Alfred's introduction to Boethius

I expected bias and found it. I'll put a few comments in brackets in my text but, I have to say, if Boethius sent a letter like that to the Byzantine emperor then he was nuts to do so. I try to keep my translation as close to the author's words as possible.

At that time, the Goths of Scythia, kindred to the Romans, won the Roman kingdom, having risen up and with their kings, called Raedegota and Alaric, stormed the city of Rome. (Radagaisius was dead by 406, having been defeated by Stilicho. Alaric took Rome in 410 dying that same year.) They subjugated all of the Italian kingdom that lies between the mountains and Sicily; and then after them, the aforementioned King Theodoric seized that same kingdom. (as you may see from my timeline at right, Theodoric was not born until about 45 years later. He took the kingdom almost 85 years after Alaric) This Theodoric was an Amelung. He was Christian, although he persisted in the Arian heresy. He vowed his friendship to the Romans so they might be in possession of all their old rights and he performed that vow with great evil and ended very wroth with many a crime.

That was in addition to other countless evil, he slew John, then named pope. There was a certain consul, what we call a commander, who was named Boethius. He was into book-craft (scholarship) and on worldly custom he was the wisest. He then perceived the manifold evil that King Theodoric did with that Christendom and with Roman torments. He then remembered their ease and their old rights that they had under their Caesars (under Nero? Caligula? Tiberius?) their old lords. Then he began to think and to learn for himself how they might take that kingdom from the wicked king and to bring the ruler to the orthodox and righteousness. (Boethius denied sending a letter. ) He secretly sent a letter to the Caesar in Constantinople. (Zeno had given the kingdom to Theodoric, who although king of the Ostrogoths never called himself anything but Patrician over the Western Roman Empire) There is the chief city of the Greeks and their throne because the Caesar was their lord from ancient times.

He asked him (Justin I) to help him to their Christianity and to their old rights. When the bloodthirsty king Theodoric perceived this, he commanded that Boethius be brought to jail and locked therein. Then it befell that the mercy-worthy man came to greater distress. Then he was much more troubled in his mind as his mind was much more accustomed to worldly prosperity. And he remembered no solace within that prison, and he fell prostrate down on the floor, and stretched himself out, very despondent, and sad, he began to weep for himself and thus singing he quoth,"

from here it moves into the Lay of Boethius which includes some lines that are not in the Latin version. In spite of being the slayer of a pope and of Boethius, Theodoric was immortalized in heroic verse as Dietrich von Berne. In the Nibelungenlied, he, Attila and Hildebrand are the sole survivors of the massacre at Etzelburg. It is he who tackles Hagen and ties him up for Kriemhild.

Almost forgot to add, I took this text in the OE from A Guide to Old English, seventh edition, Bruce Mitchell and Fred. C. Robinson.

Who were the Nibelungs?

It looks as though I have tried to tackle this subject before but I am ready to have another little go at it. Quite rightly, scholars have said that, although many names in the Nibelunglied correspond with known historical characters like Attila and Theodoric the Great, the deeds ascribed to those persons do not match what the chronicles say about their lives. For instance, Theodoric was not born until after Attila had died, but Theodoric's father was a client king at Attila's court.

So how does one explain the dragon and the invisibility cloak or the cursed hoard watched over by a dwarf? It seems rather as George Laurence Gomme wrote about Hereward the Wake,

“Hereward must have been a famous man when he took his stand in the fens of Ely. That his biographers explains his fame by the application of ancient traditions is only saying that his countrymen reckoned his fame as of the very highest; ordinary current events of the day would not suit their ideas of the fitness of things. Hereward was as Alfred had been, as Arthur had been, and so he must have his share of the national tradition, even as these heroes had. To say less of him was to have put him below the others."

and so it must have been about the original heroes of the sagas. One other problem with the Nibelungenlied is that some of the characters are cowardly and treacherous and the people who they represent may still have powerful descendants. So, do you give their names? Most likely, if you want to live, you do like Procopius, you compose your history full of accolades and save the truth for posthumous publication.

The Nibelungs were, at the beginning of the story, called the Burgundians but, as the story progresses and they take possession of the treasure, that Siegfried had won from the original Nibelungs, they take on the name as well as the curse that goes with the treasure. I think the hoard was the treasure taken from Rome when it was sacked by Alaric. He died soon after and was buried in the Busento River, which had been diverted for the purpose and the slaves who performed the work were killed so no one would find his grave(according to Jordanes). The entire treasure was not buried with him but his successor Athavulf, Alaric's brother in law and member of the Balti (a royal clan exceeded in prestige only by the Amali), went back to Rome to loot it again and fell in love with a royal hostage Galla Placidia, sister of the Roman emperor, whom he had seized and taken with him. Honorius was not happy when Athavulf married Placidia but he was powerless to prevent it. Placidia, for her part, does not seem to mind Athavulf, who gave her the hoard taken from Rome as a wedding gift, at all. Jordanes describes him thus:

"a man of imposing beauty and great spirit; for though not tall of stature, he was distinguished for beauty of face and form" A fighting man, descent from royal Germanic clan, leader of his tribe and good looking too, sounds like Siegfried to me. Arcadius and Honorius, her brothers considered it a shameful alliance. Placidia's one somewhat questionable act was to vote in favor of the execution of her cousin Serena, who had been married to Stilicho, and who had robbed a statue of Rhea of its beautiful necklace and liked to parade about in it. Serena had been accused of conspiring with Alaric to bring down the empire. She was not guilty but after Honorius had Stilicho murdered almost everyone attached to him was killed. So we clearly have treachery and murder, vital ingredients to the Nibelung plot but we are missing revenge and blood feuds

There was another Goth, one of the Amali, who was working also for Honorius, who was a rival to Stilicho, called Sarus. He attacked Alaric as Alaric was going to negotiations with Honorius. This was the act that caused Alaric to sack Rome in 410. Later Athavulf waylaid Sarus as he was travelling to Gaul to join Jovinus and and Sarus was killed. Athavulf, for some incredible reason, took in one of Sarus' followers into his service. That man, Evervulf, stabbed him in the groin and killed him. Zosimus wrote that Evervulf did this while Athavulf was taking a bath. Sarus' brother Segeric took control of the Visigoths but he was killed in revenge for the death of Athavulf seven days later. After that Walia became king of the Visigoths. He returned Placidia to her brother Honorius and became an ally to the Romans for which he was given Aquitaine where he ruled in Toulouse for many years and may be the man known as Walthar of Aquitaine.

Placidia = Grimhilda? Maybe, if you throw in the story of her daughter Honoria, who had been kept in a convent by her brother, Valentinian, who ruled after Honorius. Valentinian feared plots by Honoria for his throne. Honoria had sent a servant with a plea and a ring to Attila the Hun to liberate her. Attila took this as a marriage proposal and marched on Rome to claim his bride and her dowry. He was stopped by Aetius in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. Aetius, like Hagan, had been a hostage at Attila's court when growing up. I hate to say Aetius is Hagan because Hagan is a treacherous and dark character where Aetius was a man of honor who was treacherously slain by his leader but I think Hagan is one of the older supernatural elements of the story like the dragon.

Attila then heads for Rome but, being superstitious, he remembers what happened to Alaric after he sacked Rome (he died) and he turns to Ravenna. Pope Leo is able to persuade him to leave but, after rampaging through the swamps around Aquiliea and catching who knows what diseases, the Huns were ready to go home anyway. Attila died not long after but another hostage or member of his court is the king of the Ostrogoths Valamir and his two brothers Vidimer and Thuidimer. They decide to free themselves and their people upon the death of Attila and while the fight was on, Thuidimer became a dad to Theodoric the Great. Theodoric was held as a hostage at the Byzantine court for a while, which is where his wild glory seeking Germanic ways were tempered by the court.

So then, what happened to the treasure? Walia did not give that back with Placidia; the Visigoths kept that. Walia did fight some fighting against Gundahar, who was King of the Burgundians and tried to assist the Roman usurper Jovinus. Gundahar is one candidate for the historical Gunther but in the second Burgundian kingdom. The first kingdom was closer to Worms, their legendary capital, but they were wiped out by Aetius with the aid of Hunnish mercenaries. Aetius allowed the remaining Burgundians to settle in Gaul but further west, they were included in the federation that halted Attila's advance across Europe. After some serious infighting and kinslaying, they were absorbed into the Frankish kingdom of Clovis who married the Burgundian Clotilde. Clovis' sister married Theodoric the Great and we come full circle to where they are all related now. Clovis attacked the Visigoths for the treasure and he got what was left of it.

From Clovis, we get the famous rivalry of Brunhilde and Fredegunde, Sigismund, Gundobad and other potential candidates for Nibelung characters but never mind. In the end, the Germanic peoples become the Romans. They joined the empire. Their leaders ruled Italy, their king became the Holy Roman Emperor. The Burgundians became the Nibelungs, get it?

Lord of the Rings and the King of the Visigoths

     I was posting a comment on a blog about Harry Potter when one of the people said that they like HP because they could imagine someone like McGonagall walking down the road.  Real but hidden to us.  That person could not imagine Aragorn walking down that same street.

  You would not find him strolling along some city street today because he lived 1,500 years ago in the Heroic Age of Beowulf, Arthur, and Siegfried.  The more I read Old English literature, the more I see where J.R.R. Tolkien got his material from.

    Tolkien wrote an essay first published in 1964 called "On Fairy Stories".   In it he wrote this wonderful metaphor for story being a kind of soup.  

     "Speaking of the history of stories and especially of fairy-stories, we may say that the Pot of Soup, the Cauldron of Story, has always been  been boiling, and to it have continually been added new bits, dainty and undainty." 

As we know, those of us who cook, the very best and most flavorful soups are made from the scraps in the kitchen and not something carefully planned out from a recipe book needing a trip to the grocery store. 

     "But if we speak of a Cauldron, we must not wholly forget the Cooks.  There are many things in the Cauldron but the Cooks do not dip the ladle quite blindly.  Their selection is important.  The gods are after all gods, and it is a matter of some moment what stories are told of them."  Indeed.

     When Tolkien was writing his stories of Midgaard/Middle Earth, he too was dipping in his ladle and choosing his bits, some were Scandinavian, some were Celtic, some were from history and some were from myth.  Many were from the Anglo-Saxons; it was after all where he made his living and reputation as a scholar.  In the few works that remain of the Anglo-Saxons, I may not have found Aragorn but I think I have found his ally Theoden in Theodoric I, King of the Visigoths.

     Gregory of Tours said little about him except that he was one of the few to heed the call and stand beside Aetius, Patrician of Rome, against the Scourge of God, Attila the Hun.  It is clear in many ways that the Numenorians are based on the Romans but it is difficult to say if Aetius's role in the battle mirrors Aragorn's or Denethor.  He was a steward of a sort in the fading of the empire but he fought on the field gloriously and survived. 

     Jordanes can tell us more.  He called Theodoric Theodorid.  So why not say he was Theoden's son Theodred?  Theodoric and Theoden died in the same way and were about the same age.  While Attila was advancing on the walled city of Orleans, burning and plundering after the manner of orcs, Aetius and Theodoric gathered together a last alliance of tribes, the last major battle of a united Roman empire.  They stopped his advance in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, like the king of the Nazgul was stopped in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

     The Visigoth king would not be outdone in courage by his men and rode ahead of them all.  He was thrown from his horse, like Theoden, and died trampled by the horses of his men rather than by his own horse.  His son, not a nephew, Thorismud pursued the enemy so far into the field that he wandered into Attila's camp on the way back and had to fight his way out, like Eomer's heedless rush at the enemy.

     When they found the body of Theodoric "where the dead lay thickest"(Jordanes), they bore his body away with songs in the sight of the enemy while the battle raged on around them, exactly like Theoden was carried from the field.  Unlike in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, this enemy, Attila, lived to flee and find his death later overexerting himself with a young bride but not before facing Thorismud in battle and being defeated by him. One cannot imagine the leader of the Nazgul dying in this way.

     There are other parallels.  The death of the Witch King of Angmar had been foretold in the North.  Attila, through fear of Aetius, consulted shamen to have them prophesize what the outcome of the battle would be.  He was told one of the leaders of the armies would die that day.  He risked the battle hoping it would be Aetius. 

     Attila had allies in the Ostrogoths, the Goths of the East, which is why the king of the Ostrogoths is at his court in the Nibelungenlied.  Since they come from the East, these could be compared to the Black Numenorians who fought against their kin from the West.  Visigoth simply means Goth of the West.

     One last similarity between the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains and the Battle of the Pelennor field is the presence of an army of the dead. While I must track down the original source to confirm this, in E.A. Thompson's book The Huns, he quotes a scholar, Damascius, who wrote that the fighting between the Roman alliance and the Huns was so severe that only the leaders and a few followers survived.  Jordanes gives the numbers of the dead as 165,000.  The battle raged so fiercely that those who were killed did not realize they were dead and went on fighting for three days.  The clash of their ghostly arms could be heard by the living. 

I do not yet know who Aragorn was but I will.  For he lived; more surely than did McGonagall, he lived. 

Beatles Song of the Week

Via Cyancitta Cristata

Illuc nebulam super Urbe Angelorum est,

Et mei amici viam suam perierant, 

Erimus in illo loco mox diximus,

Nunc in vicem ipsi perierant.

refrain:  Amabo, non este tardi,

Amabo, non este perquam tardi,

Amabo, non este tardi,

Aut sim dormiens.

Bene solum agit monstrare,

Et dixi eos ubi agere,

Vigiliam in viam rogare,

Est tot ibi convenire,

Nunc est ultra horam somnorum intellego,

Et vero agere amo,

Mox prima lux erit,

Hic in Via Cyancitta Cristata sedeo. 

Theodoric, AKA Dietrich von Bern

This is going to be the summer of Gregory for me.  I have not gotten past Book II yet and I have a new topic that will stretch on and on to Germanic legends and is hinted at in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.  To deal with this in full will require more than one installment since I prefer not to write long essays and risk boring you. That being said, I will press on with this week's topic: Theodoric I, King of the Ostrogoths.

Theodoric I

      There are two Theodorics in Gregory of Tours's history - the king of the Visigoths, and the king of the Ostrogoths, both of whom lived in the fifth century.  One of them, or perhaps it took parts of both, became in legend Dietrich Von Bern, the man who Kriemhild asks to avenge Siegfried by killing Hagen in The Song of the Nibelungs. 

     The Song of the Nibelungs is like Beowulf in which there is a powerful and noble warrior famed for his deeds as well as his dragon.   Like Beowulf, certain characters in the story were people who were confirmed to have existed like Attila the Hun, called Etzel in this story.  This is where the subject becomes larger than I can cover in one half page of writing - identifying and discussing the other people in the Nibelunglied who have a place in history and their mutation into the subjects of fable.  The Nibelungs are also known by another more recognizable name: Burgundians. 

     Details about the other Theodoric may have crept into the legend of Dietrich because it was he that fought Attila the Hun at the Battle of the Fields of Cataluanian, called that in Jordanes's history but named as the Fields of Moirey by Gregory.  This Theodoric died in the battle, which strongly calls to mind the death of Theoden in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.  He is notable for another reason and that is that he is the son and heir of Alaric, the Visigoth whose sacking of Rome in 410 A.D. heralded the beginning of the period we call the Middle Ages.

     The Ostrothic Theodoric had a daughter Araigna, who he married to Sigismund, the King of Burgundy. Araigna resembles in no way the name of Kriemhild but the father of the legendary Siegfried is called Siegmund.  Since there is no standard spelling for names and things; spelling varies a great deal depending on the writer at this time.  However the Nibelungenlied calls this Siegmund 'King of the Netherlands' and his son Siegfried is born in Xanten along the Rhine, now part of Germany.  To this I would add that Clovis's queen, Clotild, was a Burgundian princess and the history of the Merovinians may have been added to the soup.

     Gregory had little to say about either Theodoric.  To know more, you have to turn to Jordanes's The Origins and Deeds of the Goths, a book written around 551 A.D. probably in Constantinople.  It is a summary of a multi-volume work by the scholar Cassiodorus in the service and at the court of Dietrich.   The history written by Cassiodorus is lost and all that remains now is the summary written by Jordanes as a favor to a friend.

     If you wonder what happened to many of these books, look no further than the book burners at the Catholic Church.  "What has Ingeld to do with Christ?" was the famous pronouncement of Alcuin of York.  the Church burned many a book that they deemed was not suitably Christian in nature.  St. Patrick of Ireland himself destroyed 71 books!  I find it ironic that a man, whose life is so celebrated in Ireland, did so much to destroy its culture and heritage.  I cannot bring myself to drink green beer anymore since I read about this in a preface to a book by Peter Berresford Ellis.

I am stopping here but there clearly is more to say on the topic of both Theodorics.

Beatles Song of the Week

"Fuit viginti anni abhinc hodie,

Centurion Piper docuit symphoria ludere,

Agebant interior et exterior moris,

Sed sponsi sunt subrisum tollere.

Tunc licet ad vos tradere,

Actores sciebatis pro omnibus his annis, 

Centurion Piperi  Cordum Solitariorum Symphonia."