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162-529: In both the Continental (German) and Scandinavian traditions, Gudrun/Kriemhild is the sister of the Burgundian king Gunther/Gunnar and marries the hero Siegfried/Sigurd. Both traditions also feature a major rivalry between Gudrun and Brunhild , Gunther's wife, over their respective ranks. In both traditions, once Sigurd has been murdered, Gudrun is married to Etzel/Atli, the legendary analogue of Attila

324-751: A Suebic people. These two peoples had moved into the Agri Decumates on the eastern side of the Rhine, an area still referred to today as Swabia , at times attacking Roman Gaul together and sometimes fighting each other. He also mentions that the Goths had previously defeated the Burgundians. Ammianus Marcellinus , on the other hand, claimed that the Burgundians descended from the Romans. The Roman sources do not speak of any specific migration from Poland by

486-561: A Saxon minstrel tried unsuccessfully to warn the Danish prince Canute Lavard of the betrayal of his cousin Magnus the Strong by singing of "the famous treachery of Grimhild against her brothers" ( notissimam Grimildae erga fratres perfidiam ). The phrase "Kriemhilden hôchzît" (Kriemhild's festival) is attested in other medieval German works to denote an especially bloody battle. In a song of

648-530: A century later. Many say that the Franks originally came from Pannonia and first inhabited the banks of the Rhine. Then they crossed the river, marched through Thuringia, and set up in each county district [ pagus ] and each city [ civitas ] longhaired kings chosen from their foremost and most noble family. The author of the Chronicle of Fredegar claimed that the Franks came originally from Troy and quoted

810-568: A city and its environs. Initially only in certain cities in western Gaul, in Neustria and Aquitaine, did the kings possess the right or power to call up the levy. The commanders of the local levies were always different from the commanders of the urban garrisons. Often the former were commanded by the counts of the districts. A much rarer occurrence was the general levy, which applied to the entire kingdom and included peasants ( pauperes and inferiores ). General levies could also be made within

972-607: A continued oral tradition outside of the Nibelungenlied , with many details agreeing with the Thidrekssaga . In the Heldenbuch-Prosa, Kriemhild is the daughter of king Gibeche and married to Siegfried. She arranges for the disaster at Etzel's hall in order to take vengeance on Dietrich von Bern for having killed Siegfried in the rose garden. She provokes the fighting by having her and Etzel's son brought into

1134-466: A crowd of giants. The Burgundians and their language were described as Germanic by the poet Sidonius Apollinaris . Herwig Wolfram has interpreted this as being because they had entered Gaul from Germania . More specifically their language is thought to have belonged to the East Germanic language group , based upon their presumed equivalence to the Burgundians named much earlier by Pliny in

1296-583: A day of tournaments in the rose garden. The winner will receive a garland and a kiss from her as a reward. Dietrich accepts the challenge, and the heroes come to Worms. Eventually, all of the Burgundian heroes are defeated, including Siegfried, who flees to Kriemhild's lap in fear when Dietrich starts breathing fire. Dietrich's warrior Ilsan, a monk, punishes Kriemhild for her haughtiness in challenging Dietrich by demanding so many kisses from Kriemhild that his rough beard causes her face to bleed. In one version of

1458-554: A feast. Gunther agrees and the Burgundians and their vassals arrive at Etzel's court. Kriemhild greets her brothers but mockingly asks Hagen whether he has brought her what he stole at Worms. Later, Kriemhild confronts Hagen with a group of Huns, and Hagen provokes her by bragging that he killed Siegfried. None of the Huns is brave enough to attack, and the Burgundians prevent an attack that Kriemhild had planned for that night. The next day, Kriemhild convinces Etzel's brother Bloedelin to attack

1620-410: A fight by bringing her and Atli's son into the hall, seating him across from Högni, and telling the son to hit Högni. Högni reacts to a second blow by cutting off the prince's head, leading to a terrible massacre. After severe fighting, Gunnar is captured, and Grimhild tells Atli to throw him in a tower full of snakes. Högni now leads the Burgundians, who lock themselves in the king's hall. Grimhild orders

1782-489: A known military unit based on the Rhône . The Ripuarian territory on both sides of the Rhine thus became a central part of Merovingian Austrasia . This stretched to include Roman Germania Inferior (later Germania Secunda ), which included the original Salian and Ripuarian lands, and roughly equates to medieval Lower Lotharingia. It also included Gallia Belgica Prima (roughly medieval Upper Lotharingia), and further lands on

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1944-589: A large group of peoples from central Europe north of the Danube came west and crossed the Rhine, entering the Empire near the lands of the Burgundians who had moved much earlier. The dominant groups were Alans , Vandals ( Hasdingi and Silingi ), and Danubian Suevi . The majority of these Danubian peoples moved through Gaul and eventually established themselves in kingdoms in Roman Hispania. One group of Alans

2106-604: A lasting impact on the use of Frank-related names for Western Europeans in many non-European languages. The name Franci was not a tribal name, but within a few centuries it had eclipsed the names of the original peoples who constituted the Frankish population. Following the precedents of Edward Gibbon and Jacob Grimm , the name of the Franks has been linked with the English adjective frank , originally meaning "free". There have also been proposals that Frank comes from

2268-485: A long-haired people of immense physical size: Why... do you [an obscure senator by the name of Catullinus] bid me compose a song dedicated to Venus... placed as I am among long-haired hordes, having to endure Germanic speech, praising often with a wry face the song of the gluttonous Burgundian who spreads rancid butter on his hair? ... You don't have a reek of garlic and foul onions discharged upon you at early morn from ten breakfasts, and you are not invaded before dawn... by

2430-577: A man (or group) named Veseti settled on a holm (island) called borgundarhólmr in Old Norse, i.e. Bornholm. Alfred the Great 's translation of Orosius uses the name Burgenda land to refer to a territory next to the land of Sweons ("Swedes"). The 19th century poet and mythologist Viktor Rydberg asserted from an early medieval source, Vita Sigismundi , that they themselves retained oral traditions about their Scandinavian origin. A people with

2592-470: A man, explaining that she needs to stay with him for five years. After that time he will marry her and they will travel to hell together. Kriemhild prays to avoid this fate. Finally, Siegfried (Seyfrid) arrives to save her, but the dragon appears. The dragon forces Siegfried and Kriemhild to flee into the depths of the mountain, where they find the treasure of the Nibelungen and a sword that can cut through

2754-628: A mare's value was the same as that of an ox or of a shield and spear, two solidi and a stallion seven or the same as a sword and scabbard, which suggests that horses were relatively common. Perhaps the Byzantine writers considered the Frankish horse to be insignificant relative to the Greek cavalry, which is probably accurate. The Frankish military establishment incorporated many of the pre-existing Roman institutions in Gaul, especially during and after

2916-478: A militarised nature. The Franks called annual meetings every Marchfeld (1 March), when the king and his nobles assembled in large open fields and determined their targets for the next campaigning season. The meetings were a show of strength on behalf of the monarch and a way for him to retain loyalty among his troops. In their civil wars, the Merovingian kings concentrated on the holding of fortified places and

3078-688: A people with the same name, were mentioned by Roman writers living west of the Vistula river in the region of Germania which is now part of Poland. The Burgundians were first mentioned near the Rhine regions together with the Alamanni as early as the 11th panegyric to emperor Maximian given in Trier in 291 AD, referring to events that must have happened between 248 and 291, and these two peoples apparently remained neighbours for centuries. By 411 AD Burgundians had established control over Roman cities on

3240-564: A son named Sigmund and a daughter named Svanhild. Some time later, Gudrun and Brunhild have a quarrel while washing their hair in a river: Brunhild says that she cannot have the water that touched Gudrun's hair touch hers, for she is married to the braver husband. The fight leads Gudrun to reveal that it was Sigurd in Gunnar's shape who rode through the flames to woo Brunhild, producing a ring that Sigurd had taken from Brunhild as proof. This knowledge leads Brunhild to agitate for Sigurd's murder, which

3402-432: A son whom they name Gunther. One day, Brunhild, who had been convinced that Siegfried was Gunther's vassal rather than an equal king, convinces Gunther to invite his sister and Siegfried to stay with them at Worms. Initially, Brunhild and Kriemhild get along, but in the private while they are watching a tournament, they soon argue over which of them has the highest ranking husband. Brunhild accuses Kriemhild of being married to

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3564-455: A vassal. The queens part in anger. Later, the two queens encounter each other before entering the cathedral at Worms for mass. Brunhild and Kriemhild each insist that they should be allowed to enter the church before the other. Brunhild repeats her accusation that Kriemhild is married to a vassal publicly. Kriemhild then declares that Siegfried, and not Gunther, has taken Brunhild's virginity, displaying Brunhild apparent proof. Kriemhild then enters

3726-471: A version of the story of Jorumrek ( Ermanaric )'s death that includes Gudrun (as Guthruna) in Latin in his Gesta Danorum . In this version, in which "Jarmericus" is a Danish king, Gudrun appears as a powerful sorceress who casts spells on the weapons of the brothers coming to avenge Svanhild's death that make them invincible. Saxo probably completed his history before 1208, making this the earliest version of

3888-580: A western European people during the Roman Empire and Middle Ages . They began as a Germanic people who lived near the Lower Rhine , on the northern continental frontier of the empire. They subsequently expanded their power and influence during the Middle Ages , until much of the population of western Europe, particularly in and near France , were commonly described as Franks, for example in

4050-541: A woman has killed a great warrior, then hacks Kriemhild to pieces. Although Kriemhild does not appear as a living character in the Nibelungenklage , the sequel to the Nibelungenlied , the poem nevertheless goes to great lengths to absolve her of blame for the catastrophe of the Nibelungenlied . According to the Nibelungenklage , Kriemhild was acting out of true love for Siegfried and the true treachery

4212-522: Is believed to have her origins in two historical figures who featured in two originally independent traditions, one about the death of Sigurd and another about the destruction of the Burgundians by the Huns. In the first instance, Gudrun's quarrel with Brunhild, which results in Sigurd's death at the urging of the latter, is widely thought to have its origins in the quarrel between the two historical Frankish queens, Brunhilda of Austrasia and Fredegund ,

4374-443: Is both habitual and a national custom and they are proficient in this. At the hip they wear a sword and on the left side their shield is attached. They have neither bows nor slings, no missile weapons except the double edged axe and the angon which they use most often. The angons are spears which are neither very short nor very long. They can be used, if necessary, for throwing like a javelin , and also in hand to hand combat . In

4536-670: Is commonly used in English to refer to the Burgundi ( Burgundionei , Burgundiones or Burgunds ) who settled in eastern Gaul and the western Alps during the 5th century AD. The much larger original Kingdom of the Burgundians barely intersected the modern Bourgogne and more closely matched the boundaries of Franche-Comté in northeastern France, the Rhône-Alpes in southeastern France, Romandy in west Switzerland, and Aosta Valley , in north west Italy. In modern usage, however, "Burgundians" can sometimes refer to later inhabitants of

4698-438: Is far from certain. The Nibelungenlied version m includes a version of Siegfried's freeing of Kriemhild from a dragon, meaning the legend developed by 1400. The earliest surviving copy of the ballad itself is from 1530. The ninth-century anonymous Saxon poet known as Poeta Saxo records that Attila's wife killed him to avenge the death of her father. The Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus records in his Gesta Danorum that

4860-462: Is generally believed to mean 'The Chamavi who are Franks' (despite the letter p). Further up the river the word "Francia" is clearly marked, indicating a country name on the bank opposite to Nijmegen and Xanten . The Salians were first mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus , who described Julian 's defeat of "the first Franks of all, those whom custom has called the Salians", in 358. Julian allowed

5022-478: Is mentioned that Gudrun will be his wife, and that Brunhild will feel insulted by this. The prophecy ends shortly after describing Gudrun's grief and blaming her mother Grimhild for the whole debacle. The poem is probably not very old. Brot af Sigurðarkviðu is only preserved fragmentarily: the surviving part of the poem tells the story of Sigurd's murder. The poem briefly shows Gudrun's surprise and grief at Sigurd's death, as well as her hostility to Brunhild. She

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5184-484: Is now France. He and his son Clovis I founded the Merovingian dynasty which succeeded in unifying most of Gaul under its rule during the 6th century following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, as well as establishing leadership over all the Frankish kingdoms on or near the Rhine frontier. The dynasty subsequently gained control over a significant part of what is now western and southern Germany. It

5346-599: Is on the River Danube , settling near the Sea of Azov . There they founded a city called Sicambria. (The Sicambri were the most well-known tribe in the Frankish homeland in the time of the early Roman empire, still remembered though defeated and dispersed long before the Frankish name appeared.) The Trojans joined the Roman army in accomplishing the task of driving their enemies into the marshes of Mæotis, for which they received

5508-447: Is performed by Gudrun's half-brother Guthorm, who also kills the young Sigmund. Following this, Gudrun is married to king Atli ( Attila ). When Atli invites Gudrun's brothers and kills them for their gold, Gudrun kills her two sons by Atli. She makes their skulls into drinking goblets and cooks their hearts, giving them to Atli to eat. She then tells Atli what she has done, and later kills Atli together with Högni's son. She then burns down

5670-485: Is portrayed as a less important character than Brunhild. The lost part of the poem probably shows Gudrun to reveal Sigurd and Gunnar's deception in the wooing. Burgundians The Burgundians were an early Germanic tribe or group of tribes. They appeared east in the middle Rhine region in the third century AD, and were later moved west into the Roman Empire , in Gaul . In the first and second centuries AD they, or

5832-533: Is rarely suitable to infer much about the form in the old language. The language appears to have become extinct during the late 6th century, likely due to the early conversion of the Burgundians to Latin Christianity . Somewhere in the east the Burgundians had converted to the Arian Christianity from earlier Germanic paganism . Their Arianism proved a source of suspicion and distrust between

5994-685: Is that ferocity of yours? Where is that ever untrustworthy fickleness?"). Latin feroces was used often to describe the Franks. Contemporary definitions of Frankish ethnicity vary both by period and point of view. The formulary of Marculf written about 700 AD described a continuation of national identities within a mixed population when it stated that "all the peoples who dwell (in the official's province), Franks, Romans, Burgundians and those of other nations, live ... according to their law and their custom." Writing in 2009, Professor Christopher Wickham pointed out that "the word 'Frankish' quickly ceased to have an exclusive ethnic connotation. North of

6156-458: Is thrown in front of Kriemhild's bedroom door. Kriemhild quickly realizes that Siegfried was murdered by Gunther and Hagen. Kriemhild sees to Siegfried's burial and refuses to return to Xanten with Siegfried's father, instead remaining in Worms near her family and Siegfried's tomb. Eventually, Gunther and his brothers are able to reconcile with Kriemhild, but she refuses to forgive Hagen. Kriemhild has

6318-531: The Augustan History , a collection of biographies of the Roman emperors . None of these sources presents a detailed list of which tribes or parts of tribes became Frankish, or concerning the politics and history, but to quote James (1988 , p. 35): A Roman marching-song joyfully recorded in a fourth-century source, is associated with the 260s; but the Franks' first appearance in a contemporary source

6480-717: The Strategikon , supposedly written by the emperor Maurice , or in his time, the Franks are lumped together with the Lombards under the heading of the "fair-haired" peoples. If they are hard pressed in cavalry actions, they dismount at a single prearranged sign and line up on foot. Although only a few against many horsemen, they do not shrink from the fight. They are armed with shields, lances, and short swords slung from their shoulders. They prefer fighting on foot and rapid charges. [...] Either on horseback or on foot they are impetuous and un- disciplined in charging, as if they were

6642-787: The Alans . With the authority of the Gallic emperor that he controlled, Gundahar settled on the left (Roman) bank of the Rhine, between the river Lauter and the Nahe , seizing Worms , Speyer , and Strassburg . Apparently as part of a truce, the Emperor Honorius later officially "granted" them the land, with its capital at the old Celtic Roman settlement of Borbetomagus (present Worms ). Despite their new status as foederati , Burgundian raids into Roman Upper Gallia Belgica became intolerable and were ruthlessly brought to an end in 436, when

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6804-678: The Battle of Tertry in 687, each mayor of the palace , who had formerly been the king's chief household official, effectively held power until in 751, with the approval of the Pope and the nobility, Pepin the Short deposed the last Merovingian king Childeric III and had himself crowned. This inaugurated a new dynasty, the Carolingians . The unification achieved by the Merovingians ensured

6966-685: The Battle of Vouillé , he established Frankish hegemony over most of Gaul, excluding Burgundy , Provence and Brittany , which were eventually absorbed by his successors. By the 490s, he had conquered all the Frankish kingdoms to the west of the River Maas except for the Ripuarian Franks and was in a position to make the city of Paris his capital. He became the first king of all Franks in 509, after he had conquered Cologne. Clovis I divided his realm between his four sons, who united to defeat Burgundy in 534. Internecine feuding occurred during

7128-526: The Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid and Heldenbuch-Prosa (see below); this shows the Rosengarten's connection to an oral tradition outside of the Nibelungenlied , despite the Rosengarten's obvious knowledge of the earlier poem. The Heldenbuch-Prosa , first found in the 1480 Heldenbuch of Diebolt von Hanowe and afterwards contained in printings until 1590, is considered one of the most important attestations of

7290-431: The Nibelungenlied , Kriemhild is the daughter of king Dancrat and queen Ute of Burgundy, a kingdom centered around Worms . Her brothers are Gunther, Gernot, and Giselher, with Gunther being the king. The poem opens when Kriemhild has a dream that she raised a falcon only to see it killed by two eagles. Her mother explains to her that this means she will love a man very much, but he will be killed. One day, Siegfried comes to

7452-446: The Nibelungenlied . Therefore, it is included here. In the Thidrekssaga , Grimhild (Kriemhild) is the daughter of king Aldrian of Niflungaland and Oda, sister of king Gunnar (Gunther), Gisler (Giselher), and Gernoz (Gernot), and half sister of Högni (Hagen). When Sigurd (Siegfried) comes to Gunnar's kingdom one day, he marries Grimhild and suggests that Gunnar marry Brunhild. Some time later, Grimhild and Brunhild argue over precedent in

7614-669: The River Loire everyone seems to have been considered a Frank by the mid-7th century at the latest (except Bretons ); Romani (Romans) were essentially the inhabitants of Aquitaine after that". Apart from the History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours , two early sources relate the mythological origin of the Franks: a 7th-century work known as the Chronicle of Fredegar and the anonymous Liber Historiae Francorum , written

7776-691: The Rosengarten zu Worms and corresponds to the Old Norse Gjúki, and the fact that Hagen is one of Kriemhild's brothers accords with the Thidrekssaga and the Scandinavian tradition as well. This is taken as evidence that these elements of the tradition existed in oral story-telling into the late Middle Ages. In the middle of the ballad, a dragon abducts Kriemhild from her home in Worms. The dragon holds Kriemhild captive for years in his lair of mount Trachenstein (dragon stone), treating her well. One day it lays its head in her lap and transforms into

7938-590: The Salian Franks to the west, who came south via the Rhine delta ; and the Ripuarian or Rhineland Franks to the east, who eventually conquered the Roman frontier city of Cologne and took control of the left bank of the Lower Rhine in that region. Childeric I , a Salian Frankish king, was one of several military leaders commanding Roman forces with various ethnic affiliations in the northern part of what

8100-546: The Somme river . Chlodio is often seen as an ancestor of the future Merovingian dynasty. Childeric I , who according to Gregory of Tours was a reputed descendant of Chlodio, was later seen as administrative ruler over Roman Belgica Secunda and possibly other areas. Records of Childeric show him to have been active together with Roman forces in the Loire region, quite far to the south. His descendants came to rule Roman Gaul all

8262-543: The Visigoths in the early 6th century, the Burgundians were eventually conquered at Autun by the Franks in 532 after a first attempt in the Battle of Vézeronce . The Burgundian kingdom was made part of the Merovingian kingdoms, and the Burgundians themselves were by and large absorbed as well. The 5th century Gallo-Roman poet and landowner Sidonius , who at one point lived with the Burgundians, described them as

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8424-622: The 260s, the armies under the Germanic Batavian Postumus revolted and proclaimed him emperor and then restored order. From then on, Germanic soldiers in the Roman army, most notably Franks, were promoted from the ranks. A few decades later, the Menapian Carausius created a Batavian–British rump state on Roman soil that was supported by Frankish soldiers and raiders. Frankish soldiers such as Magnentius , Silvanus , Ricomer and Bauto held command positions in

8586-591: The 450s and 460s, Childeric I , a Salian Frank, was one of several military leaders commanding Roman forces with various ethnic affiliations in Roman Gaul (roughly modern France). Childeric and his son Clovis I faced competition from the Roman Aegidius as competitor for the "kingship" of the Franks associated with the Roman Loire forces (according to Gregory of Tours , Aegidius held the kingship of

8748-495: The Burgundian court, intending to woo Kriemhild. The two do not speak for a year, but once Siegfried has helped the Burgundians in a war the two are allowed to see each other for the first time. They fall deeply in love and see each other daily. Once Siegfried has helped Kriemhild's brother king Gunther acquire Brunhild as his bride, Kriemhild and Siegfried are also married. The couple then leaves from Siegfried's own kingdom at Xanten. Some years pass, and Kriemhild and Siegfried have

8910-438: The Burgundians (called Niflungs) to visit her by mentioning the hoard of the Nibelungen which her brothers had stolen from her. Atli is seized by greed for the hoard and agrees. Once the Burgundians arrive, Grimhild demands the hoard from them, but Högni replies that it was left behind. Grimhild attempts to convince Atli's brother Bloedel and Thidrek (Dietrich von Bern) to help her take revenge, but both refuse. Finally, she provokes

9072-539: The Burgundians and the Catholic Western Roman Empire . Divisions were evidently healed or healing circa 500, however, as Gundobad , one of the last Burgundian kings, maintained a close personal friendship with Avitus , the bishop of Vienne . Moreover, Gundobad's son and successor, Sigismund , was himself a Catholic, and there is evidence that many of the Burgundian people had converted by this time as well, including several female members of

9234-572: The Burgundians are believed to have then emigrated to the Baltic island of Bornholm ("the island of the Burgundians" in Old Norse ). By about 250 AD, the population of Bornholm had largely disappeared from the island. Most cemeteries ceased to be used, and those that were still used had few burials (Stjerna, in German 1925:176). In Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar ( The Saga of Thorstein, Viking's Son ),

9396-486: The Burgundians before they reached the area near the Roman-controlled Rhine is a subject of various old proposals, but these are doubted by some modern historians. As remarked by Susan Reynolds , citing Ian N. Wood : Wood suggests that those who were called Burgundians in their early sixth-century laws were not a single ethnic group, but covered any non-Roman follower of Gundobad and Sigismund. Some of

9558-513: The Burgundians' supplies; this occurs while Etzel, Kriemhild, and their son Ortlieb are seated in the hall with Burgundians. Upon hearing of the attack, Hagen decapitates the Hunnish prince. Fighting erupts, but Dietrich von Bern arranges for Kriemhild and Etzel to leave the hall. Kriemhild later demands that Gunther surrender Hagen to her, but he refuses: she then has the hall set on fire. Eventually, Dietrich von Bern captures Gunther and Hagen as

9720-582: The Burgundians, and so there have historically been some doubts about the link between the eastern and western Burgundians. In 369/370 AD, the Emperor Valentinian I enlisted the aid of the Burgundians in his war against the Alamanni. Approximately four decades later, the Burgundians appear again. Following Stilicho 's withdrawal of troops to fight Alaric I the Visigoth in 406–408 AD,

9882-484: The Byzantine historians do not assign them to the Franks. The evidence of Gregory and of the Lex Salica implies that the early Franks were a cavalry people. In fact, some modern historians have hypothesised that the Franks possessed so numerous a body of horses that they could use them to plough fields and thus were agriculturally technologically advanced over their neighbours. The Lex Ribuaria specifies that

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10044-528: The Catalaunian Fields") in 451. The alliance between Burgundians and Visigoths seems to have been strong, as Gundioc and his brother Chilperic I accompanied Theodoric II to Spain to fight the Sueves in 455. Also in 455, an ambiguous reference infidoque tibi Burdundio ductu implicates an unnamed treacherous Burgundian leader in the murder of the emperor Petronius Maximus in the chaos preceding

10206-469: The Frankish realm. Chief among these was the standing army under the command of the Patrician of Burgundy . In the late 6th century, during the wars instigated by Fredegund and Brunhilda , the Merovingian monarchs introduced a new element into their militaries: the local levy . A levy consisted of all the able-bodied men of a district who were required to report for military service when called upon, similar to conscription . The local levy applied only to

10368-413: The Franks for 8 years while Childeric was in exile). This new type of kingship, perhaps inspired by Alaric I , represents the start of the Merovingian dynasty which succeeded in conquering most of Gaul in the 6th century, as well as establishing its leadership over all the Frankish kingdoms on the Rhine frontier. Aegidius died in 464 or 465. Childeric and his son Clovis I were both described as rulers of

10530-403: The Franks fought primarily as a tribe, unless they were part of a Roman military unit fighting in conjunction with other imperial units. The primary sources for Frankish military custom and armament are Ammianus Marcellinus , Agathias and Procopius, the latter two Eastern Roman historians writing about Frankish intervention in the Gothic War . Writing of 539, Procopius says: At this time

10692-425: The Franks knew little about their background and that they may have felt some inferiority in comparison with other peoples of antiquity who possessed an ancient name and glorious tradition. [...] Both legends are of course equally fabulous for, even more than most barbarian peoples, the Franks possessed no common history, ancestry, or tradition of a heroic age of migration. Like their Alemannic neighbours, they were by

10854-447: The Franks to remain in Texuandria as fœderati within the Empire, having moved there from the Rhine-Maas delta. The 5th century Notitia Dignitatum lists a group of soldiers as Salii . Some decades later, Franks in the same region, possibly the Salians, controlled the River Scheldt and were disrupting transport links to Britain in the English Channel . Although Roman forces managed to pacify them, they failed to expel

11016-423: The Franks, hearing that both the Goths and Romans had suffered severely by the war ... forgetting for the moment their oaths and treaties ... (for this nation in matters of trust is the most treacherous in the world), they straightway gathered to the number of one hundred thousand under the leadership of Theudebert I and marched into Italy: they had a small body of cavalry about their leader, and these were

11178-418: The Franks, who continued to be feared as pirates. The Salians are generally seen as the predecessors of the Franks who pushed southwestwards into what is now modern France, who eventually came to be ruled by the Merovingians (see below). This is because when the Merovingian dynasty published the Salian law ( Lex Salica ) it applied in the Neustrian area from the river Liger ( Loire ) to the Silva Carbonaria ,

11340-410: The Gepids, whose kingdom was also originally near the mouth of the Vistula. In the late 3rd century AD, the Burgundians appeared on the east bank of the Rhine, apparently confronting Roman Gaul. Zosimus (1.68) reports them being defeated by the emperor Probus in 278 near a river, together with the Silingi and Vandals. A few years later, Claudius Mamertinus mentions them along with the Alamanni ,

11502-540: The Germanic word for " javelin " (such as in Old English franca or Old Norse frakka ). Words in other Germanic languages meaning "fierce", "bold" or "insolent" (German frech , Middle Dutch vrac , Old English frǣc and Old Norwegian frakkr ) may also be significant. Eumenius addressed the Franks in the matter of the execution of Frankish prisoners in the circus at Trier by Constantine I in 306 and certain other measures: Ubi nunc est illa ferocia? Ubi semper infida mobilitas? ("Where now

11664-658: The Hun. In the Norse tradition, Atli desires the hoard of the Nibelungen, which the Burgundians had taken after murdering Sigurd, and invites them to his court; intending to kill them. Gudrun then avenges her brothers by killing Atli and burning down his hall. The Norse tradition then tells of her further life as mother of Svanhild and enemy of Jormunrekr . In the continental tradition, Kriemhild instead desires revenge for her brothers' murder of Siegfried, and invites them to visit Etzel's court intending to kill them. Her revenge destroys both

11826-462: The Huns and the Burgundians, and in the end she herself is killed. In Richard Wagner 's Der Ring des Nibelungen , Siegfried's wife is known as Gutrune . As Wagner's cycle ends with Siegfried's funeral and its immediate aftermath, it does not include her marriage to Atli/Etzel or revenge for Siegfried's death. Some of the differences and similarities between Gudrun and Kriemhild in the Scandinavian and continental Germanic traditions can be seen in

11988-658: The Middle Ages the term Burgundian (or similar spellings) can refer even to the powerful political entity the Dukes controlled which included not only Burgundy itself but had actually expanded to have a strong association with areas now in modern Belgium and Southern Netherlands. The parts of the old Kingdom not within the French controlled Duchy tended to come under different names, except for the County of Burgundy . The origins of

12150-552: The Pious . Following Louis the Pious's death, however, according to Frankish culture and law that demanded equality among all living male adult heirs, the Frankish Empire was now split between Louis' three sons. Germanic peoples, including those tribes in the Rhine delta that later became the Franks, are known to have served in the Roman army since the days of Julius Caesar . After the Roman administration collapsed in Gaul in

12312-502: The Rhine became so frequent that the Romans began to settle the Franks on their borders in order to control them. The Franks appear to be mentioned in the Tabula Peutingeriana , an atlas of Roman roads . (It is a 13th-century copy of a 4th or 5th century document that reflects information from the 3rd century.) Several tribal names are written at the mouth of the Rhine. One of these says Hamavi; Quietpranci , which

12474-480: The Rhine, between Franks and Alamanni, including Worms , Speyer , and Strasbourg . In 436 AD, Aëtius defeated the Burgundians on the Rhine with the help of Hunnish forces, and then in 443, he re-settled the Burgundians within the empire, in eastern Gaul . This Gaulish domain became the Kingdom of the Burgundians , which much later became a component of the Frankish Empire . The name of this kingdom survives in

12636-497: The Roman Province of Belgica Secunda , by its spiritual leader in the time of Clovis, Saint Remigius . Clovis later defeated the son of Aegidius, Syagrius , in 486 or 487 and then had the Frankish king Chararic imprisoned and executed. A few years later, he killed Ragnachar , the Frankish king of Cambrai, and his brothers. After conquering the Kingdom of Soissons and expelling the Visigoths from southern Gaul at

12798-424: The Roman army during the mid 4th century. From the narrative of Ammianus Marcellinus it is evident that both Frankish and Alamannic tribal armies were organised along Roman lines. After the invasion of Chlodio , the Roman armies at the Rhine border became a Frankish "franchise" and Franks were known to levy Roman-like troops that were supported by a Roman-like armour and weapons industry. This lasted at least until

12960-710: The Roman general Aëtius called in Hun mercenaries, who overwhelmed the Rhineland kingdom in 437. Gundahar was killed in the fighting, reportedly along with the majority of the Burgundian tribe. The destruction of Worms and the Burgundian kingdom by the Huns became the subject of heroic legends that were afterwards incorporated in the Nibelungenlied —on which Wagner based his Ring Cycle —where King Gunther (Gundahar) and Queen Brünhild hold their court at Worms, and Siegfried comes to woo Kriemhild. (In Old Norse sources

13122-459: The Salians they appear in Roman records both as raiders and as contributors to military units. Unlike the Salii, there is no record of when, if ever, the empire officially accepted their residence within its borders. They eventually succeeded to hold the city of Cologne, and at some point seem to have acquired the name Ripuarians, which may have meant "river people". In any case a Merovingian legal code

13284-438: The Scandinavian tradition to have survived and roughly contemporary with the Nibelungenlied . Victor Millet nevertheless believes that Saxo is of little value as a source for authentic heroic traditions, as he appears to have thoroughly altered whatever sources he used. The so-called Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson is the earliest attestation of the full Scandinavian version of Gudrun's life, dating to around 1220. Snorri tells

13446-693: The application of separate laws for separate ethnicities. Thus, in addition to the Lex Gundobada , Gundobad also issued (or codified) a set of laws for Roman subjects of the Burgundian kingdom, the Lex Romana Burgundionum ( The Roman Law of the Burgundians ). In addition to the above codes, Gundobad's son Sigismund later published the Prima Constitutio . Franks The Franks ( Latin : Franci or gens Francorum ; German : Franken ; French : Francs ) were

13608-422: The archaeological evidence. The Lex Ribuaria , the early 7th century legal code of the Rhineland or Ripuarian Franks, specifies the values of various goods when paying a wergild in kind; whereas a spear and shield were worth only two solidi , a sword and scabbard were valued at seven, a helmet at six, and a "metal tunic" at twelve. Scramasaxes and arrowheads are numerous in Frankish graves even though

13770-433: The areas of Saône, Dauphiny, Savoie and a part of Provence. He set up Vienne as the capital of the kingdom of Burgundy. In all, eight Burgundian kings of the house of Gundahar ruled until the kingdom was overrun by the Franks in 534. As allies of Rome in its last decades, the Burgundians fought alongside Aëtius and a confederation of Visigoths and others against Attila at the Battle of Châlons (also called "The Battle of

13932-555: The attempt, leading to the extinction of Gjúki's line. The Poetic Edda , a collection of heroic and mythological Nordic poems, appears to have been compiled around 1270 in Iceland, and assembles mythological and heroic songs of various ages. As elsewhere in the Scandinavian tradition, Gudrun is portrayed as the sister of Gunnar and Högni. Depending on the poem Guthorm is either her full brother, step-brother, or half-brother. A sister Gullrönd also appears in one poem. Generally, none of

14094-467: The banks of the Danube and the Ocean Sea. Again splitting into, two groups, half of them entered Europe with their king Francio. After crossing Europe with their wives and children they occupied the banks of the Rhine and not far from the Rhine began to build the city of "Troy" (Colonia Traiana-Xanten). According to historian Patrick J. Geary , those two stories are "alike in betraying both the fact that

14256-443: The church before Brunhild. Siegfried is forced to publicly deny the accusation to Gunther, and beats Kriemhild to punish her. Brunhild is not satisfied, however, and Hagen convinces Gunther to have Siegfried murdered. Under the pretext that he wants to protect Siegfried, Hagen convinces Kriemhild to reveal the only spot where impenetrable Siegfried may be wounded. Once Siegfried is murdered while hunting with Hagen and Gunther, his body

14418-441: The conquests of Clovis I in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. Frankish military strategy revolved around the holding and taking of fortified centres ( castra ) and in general these centres were held by garrisons of milities and laeti , who were descendants of Roman soldiers with Germanic origin, granted a quasi-national status under Frankish law. These milites continued to be commanded by tribunes. Throughout Gaul,

14580-535: The context of their joint efforts during the Crusades starting in the 11th century. A key turning point in this evolution was when the Frankish Merovingian dynasty based within the collapsing Western Roman Empire first became the rulers of the whole region between the rivers Loire and Rhine . From this starting point they imposed power over many other post-Roman kingdoms both inside and outside

14742-493: The continent, this name is only attested for an apparently unrelated figure (see Kudrun ). The etymology of Kriemhild is less clear. The second element is clearly -hild , meaning battle or conflict. There is no consensus about the first element though, and it is also variously spelled Grim- and Crem- . One theory derives it from a root *Grīm- (cf. Old English grīma ) meaning mask. Another theory connects it an otherwise unattested root Krēm- . According to both theories,

14904-483: The continuation of what has become known as the Carolingian Renaissance . The Carolingian Empire was beset by internecine warfare, but the combination of Frankish rule and Roman Christianity ensured that it was fundamentally united. Frankish government and culture depended very much upon each ruler and his aims and so each region of the empire developed differently. Although a ruler's aims depended upon

15066-467: The date of the beginning of the conquest of Gaul. The Byzantine authors present several contradictions and difficulties. Procopius denies the Franks the use of the spear while Agathias makes it one of their primary weapons. They agree that the Franks were primarily infantrymen, threw axes and carried a sword and shield. Both writers also contradict the authority of Gallic authors of the same general time period ( Sidonius Apollinaris and Gregory of Tours ) and

15228-453: The days of the scholar Procopius (c. 500 – c. 565), more than a century after the demise of the Western Roman Empire, who wrote describing the former Arborychoi , having merged with the Franks, retaining their legionary organization in the style of their forefathers during Roman times. The Franks under the Merovingians melded Germanic custom with Romanised organisation and several important tactical innovations. Before their conquest of Gaul,

15390-400: The death of three kings of a nation, bright lady, before she died. The etymology of Gudrun ( Guðrún ) is straightforward: it consists of two elements. The first is Proto-Germanic *gunþ- , Old Norse gunnr , meaning battle; it shows the typical North Sea Germanic loss of a nasal before a dental spirant ( *Gunþrūn to Guðrún ). The second element is Old Norse rún , meaning secret. On

15552-420: The death of his father Gundioc. At this time or shortly afterwards, the Burgundian kingdom was divided among Gundobad and his brothers, Godigisel, Chilperic II, and Gundomar I. According to Gregory of Tours , the years following Gundobad's return to Burgundy saw a bloody consolidation of power. Gregory states that Gundobad murdered his brother Chilperic, drowning his wife and exiling their daughters (one of whom

15714-491: The descendants of Roman soldiers continued to wear their uniforms and perform their ceremonial duties. Immediately beneath the Frankish king in the military hierarchy were the leudes , his sworn followers, who were generally 'old soldiers' in service away from court. The king had an elite bodyguard called the truste . Members of the truste often served in centannae , garrison settlements that were established for military and police purposes. The day-to-day bodyguard of

15876-415: The dragon's skin. Siegfried defeats the dragon, and Kriemhild and Siegfried return to Worms, where they are married and Siegfried rules together with Kriemhild's brothers. Her brothers, however, resent how powerful Siegfried has become and after seven years, they murder him. It has been suggested that Siegfried's liberation of Kriemhild may be a repurposing of a lost German story about Brunhild , though this

16038-421: The east bank of the Rhine. Gregory of Tours (Book II) reported that small Frankish kingdoms existed during the fifth century around Cologne , Tournai , Cambrai and elsewhere. The kingdom of the Merovingians eventually came to dominate the others, possibly because of its association with Roman power structures in northern Gaul, into which the Frankish military forces were apparently integrated to some extent. In

16200-405: The east, and some names and placenames. However this is now considered uncertain. Little is known of the language. Some proper names of Burgundians are recorded, and some words used in the area in modern times are thought to be derived from the ancient Burgundian language, but it is often difficult to distinguish these from Germanic words of other origin, and in any case the modern form of the words

16362-419: The emperor (apparently personally). Ricimer then appointed Olybrius ; both died, surprisingly of natural causes, within a few months. Gundobad seems then to have succeeded his uncle as Patrician and king-maker, and raised Glycerius to the throne. In 474, Burgundian influence over the empire seems to have ended. Glycerius was deposed in favor of Julius Nepos , and Gundobad returned to Burgundy, presumably at

16524-761: The emperors of the Western Roman Empire . As such, the Carolingian Empire gradually came to be seen in the West as a continuation of the ancient Roman Empire. This empire would give rise to several successor states, including France, the Holy Roman Empire and Burgundy , though the Frankish identity remained most closely identified with France. After the death of Charlemagne , his only adult surviving son became Emperor and King Louis

16686-584: The entire Roman frontier. Southwards migrations are believed to have triggered the Marcomannic Wars , which resulted in widespread destruction and the first invasion of Italy in the Roman Empire period. Writing in the 6th century, Jordanes reported that during the 3rd century AD, the Burgundians had been living near the Vistula basin, where they were almost annihilated by Fastida , king of

16848-446: The epic represents a sort of Bildungsroman for Kriemhild, as she develops from a relatively mild-manner courtly lady into a forceful and ferocious avenger of her dead husband. Various versions of the text judge her actions differently; in the A and B versions, she is condemned as a vâlendinne (fiend) for her bloody revenge, but the C version emphasizes her love for her dead husband as her motivation and absolves her of most blame. In

17010-405: The first time. It seems likely that the term Frank in this first period had a broader meaning, sometimes including coastal Frisii . The Life of Aurelian , which was possibly written by Vopiscus, mentions that in 328, Frankish raiders were captured by the 6th Legion stationed at Mainz . As a result of this incident, 700 Franks were killed and 300 were sold into slavery. Frankish incursions over

17172-522: The following two stanzas taken from original sources. The first is Kriemhild's introduction in the Nibelungenlied : Ez wuohs in Burgonden ein vil edel magedîn, daz in allen landen niht schoeners mohte sîn, Kriemhilt geheizen. si wart ein schoene wîp. dar umbe muosen degene vil verliesen den lîp. There grew up in Burgundy a most noble maiden. No one in all the lands could be fairer. She

17334-399: The form Grim- with a short vowel represents an alteration of the original root to be more similar to the word grim , meaning terrible. Yet another theory derives the first element from a verb similar to Middle High German grimmen , meaning to rage. In the Scandinavian tradition, Gudrun's mother is known as Grimhild ( Grimhildr ), the cognate name to Kriemhild. Victor Millet suggests that

17496-512: The geographical Bourgogne or Borgogne (Burgundy), named after the old kingdom, but not corresponding to the original boundaries of it. Between the 6th and 20th centuries, the boundaries and political connections of "Burgundy" have changed frequently. In modern times the only area still referred to as Burgundy is in France, which derives its name from the Duchy of Burgundy . But in the context of

17658-442: The hall and having the child provoke Hagen, who kills him. This leads to an outbreak of hostilities in which many heroes die. When Dietrich takes Gunther and Hagen prisoner, she cuts off their heads, causing Dietrich to cut her to pieces. In the late medieval/early modern heroic ballad Das Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid , Kriemhild is the daughter of king Gybich and sister of Gunther, Gyrnot (Gernot), and Hagen. The name Gybich agrees with

17820-518: The hall set on fire, and in the following battle Gisler and Gernoz die. Grimhild sticks a piece of flaming wood into her dead brothers' mouths to see if they are dead, causing an enraged Thidrek to kill her. The author of the saga has made a number of changes to create a more or less coherent story out of the many oral and possibly written sources that he used to create the saga. The author mentions alternative Scandinavian versions of many of these same tales, and appears to have changed some details to match

17982-434: The hall. Afterwards, Gudrun tries to drown herself in the sea, but she washes ashore in the land of King Jonak. Jonak marries her and has three sons with her, Sorli, Hamdir, and Erp. Svanhild, Sigurd's daughter, is also raised there, before being married to king Jormunrek. When Jormunrek kills Svanhild for adultery, Gudrun tells her sons to kill him, giving them special weapons that could not be pierced by iron. The sons die in

18144-494: The hoard of the Nibelungen, which she has inherited after Siegfried's death, brought to Worms. She uses the hoard to acquire warriors; Hagen, realizing that she is dangerous, conspires to steal the hoard and sink it in the Rhine. Thirteen years later, king Etzel of the Huns seeks Kriemhild's hand in marriage, and she reluctantly agrees. Thirteen years after her arrival in Etzel's kingdom, she convinces Etzel to invite her brothers to

18306-448: The king was made up of antrustiones (senior soldiers who were aristocrats in military service) and pueri (junior soldiers and not aristocrats). All high-ranking men had pueri . The Frankish military was not composed solely of Franks and Gallo-Romans, but also contained Saxons , Alans , Taifals and Alemanni . After the conquest of Burgundy (534), the well-organised military institutions of that kingdom were integrated into

18468-468: The king's hall. Brunhild accuses Grimhild of not even being married to a man of noble birth, whereupon Grimhild reveals that Sigurd and not Gunnar took Brunhild's virginity, showing a ring that Sigurd had given her as proof. Brunhild then agitates for Sigurd's murder; once Grimhild's brothers have murdered Sigurd, they place his corpse in her bed. Some time later, Atli (Etzel) woos Grimhild to be his new wife. Seven years later Grimhild convinces Atli to invite

18630-472: The last survivors in the hall, handing them over to Kriemhild. Kriemhild separates the two and demands that Hagen give back to her what he has taken from her. Hagen says he cannot tell her where the hoard is as long as his lord Gunther lives; Kriemhild then has Gunther decapitated. Hagen then reveals that the hoard is in the Rhine; Kriemhild takes Siegfried's sword, which Hagen had stolen, and beheads him with it herself. Dietrich's mentor Hildebrand , outraged that

18792-455: The latter of whom had Brunhild's husband Sigebert I murdered by his brother Chilperic I , her husband. In the oral tradition, Brunhilda's name has become attached to the murderer rather than the wife. The second element of Fredegund's name, meanwhile, corresponds with the first in Gudrun's. In the case of the destruction of the Burgundians, Gudrun can be traced to Attila 's wife Ildico , who

18954-711: The leaders of Goths and Burgundians may have descended from long-distant ancestors somewhere around the Baltic. Maybe, but everyone has a lot of ancestors, and some of theirs may well have come from elsewhere. There is, as Walter Goffart has repeatedly argued, little reason to believe that sixth-century or later references to what looks like names for Scandinavia, or for places in it, mean that traditions from those particular ancestors had been handed through thick and thin. They have long been associated with Scandinavian origin based on place-name evidence and archaeological evidence (Stjerna) and many consider their tradition to be correct (e.g. Musset, p. 62). According to such proposals,

19116-637: The less Romanised regions of Gaul. On an intermediate level, the kings began calling up territorial levies from the regions of Austrasia (which did not have major cities of Roman origin). All the forms of the levy gradually disappeared, however, in the course of the 7th century after the reign of Dagobert I . Under the so-called rois fainéants , the levies disappeared by mid-century in Austrasia and later in Burgundy and Neustria. Only in Aquitaine, which

19278-559: The men. His contemporary, Agathias, who based his own writings upon the tropes laid down by Procopius, says: The military equipment of this people [the Franks] is very simple ... They do not know the use of the coat of mail or greaves and the majority leave the head uncovered, only a few wear the helmet. They have their chests bare and backs naked to the loins, they cover their thighs with either leather or linen. They do not serve on horseback except in very rare cases. Fighting on foot

19440-496: The mid-thirteenth-century wandering lyric poet Der Marner, "whom Kriemhild betrayed" ( wen Kriemhilt verriet ) is mentioned as a popular story that the German courtly public enjoyed hearing, along with tales of Sigurd's death and the hoard of the Nibelungs. The Hungarian chronicler Simon of Kéza (late thirteenth-century) records that Attila the Hun was killed by his wife Kriemhild. The Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus records

19602-419: The more general levies were composed of pauperes and inferiores , who were mostly farmers by trade and carried ineffective weapons, such as farming implements. The peoples east of the Rhine  – Franks, Saxons and even Wends  – who were sometimes called upon to serve, wore rudimentary armour and carried weapons such as spears and axes . Few of these men were mounted. Merovingian society had

19764-471: The name of Franks (meaning "fierce"). A decade later the Romans killed Priam and drove away Marcomer and Sunno , the sons of Priam and Antenor, and the other Franks. The most important contemporary sources mentioning the early Franks include the Panegyrici Latini , Ammianus Marcellinus , Claudian , Zosimus , Sidonius Apollinaris and Gregory of Tours . The Franks are first mentioned in

19926-464: The name, along with the mother's wickedness, may derive from the continental tradition. Scholarly opinion diverges as to which name is more original: either both names are old, the name Gudrun is the original name and the name Kriemhild a later invention, or the name Kriemhild is the original name and the name Gudrun was created to share the same first element as the other Burgundians Gunther ( Gunnar ) and Guthorm (see Gundomar I ). Gudrun

20088-785: The names are Gunnar , Brynhild , and Gudrún as normally rendered in English.) In fact, the Etzel of the Nibelungenlied is based on Attila the Hun . For reasons not cited in the sources, the Burgundians were granted foederati status a second time, and in 443 were resettled by Aëtius in Sapaudia , part of the Gallo-Roman province of Maxima Sequanorum . Burgundians probably even lived near Lugdunum , known today as Lyon . A new king, Gundioc or Gunderic , presumed to be Gundahar's son, appears to have reigned following his father's death. The historian Pline tells us that Gunderic ruled

20250-454: The old empire. Although the Frankish name does not appear until the 3rd century, at least some of the original Frankish tribes had long been known to the Romans under their own names, both as allies providing soldiers, and as enemies. The term is first used to describe the tribes working together to raid Roman territory. Frankish peoples subsequently living inside Rome's frontier on the Rhine river are often divided by historians into two groups –

20412-412: The only ones armed with spears, while all the rest were foot soldiers having neither bows nor spears, but each man carried a sword and shield and one axe. Now the iron head of this weapon was thick and exceedingly sharp on both sides, while the wooden handle was very short. And they are accustomed always to throw these axes at a signal in the first charge and thus to shatter the shields of the enemy and kill

20574-409: The only people in the world who are not cowards. While the above quotations have been used as a statement of the military practices of the Frankish nation in the 6th century and have even been extrapolated to the entire period preceding Charles Martel 's reforms (early mid-8th century), post-Second World War historiography has emphasised the inherited Roman characteristics of the Frankish military from

20736-412: The poem, Hagen curses Kriemhild for having provoked the combat. The poem takes a highly critical judgment of Kriemhild. As in the A and B versions of the Nibelungenlied , she is called a vâlandinne (fiend) and she derives great joy from watching the knights fight in at times brutal combat. The name of Kriemhild's father, Gibeche, corresponds to Gjúki in the Scandinavian tradition, and is also found in

20898-406: The poems in the collection is thought to be older than 900 and some appear to have been written in the thirteenth century. It is also possible that apparently old poems have been written in an archaicizing style and that apparently recent poems are reworkings of older material, so that reliable dating is impossible. In Grípisspá , a prophecy that Sigurd receives about his future life and deeds, it

21060-485: The political alliances of his family, the leading families of Francia shared the same basic beliefs and ideas of government, which had both Roman and Germanic roots. The Frankish state consolidated its hold over the majority of western Europe by the end of the 8th century, developing into the Carolingian Empire. With the coronation of their ruler Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in 800 AD, he and his successors were recognised as legitimate successors to

21222-513: The political centre of gravity in the kingdom gradually shifted eastwards to the Rhineland. The Frankish realm was reunited in 613 by Chlothar II , the son of Chilperic, who granted his nobles the Edict of Paris in an effort to reduce corruption and reassert his authority. Following the military successes of his son and successor Dagobert I , royal authority rapidly declined under a series of kings, traditionally known as les rois fainéants . After

21384-481: The region for about a decade before they were subdued and expelled by the Romans. In 287 or 288, the Roman Caesar Maximian forced a Frankish leader Genobaud and his people to surrender without a fight. In 288, the emperor Maximian defeated the Salian Franks , Chamavi , Frisii and other Germanic people living along the Rhine and moved them to Germania inferior to provide manpower and prevent

21546-469: The regional appellation, Burgundy , which is a region in modern France, although the modern Burgundy represents only a part of that kingdom. Another part of the Burgundians formed a contingent in Attila 's Hunnic army by 451 AD. Before clear documentary evidence begins, the Burgundians may have originally emigrated from the Baltic island of Bornholm to the Vistula region. The ethnonym Burgundians

21708-498: The reigns of the brothers Sigebert I and Chilperic I , which was largely fuelled by the rivalry of their queens, Brunhilda and Fredegunda , and which continued during the reigns of their sons and their grandsons. Three distinct subkingdoms emerged: Austrasia , Neustria and Burgundy, each of which developed independently and sought to exert influence over the others. The influence of the Arnulfing clan of Austrasia ensured that

21870-586: The ruling family. The Burgundians left three legal codes , among the earliest from any of the Germanic tribes. The Liber Constitutionum sive Lex Gundobada ("The Book of Constitutions or Law of Gundobad"), also known as the Lex Burgundionum , or more simply the Lex Gundobada or the Liber , was issued in several parts between 483 and 516, principally by Gundobad, but also by his son, Sigismund. It

22032-528: The sack of Rome by the Vandals . The Patrician Ricimer is also blamed; this event marks the first indication of the link between the Burgundians and Ricimer, who was probably Gundioc's brother-in-law and Gundobad 's uncle. In 456, the Burgundians, apparently confident in their growing power, negotiated a territorial expansion and power sharing arrangement with the local Roman senators. In 457, Ricimer overthrew another emperor, Avitus , raising Majorian to

22194-456: The same name, Burgundiones, were described by early Roman writers as living in present-day Poland. It has also been proposed that there several important Germanic tribes later found settled near Roman frontiers originally had their origins around the Baltic sea, including the Rugii , Goths , Gepidae , Vandals , and others. According to such proposals, their movement south created turmoil along

22356-566: The scene by the 8th century. Merovingian armies used coats of mail , helmets, shields , lances , swords , bows and arrows and war horses . The armament of private armies resembled those of the Gallo-Roman potentiatores of the late Empire. A strong element of Alanic cavalry settled in Armorica influenced the fighting style of the Bretons down into the 12th century. Local urban levies could be reasonably well-armed and even mounted, but

22518-458: The second half of his law, which was more originally Burgundian. The Burgundians were extending their power over eastern Gaul —that is western Switzerland and eastern France, as well as northern Italy. In 493, Clovis , king of the Franks, married the Burgundian princess Clotilda (daughter of Chilperic), who converted him to the Catholic faith. At first allied with Clovis' Franks against

22680-413: The settlement of other Germanic tribes. In 292, Constantius , the father of Constantine I defeated the Franks who had settled at the mouth of the Rhine. These were moved to the nearby region of Toxandria . Eumenius mentions Constantius as having "killed, expelled, captured [and] kidnapped" the Franks who had settled there and others who had crossed the Rhine, using the term nationes Franciae for

22842-609: The sixth century a fairly recent creation, a coalition of Rhenish tribal groups who long maintained separate identities and institutions." The other work, the Liber Historiae Francorum , previously known as Gesta regum Francorum before its republication in 1888 by Bruno Krusch, described how 12,000 Trojans, led by Priam and Antenor , sailed from Troy to the River Don in Russia and on to Pannonia , which

23004-422: The still-pagan trans-Rhenish stem duchies on the orders of a monarch. The Saxons , Alemanni and Thuringii all had the institution of the levy and the Frankish monarchs could depend upon their levies until the mid-7th century, when the stem dukes began to sever their ties to the monarchy. Radulf of Thuringia called up the levy for a war against Sigebert III in 640. Soon the local levy spread to Austrasia and

23166-561: The stories known by his Scandinavian audience. The saga's version of the downfall of the Burgundians represents a unique mix of elements known from the Norse and continental traditions. In the Rosengarten zu Worms (c. 1250), Kriemhild is the daughter of king Gibeche. She possesses a rose garden that is guarded by twelve heroes, including her fiancé, Siegfried. Desiring to see whether Siegfried can beat Dietrich von Bern in combat, she challenges Dietrich to bring twelve of his own heroes for

23328-554: The story of Gudrun in several chapters of the section of the poem called Skáldskaparsmál . His presentation of the story is very similar to that found in the Völsunga saga (see below), but is considerably shorter. Gudrun is introduced as the daughter of Gjúki and Grimhild, full sister to Gunnar and Högni, and half-sister to Guthorm. Gudrun marries Sigurd when he comes to Gjúki's kingdom. When Sigurd returns from aiding Gunnar in his wooing of Brunhild, Sigurd and Gudrun have two children,

23490-545: The stretch of the Rhine from roughly Mainz to Duisburg , the region of the city of Cologne , are often considered separately from the Salians, and sometimes in modern texts referred to as Ripuarian Franks. The Ravenna Cosmography suggests that Francia Renensis included the old civitas of the Ubii , in Germania II ( Germania Inferior ), but also the northern part of Germania I (Germania Superior), including Mainz . Like

23652-522: The throne. This new emperor proved unhelpful to Ricimer and the Burgundians. The year after his ascension, Majorian stripped the Burgundians of the lands they had acquired two years earlier. After showing further signs of independence, he was murdered by Ricimer in 461. Ten years later, in 472, Ricimer–who was by now the son-in-law of the Western Emperor Anthemius –was plotting with Gundobad to kill his father-in-law; Gundobad beheaded

23814-468: The way to there, and this became the Frankish kingdom of Neustria , the basis of what would become medieval France. Childeric's son Clovis I also took control of the more independent Frankish kingdoms east of the Silva Carbonaria and Belgica II. This later became the Frankish kingdom of Austrasia , where the early legal code was referred to as "Ripuarian". The Rhineland Franks who lived near

23976-532: The western kingdom founded by them outside the original area of Frankish settlement. In the 5th century, Franks under Chlodio pushed into Roman lands in and beyond the " Silva Carbonaria " or "Charcoal forest", which ran through the area of modern western Wallonia . The forest was the boundary of the original Salian territories to the north and the more Romanized area to the south in the Roman province of Belgica Secunda , which now lies in northern France. Chlodio conquered Tournai , Artois , Cambrai , and as far as

24138-470: The works of Virgil and Hieronymus : Blessed Jerome has written about the ancient kings of the Franks, whose story was first told by the poet Virgil: their first king was Priam and, after Troy was captured by trickery, they departed. Afterwards they had as king Friga, then they split into two parts, the first going into Macedonia, the second group, which left Asia with Friga were called the Frigii, settled on

24300-471: Was a record of Burgundian customary law and is typical of the many Germanic law codes from this period. In particular, the Liber borrowed from the Lex Visigothorum and influenced the later Lex Ripuaria . The Liber is one of the primary sources for contemporary Burgundian life, as well as the history of its kings. Like many of the Germanic tribes, the Burgundians' legal traditions allowed

24462-429: Was by building upon the basis of this Merovingian empire that the subsequent dynasty, the Carolingians , eventually came to be seen as the new emperors of Western Europe in 800, when Charlemagne was crowned by the pope. In 870 , the Frankish realm came to be permanently divided between western and eastern kingdoms, which were the predecessors of the later Kingdom of France and Holy Roman Empire respectively. It

24624-512: Was called Kriemhilt—she grew to be a beautiful woman. For her sake many knights were to lose their lives. And this is how Gudrun is described at the end of the Eddic poem Atlakviða : Fullrœtt er um þetta: ferr engi svá síðan brúðr í brynio brœðr at hefna. Hon hefir þriggia þióðkonunga banorð borit, biǫrt, áðr sylti. The whole tale is told: never after her will any wife go thus in armour to avenge her brothers. She caused

24786-597: Was called the Lex Ribuaria , but it probably applied in all the older Frankish lands, including the original Salian areas. Jordanes , in his Getica mentions a group called the "Riparii" as auxiliaries of Flavius Aetius during the Battle of Châlons in 451, and distinct from the "Franci": "Hi enim affuerunt auxiliares: Franci, Sarmatae, Armoriciani, Liticiani, Burgundiones, Saxones, Riparii, Olibriones  ..." But these Riparii ("river dwellers") are today not considered to be Ripuarian Franks, but rather

24948-524: Was fast becoming independent of the central Frankish monarchy, did complex military institutions persist into the 8th century. In the final half of the 7th century and first half of the 8th in Merovingian Gaul, the chief military actors became the lay and ecclesiastical magnates with their bands of armed followers called retainers. The other aspects of the Merovingian military, mostly Roman in origin or innovations of powerful kings, disappeared from

25110-577: Was forced into some sort of vassalage by Clovis' earlier victory, as the Burgundian king appears to have assisted the Franks in 507 in their victory over Alaric II the Visigoth. During the upheaval, sometime between 483 and 501, Gundobad began to set forth the Lex Gundobada (see below), issuing roughly the first half, which drew upon the Lex Visigothorum . Following his consolidation of power, between 501 and his death in 516, Gundobad issued

25272-773: Was in 289. [...] The Chamavi were mentioned as a Frankish people as early as 289, the Bructeri from 307, the Chattuarri from 306 to 315, the Salii or Salians from 357, and the Amsivarii and Tubantes from c. 364 to 375. The Franks were described in Roman texts both as allies ( laeti ) and enemies ( dediticii ). About the year 260, during the Crisis of the Third Century , one group of Franks penetrated as far as Tarragona in present-day Spain, where they plagued

25434-536: Was rumored to have murdered him. The written form Ildico is generally taken to represent the Germanic name *Hildiko , which would be a diminutive form of the name Hild and would thus correspond to the second element in Kriemhild . Kriemhild is the main character of the Nibelungenlied (c. 1200): she is the first character to be introduced and the romance ends with her death. The poem is even called "Kriemhild" in at least one manuscript. It has even been argued that

25596-481: Was settled in northern Gaul by the Romans. Some Burgundians were settled as foederati in the Roman province of Germania Prima along the Middle Rhine . Other Burgundians, however, remained outside the empire and apparently formed a contingent in Attila 's Hunnic army by 451 AD. In 411, the Burgundian king Gundahar (or Gundicar ) set up a puppet emperor, Jovinus , in cooperation with Goar , king of

25758-480: Was temporarily holed up in Avignon, but was able to re-muster his army and sacked Vienne, where Godegisel and many of his followers were put to death. From this point, Gundobad appears to have been the sole king of Burgundy. This would imply that his brother Gundomar was already dead, though there are no specific mentions of the event in the sources. Either Gundobad and Clovis reconciled their differences, or Gundobad

25920-436: Was that of Hagen. This is underlined by having Hildebrand specifically blame Hagen for the disaster, calling him a vâlant (fiend), the male counterpart to the accusation that Kriemhild is a vâlandinne (fiend). Although the Þiðrekssaga (c. 1250) is written in Old Norse, the majority of the material is translated from German (particularly Low German ) oral tales, as well as possibly some from German written sources such as

26082-605: Was the inhabitants of western kingdom who eventually came to be known as "the French " ( French : Les Français , German : Die Franzosen , Dutch : De Fransen , etc.) and this kingdom is the forerunner of the nation state of France. However, in various historical contexts, such as during the medieval crusades, not only the French, but also people from neighbouring regions in Western Europe , continued to be referred to collectively as Franks. The crusaders in particular had

26244-477: Was to become the wife of Clovis the Frank , and was reputedly responsible for his conversion). This is contested by, e.g., Bury, who points out problems in much of Gregory's chronology for the events. In c. 500, when Gundobad and Clovis were at war, Gundobad appears to have been betrayed by his brother Godegisel, who joined the Franks; together Godegisel's and Clovis' forces "crushed the army of Gundobad". Gundobad

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