tzel, Dietrich, and Hildebrand, in turn, extolled the high deeds and
bewailed the untimely end of each hero. Then this poem, which is as
mournful as monotonous throughout, describes the departure of the
messengers sent to bear the evil tidings and the weapons of the slain to
Worms, and their arrival at Passau, where more tears were shed and where
Bishop Pilgrim celebrated a solemn mass for the rest of the heroes' souls.

From thence the funeral procession slowly traveled on to Worms, where the
sad news was imparted to the remaining Burgundians, who named the son of
Gunther and Brunhild as their king, and who never forgot the fatal ride to
Hungary.

CHAPTER V.

LANGOBARDIAN CYCLE OF MYTHS.

Although the following tales of mythical heroes have some slight historical
basis, they have been so adorned by the fancy of mediaeval bards, and so
frequently remodeled with utter disregard of all chronological sequence,
that the kernel of truth is very hard to find, and the stories must rather
be considered as depicting customs and times than as describing actual
events. They are recorded in the "Heldenbuch," or "Book of Heroes," edited
in the fifteenth century by Kaspar von der Rhoen from materials which had
been touched up by Wolfram von Eschenbach and Heinrich von Ofterdingen in
the twelfth century. The poem of "Ortnit," for instance, is known to have
existed as early as the ninth century.

[Sidenote: The Langobards and Gepidae.] According to the poets of the
middle ages, the Gepidae and the Langobards settled in Pannonia (Hungary
and the neighboring provinces), where they were respectively governed by
Thurisind and Audoin. The sons of these two kings, having quarreled for a
trifle, met in duel soon after, and the Langobardian prince, having slain
his companion, took possession of his arms, with which he proudly returned
home.

But when, flushed with victory, he would fain have taken his seat at his
father's board with the men at arms, Audoin gravely informed him that it
was not customary for a youth to claim a place beside tried warriors until
some foreign king had distinguished him by the present of a complete suit
of armor. Angry at being thus publicly repulsed, Alboin, the prince, strode
out of his father's hall, resolved to march into Thurisind's palace and
demand of him the required weapons.

When the King of the Gepidae saw his son's murderer boldly enter his
palace, his first impulse was to put him to d