curiousman
01-07-2010, 09:18 AM
Taken from Historia Langobardorum written by Paul the Deacon. Romilda was the Bavarian wife of Gisulf II, duke of Friuli. One of her sons, Grimoald I, became later king of the Lombards.
I have corrected some minor errors in modern toponomastic.
Chapter XXXVII.
About these times the king of the Avars, whom they call Cagan in their language, came with a countless multitude and invaded the territories of Venetia. [1] Gisulf the duke of Forum Julii (Friuli) boldly came to meet him with all the Langobards he could get, but although he waged war with a few against an immense multitude with indomitable courage, nevertheless, he was surrounded on every side, and killed with nearly all his followers. The wife of this Gisulf, by name Romilda, together with the Langobards who had escaped and with the wives and children of those who had perished in war, fortified herself [2] within the enclosures of the walls of the fortress of Forum Julii (Cividale). She had two sons, Taso and Cacco, who were already growing youths, and Raduald and Grimuald, who were still in the age of boyhood. And she had also four daughters, of whom one was called Appa and another Gaila, but of two we do not preserve the names. The Langobards had also fortified themselves in other fortresses which were near these, that is, in Cormones (Cormons), Nemas (Nimis), Osopus (Osoppo), [3] Artenia (Artegna), [4] Reunia (Ragogna), Glemona (Gemona), [5] and also in Ibligis (Ipplis) [6] whose position was in every way impregnable. Also in the same way they fortified themselves in the remaining castles, so that they should not become the prey of the Huns, that is, of the Avars. But the Avars, roaming through all the territories of Forum Julii, devastating everything with burnings and plunderings, shut up by siege the town of Forum Julii and strove with all their might to capture it. While their king, that is the Cagan, was ranging around the walls in full armor with a great company of horsemen to find out from what side he might more easily capture the city, Romilda gazed upon him from the walls, and when she beheld him in the bloom of his youth, the abominable harlot was seized with desire for him and straightway sent word to him by a messenger that if he would take her in marriage she would deliver to him the city with all who were in it. The barbarian king, hearing this, promised her with wicked cunning that he would do what she had enjoined and vowed to take her in marriage. She then without delay opened the gates of the fortress of Forum Julii and let in the enemy to her own ruin and that of all who were there. The Avars indeed with their king, having entered Forum Julii, laid waste with their plunderings everything they could discover, consumed in flames the city itself, and carried away as captives everybody they found, falsely promising them, however, to settle them in the territories of Pannonia, from which they had come. When on their return to their country they had come to the plain they called Sacred, [7] they decreed that all the Langobards who had attained full age should perish by the sword, and they divided the women and children in the lot of captivity. But Taso and Cacco and Raduald, the sons of Gisulf and Romilda, when they knew the evil intention of the Avars, straightway mounted their horses and took flight. One of them when he thought that his brother Grimoald, a little boy, could not keep himself upon a running horse, since he was so small, considered it better that he should perish by the sword than bear the yoke of captivity, and wanted to kill him. When therefore, he lifted his lance to pierce him through, the boy wept and cried out, saying: "Do not strike me for I can keep on a horse." And his brother, seizing him by the arm, put him upon the bare back of a horse and urged him to stay there if he could; and the boy, taking the rein of the horse in his hand, followed his fleeing brothers. The Avars, when they learned this, mounted their horses and followed them, but although the others escaped by swift flight, the little boy Grimoald was taken by one of those who had run up most swiftly. His captor, however, did not deign to strike him with the sword on account of his slender age, but rather kept him to be his servant. And returning to the camp, he took hold of the bridle of the horse and led the boy away, and exulted over so noble a booty - for he was a little fellow of elegant form with gleaming eyes and covered with long blonde hair - and when the boy grieved that he was carried away as a captive,
"Pondering mighty thoughts within his diminutive bosom", [8]
he took out of the scabbard a sword, such as he was able to carry at that age, and struck the Avar who was leading him, with what little strength he could, on the top of the head. Straightway the blow passed through to the skull and the enemy was thrown from his horse. And the boy Grimoald turned his own horse around and took flight, greatly rejoicing, and at last joined his brothers and gave them incalculable joy by his escape and by announcing, moreover, the destruction of his enemy. The Avars now killed by the sword all the Langobards who were already of the age of manhood, but the women and children they consigned to the yoke of captivity. Romilda indeed, who had been the head of all this evil-doing, the king of the Avars, on account of his oath, kept for one night as if in marriage as he had promised her, but upon the next he turned her over to twelve Avars, who abused her through the whole night with their lust, succeeding each other by turns. Afterwards too, ordering a stake to be fixed in the midst of a field, he commanded her to be impaled upon the point of it, uttering these words, moreover, in reproach: "It is fit you should have such a husband." Therefore the detestable betrayer of her country who looked out for her own lust more than for the preservation of her fellow citizens and kindred, perished by such a death. Her daughters, indeed, did not follow the sensual inclination of their mother, but striving from love of chastity not to be contaminated by the barbarians, they put the flesh of raw chickens under the band between their breasts, and this, when putrified by the heat, gave out an evil smell. And the Avars, when they wanted to touch them, could not endure the stench that they thought was natural to them, but moved far away from them with cursing, saying that all the Langobard women had a bad smell. By this stratagem then the noble girls, escaping from the lust of the Avars, not only kept themselves chaste, but handed down a useful example for preserving chastity if any such thing should happen to women hereafter. And they were afterwards sold throughout various regions and secured worthy marriages on account of their noble birth; for one of them is said to have wedded a king of the Alamanni, and another, a prince of the Bavarians.
[1] The date usually assigned to the Avar invasion is 611, though some place it as early as 602. Phocas reigned from 602 to 610. If the death of Severus, patriarch of Aquileia, occurred in 606, the Avar invasion took place after that date, since Gisulf concurred in the nomination of his successor (Hodgkin, VI, 51, note). The previous relations between the Langobards and Avars had been of the most friendly character. There had been treaties of alliance, joint invasions of Istria, injunctions sent by the Avars to the Franks to keep peace with the Langobards and Agilulf had furnished the Cagan with shipwrights for a naval expedition against the Eastern empire (IV, 24, 20, supra; Hodgkin, VI, 50, 51).
[2] I insert 'se' after 'muniit'.
[3] On the river Tagliamento (Waitz).
[4] In Carnia (Waitz).
[5] In Friuli (Waitz).
[6] Near Cividale on the way to Cormons (Waitz). According to others, Invillino (Abel).
[7] The Sacred Plain has not been identified (Hodgkin, VI, 53, note 2).
[8] Virgil, Georgics, IV, 83, where it is applied to the soldier bees. In Paul's quotation 'versant' is changed to 'versans'.
[URL="http://www.northvegr.org/lore/langobard/index.php"]
I have corrected some minor errors in modern toponomastic.
Chapter XXXVII.
About these times the king of the Avars, whom they call Cagan in their language, came with a countless multitude and invaded the territories of Venetia. [1] Gisulf the duke of Forum Julii (Friuli) boldly came to meet him with all the Langobards he could get, but although he waged war with a few against an immense multitude with indomitable courage, nevertheless, he was surrounded on every side, and killed with nearly all his followers. The wife of this Gisulf, by name Romilda, together with the Langobards who had escaped and with the wives and children of those who had perished in war, fortified herself [2] within the enclosures of the walls of the fortress of Forum Julii (Cividale). She had two sons, Taso and Cacco, who were already growing youths, and Raduald and Grimuald, who were still in the age of boyhood. And she had also four daughters, of whom one was called Appa and another Gaila, but of two we do not preserve the names. The Langobards had also fortified themselves in other fortresses which were near these, that is, in Cormones (Cormons), Nemas (Nimis), Osopus (Osoppo), [3] Artenia (Artegna), [4] Reunia (Ragogna), Glemona (Gemona), [5] and also in Ibligis (Ipplis) [6] whose position was in every way impregnable. Also in the same way they fortified themselves in the remaining castles, so that they should not become the prey of the Huns, that is, of the Avars. But the Avars, roaming through all the territories of Forum Julii, devastating everything with burnings and plunderings, shut up by siege the town of Forum Julii and strove with all their might to capture it. While their king, that is the Cagan, was ranging around the walls in full armor with a great company of horsemen to find out from what side he might more easily capture the city, Romilda gazed upon him from the walls, and when she beheld him in the bloom of his youth, the abominable harlot was seized with desire for him and straightway sent word to him by a messenger that if he would take her in marriage she would deliver to him the city with all who were in it. The barbarian king, hearing this, promised her with wicked cunning that he would do what she had enjoined and vowed to take her in marriage. She then without delay opened the gates of the fortress of Forum Julii and let in the enemy to her own ruin and that of all who were there. The Avars indeed with their king, having entered Forum Julii, laid waste with their plunderings everything they could discover, consumed in flames the city itself, and carried away as captives everybody they found, falsely promising them, however, to settle them in the territories of Pannonia, from which they had come. When on their return to their country they had come to the plain they called Sacred, [7] they decreed that all the Langobards who had attained full age should perish by the sword, and they divided the women and children in the lot of captivity. But Taso and Cacco and Raduald, the sons of Gisulf and Romilda, when they knew the evil intention of the Avars, straightway mounted their horses and took flight. One of them when he thought that his brother Grimoald, a little boy, could not keep himself upon a running horse, since he was so small, considered it better that he should perish by the sword than bear the yoke of captivity, and wanted to kill him. When therefore, he lifted his lance to pierce him through, the boy wept and cried out, saying: "Do not strike me for I can keep on a horse." And his brother, seizing him by the arm, put him upon the bare back of a horse and urged him to stay there if he could; and the boy, taking the rein of the horse in his hand, followed his fleeing brothers. The Avars, when they learned this, mounted their horses and followed them, but although the others escaped by swift flight, the little boy Grimoald was taken by one of those who had run up most swiftly. His captor, however, did not deign to strike him with the sword on account of his slender age, but rather kept him to be his servant. And returning to the camp, he took hold of the bridle of the horse and led the boy away, and exulted over so noble a booty - for he was a little fellow of elegant form with gleaming eyes and covered with long blonde hair - and when the boy grieved that he was carried away as a captive,
"Pondering mighty thoughts within his diminutive bosom", [8]
he took out of the scabbard a sword, such as he was able to carry at that age, and struck the Avar who was leading him, with what little strength he could, on the top of the head. Straightway the blow passed through to the skull and the enemy was thrown from his horse. And the boy Grimoald turned his own horse around and took flight, greatly rejoicing, and at last joined his brothers and gave them incalculable joy by his escape and by announcing, moreover, the destruction of his enemy. The Avars now killed by the sword all the Langobards who were already of the age of manhood, but the women and children they consigned to the yoke of captivity. Romilda indeed, who had been the head of all this evil-doing, the king of the Avars, on account of his oath, kept for one night as if in marriage as he had promised her, but upon the next he turned her over to twelve Avars, who abused her through the whole night with their lust, succeeding each other by turns. Afterwards too, ordering a stake to be fixed in the midst of a field, he commanded her to be impaled upon the point of it, uttering these words, moreover, in reproach: "It is fit you should have such a husband." Therefore the detestable betrayer of her country who looked out for her own lust more than for the preservation of her fellow citizens and kindred, perished by such a death. Her daughters, indeed, did not follow the sensual inclination of their mother, but striving from love of chastity not to be contaminated by the barbarians, they put the flesh of raw chickens under the band between their breasts, and this, when putrified by the heat, gave out an evil smell. And the Avars, when they wanted to touch them, could not endure the stench that they thought was natural to them, but moved far away from them with cursing, saying that all the Langobard women had a bad smell. By this stratagem then the noble girls, escaping from the lust of the Avars, not only kept themselves chaste, but handed down a useful example for preserving chastity if any such thing should happen to women hereafter. And they were afterwards sold throughout various regions and secured worthy marriages on account of their noble birth; for one of them is said to have wedded a king of the Alamanni, and another, a prince of the Bavarians.
[1] The date usually assigned to the Avar invasion is 611, though some place it as early as 602. Phocas reigned from 602 to 610. If the death of Severus, patriarch of Aquileia, occurred in 606, the Avar invasion took place after that date, since Gisulf concurred in the nomination of his successor (Hodgkin, VI, 51, note). The previous relations between the Langobards and Avars had been of the most friendly character. There had been treaties of alliance, joint invasions of Istria, injunctions sent by the Avars to the Franks to keep peace with the Langobards and Agilulf had furnished the Cagan with shipwrights for a naval expedition against the Eastern empire (IV, 24, 20, supra; Hodgkin, VI, 50, 51).
[2] I insert 'se' after 'muniit'.
[3] On the river Tagliamento (Waitz).
[4] In Carnia (Waitz).
[5] In Friuli (Waitz).
[6] Near Cividale on the way to Cormons (Waitz). According to others, Invillino (Abel).
[7] The Sacred Plain has not been identified (Hodgkin, VI, 53, note 2).
[8] Virgil, Georgics, IV, 83, where it is applied to the soldier bees. In Paul's quotation 'versant' is changed to 'versans'.
[URL="http://www.northvegr.org/lore/langobard/index.php"]