his good old steed Rispa from the
convent-stable, and once more rode gladly after his lord. After doing
many more brave deeds, he fell in battle with a giant, the biggest and
clumsiest of his tribe. Theodoric, riding forth alone, sought out the
giant's lair, and with his good sword Ecke-sax avenged the death of his
friend; and that was the last battle that the son of Dietmar fought with
mortal foe.

The years of Theodoric's old age were given to the chase of the beasts
of the forest, for he was still a mighty hunter when his other strength
was gone.[181]

[Footnote 181: It is probably the following legend that is commemorated
on the facade of the church of S. Zenone of Verona, where Theodoric is
represented as chasing a stag and met by the Devil.]

One day as he was bathing at the place which is still called
"Theodoric's Bath", a groom called out to him: "My lord! a stag has just
rushed past, the greatest and the finest that ever I saw in my life".
With that Theodoric wrapped a bathing-cloak round him, and calling for
his horse, prepared to set off in chase of the stag. The horse was long
in coming, and meanwhile a mighty steed, coal-black, suddenly appeared
before him. Theodoric sprang upon the strange charger's back, and it
flew off with him as swiftly as a bird. His best groom on his best horse
followed vainly behind. "My lord", cried he, "when wilt thou come back,
that thou ridest so fast and far". But Theodoric knew by this time that
it was no earthly steed that he was bestriding, and from which he vainly
tried to unclasp his legs. "I am ill-mounted", cried he to the groom.
"This must be the foul fiend on which I ride. Yet will I return, if God
wills and Holy Mary". With that he vanished from his servant's sight,
and since then no man has seen and no man ever will see Theodoric of
Verona. Yet some German minstrels say that it has been opened to them in
dreams that he has found grace at last, because in his death-ride he
called on the names of God and the Virgin Mary.[182]

[Footnote 182: Another version of the "Wilkina-Saga" gives a different
account of the death of Theodoric. According to this, Witig, after he
sank in the lake, was received by his mermaid ancestress and borne away
to Zealand. Here he abode a long time, till he heard of the return and
recovered might of Theodoric. Then, fearing his resentment, he betook
himself to a certain island, and having made an image of Theodoric, laid
a strict charge upon the boatman who ferried passengers across that he
should carry over none who was like that image. Theodoric, hearing that
Witig yet lived in Denmark, went thither, and, having disfigured himself
so that the boatman did not recognise him, found Witig (whose sword
Mimung he had hidden away), and challenged him to single combat. The
battle of the boys was thus renewed between the two snow-bearded men,
and was fatal to both. Witig fell down dead by his own bedside; and
Theodoric, stricken with incurable wounds, journeyed through Holstem and
Saxony to Swabia. Here he went to the border of a lake, and drawing the
sword Mimung out of its sheath, hurled it afar into the waters, so that
it should never again come into the hands of man. He then went into a
little Swabian town, and the next day died there of his wounds. He
strictly forbade his servants to make mention of his name or rank, and
was buried in that town as a merchant. It is needless to remark on the
resemblance of one part of this story to the "Passing of Arthur".]

I have thus endeavoured to bring before the reader (I hope not with
undue prolixity) the chief events in the life of the mythical Theodoric
of the Middle Ages. Still, as late as the sixteenth century the common
people loved to talk of this mighty hero. The Bavarian "Chronicle"
(translated and continued about 1580) says: "Our people sing and talk
much about 'Dietrich von Bern.' You would not soon find an ancient king
who is so well known to the common people amongst us, or about whom they
have so much to say".[183] What they had to say was, as the reader will
have observed, strangely removed from the truth of history. How all this
elaborate superstructure of romance could be reared on the mere name of
Theodoric of Verona is almost inconceivable to us, till we call to mind
that the minstrels were in truth the novelists of the Middle Ages, not
pretending or desiring to instruct, but only to amuse and interest their
hearers, and to beguile the tedium of existence in dull baronial
castles.

[Footnote 183: See Grimm's "Deutsche Heldensage", 341.]

Of the thousand and one details contained in the foregoing narrative,
there are not more than three or four which correspond with the life of
the real Theodoric, He was, as the Saga says, of Amal lineage. His
father's name, Theudemir, is fairly enough represented by Dietmar. He
was for some years of his life (but not his middle or later life) a
wanderer more or less dependent on the favour of a powerful sovereign.
His life during this period did get entangled with that of another
Theodoric, even as the life of the hero of Saga becomes entangled with
the life of Theodoric of Russia. After subduing all his enemies, he did
eventually rule in Rome, and erect statues to himself there and at
Verona. Ravenna and Verona were the places of his most frequent
residence. In his mature years, when his whole soul was set on the
maintenance of _civilitas_, he might very fitly have spoken such words
as he is said to have used to Witig in his boyhood, "I will establish
such peace in my father's realm and mine, that it shall not be in the
power of every wandering adventurer to challenge me to single combat".
Moreover, throughout all the wild vagaries of the narrative, character,
that mysterious and indestructible essence, is not wholly lost. No two
books can be more absolutely unlike one another than the "Wilkina-Saga"
and the "Various Letters of Cassiodorus", yet the same hot-tempered,
impulsive, generous man is pourtrayed to us by both.

As for the other names introduced, they are, of course, brought in at
the cost of the strangest anachronisms. The cruel uncle, Hermanric, is
really a remote collateral ancestor who died nearly eighty years before
Theodoric was born. The generous host and ally, Attila, died two years
before his birth, and the especial gladness of that birth was that it
occurred at the same time with a signal victory of the Amal kings over
the sons of Attila. To take an illustration from modern history, the
general framework of the "Wilkina-Saga" is about as accurate as a
romance would be which should represent Queen Victoria as driven from
her throne by the Old Pretender, remaining for thirty years an exile at
the court of Napoleon, and at length recovering her kingdom on the Old
Pretender's death.[184]

[Footnote 184: Possibly we have in the career of Witig, the craftsman's
son, successively the sworn friend and the deadly foe of Theodoric and
his house, some remembrance of the life of the low-born Witigis, in his
youth a valiant soldier of Theodoric, in his old age the slayer of
Theodahad, and the hated husband of Amalasuentha.]

But, as has been often and well pointed out, the most marvellous thing
in these old German Sagas is the utter disappearance from them of that
Roman Empire which at the cost of such giant labour the Teutonic nations
had overthrown. The Roman Imperator, the Roman legions, even the
Catholic priests with their pious zeal against Arianism, count for
nothing in the story. Just as the knightly warriors prick to and fro on
their fiery steeds to the court of Arthur of Britain, with no mention of
the intervening sea, so these German bards link together the days of
Chivalry and the old barbarian life which Tacitus paints for us in the
"Germania", without apparently any consciousness of the momentous deed
which the German warriors had in the meanwhile performed, full of
significance for all succeeding generations of men, the overthrow of the
Empire of Rome.

[Illustration: COIN OF WITIGIS WITH HEAD OF ANASTASIUS (?).]

[Illustration]

INDEX.

Adamantius, official under Zeno, 83 et seq.
Ad Decimum, battle of, 300
Ad Ensem, battle of (Scheggia), 364
Adda, battle of, 122
Adige, Odovacar in the valley of the, 260
Adnanople, battle of, 15
Aetius, the last of the Romans, 94
Africa, recovery of, 298; conquest complete, 302; Belisarius in, 321
Agapetus, Senator, 282
Agnellus, Bishop of Ravenna, (ninth century) 123, 249, 289
Agrammatus, 145
Agriculture, state of, among the Germans, 54
Alamanni, conflict with Clovis, 189 et seq
Alaric, descendant of Balthae, sack of Rome, 410 A.D., 393; made King of
Visigoths, 15 et seq.
Alaric II., son of Euric, King of Visigoths, 490 A.D., 121; an Anan,
177; canal of, 184 et seq; letter of Theodoric to, 198; stress
of, 200; defeat of and death, 201; sons of, 204; slayer of,
honoured, 222
Alban mountains, 355.

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