196
THE OLDEST ENGLISH EPIC
With Thyrings[1] was I, and Throwends too;
65and with the Burgundians got I a ring,
when Guthhere[2] gave me the glittering treasure
in pay for my song: no puny king!
With Franks and Frisians and Frumtings was I,
with Rugas and Glommas and Rumwalas.[3]
70Likewise with Ælfwine[4] in Italy was I:
of all mankind I ken he had
the fairest hand his fame to heighten,
heart most ungrudging in gift of rings,
of shining circlets, son of Eadwine.
75With Saracens was I, and Serings too,
with Greeks and with Finns, and with Cæsar[5] was I.
he that ruled o’er the revellers’ cities,[6]
wielded the wealth of the Walas’[7] realm.
With Scots and Picts, and Scrid-Finns[8] was I,
80with Lith-Wicings, Leonas, and Longobards,
- ↑ Thuringians.
- ↑ See the Waldere. He is the Nibelungen Gunther, with a difference.
- ↑ That is, “Rome-Welsh,” foreigners of Rome. A curious bit of popular etymology turned Romulus into Anglo-Saxon Romwalus.
- ↑ This is the famous Alboin, son of Audoin (=Eadwine in Anglo-Saxon), the Langobard or Lombard king who invaded Italy in 568 A.D. His people had already shifted their territory from the neighborhood of the Elbe to the Danube. Paul the Deacon records that Alboin’s generosity and fame were known by all of Germanic tongue “and sung in their songs.”
- ↑ The rimes are disordered; but Creacum answers to Casere with the k sound.
- ↑ Literally, “wine-burg,” place of banquets.
- ↑ As above, “foreigners”; the Italians are still called “Welsh” by German folk.
- ↑ Probably the “Snow-Shoe Finns,” such as King Alfred heard about from the sea-captain. The Finns in vv. 20, 77, Müllenhoff places in the northeast of Europe.
