15and Alexander, of all, the greatest
in the race of men, and most he throve
of any on earth that ever I heard.
Attila ruled Huns, and Eormanric Goths,
Becca the Banings,[1] Burgundy Gifeca.
20Cæsar ruled Greeks and Cælic Finns,[2]
Hagena Holmrygas, Heoden the Glommas.[3]
Witta ruled Sueves, and Wada[4] the Hælsings,
Meaca the Myrgings, Mearchealf the Hundings.
Theodric[5] ruled Franks, and Thyle the Rondings,
25Breoca the Brondings, Billing the Wernas.
Oswine ruled Eowas, Ytas[6] Gefwulf,
Fin[7] the Folcwalding Frisian clans.
- ↑ The word means “murderers.” Müllenhoff counts with these epithet-names others in the two lists like (v. 59) Wicings, that is, “vikings” or “men who camp”; (v. 24) Rondings, or “shieldsmen”; (v. 63) Swordweras, “swordsmen” or “men of an oath.”
- ↑ These would be the extremes, south and north, for the Germanic singer.
- ↑ Baltic folk. Hagena (see Waldere, B, 15) and Heoden belong to the old Hild Myth.
- ↑ Wada, Wade, along with Wayland, survived the conquest and was still a favorite in Chaucer’s time. “Tales of Wade” were proverbial. In Troilus and Criseide, III, 614:
He songe, she playde, he tolde a tale of Wade.
As a seafaring person he had his “boat,” to which Chaucer refers in the Merchant’s Tale, C. T., E. 1424. Binz adds a reference in Sir Bevis which makes Wade flght a “fire-drake,” like Beowulf, and one from Malory’s Morte D’Arthur,—“as wight as ever was Wade . . .”—comparison of power and prowess.
- ↑ Not the Goth, of course, but a king of the Franks.
- ↑ H. Möller, Altenglisches Volksepos, p. 88, declares these Ytas to be the people who invaded and settled Kent,—not the Danish Jutes, but a Frisian tribe.
- ↑ For this verse, with 29 and 31, see the fragment of Finnsburg, translated above, and the episode, in Beowulf, vv. 1068 ff.
