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Walther reveals to Hildegund his plans for escaping with Attila’s treasure (256–286)

Addidit has imo virguncula corde loquelas:  Virguncula: the diminutive seems to be used merely metri causa.

 

 Aeineid 5.842: funditque has ore loquelas. ‘He pours these accents from his lips.’

 

 DSSDDS 
Vestrum velle meum, solis his aestuo rebus.  Velle equiv. to voluntas, cf. Persius 5.53.

 

 SDSSDS 
Praecipiat dominus, seu prospera sive sinistra  DDSDDS 
Eius amore pati toto sum pectore praesto.'  Aeineid 7.356: animus toto percepit pectore flammam. ‘And her soul has not yet caught the flame throughout her breast.’

 

 DDSSDS 
Waltharius tandem sic virginis inquit in aurem: 260  Aeneid 5.547: fidam sic fatur ad aurem. ‘Thus he speaks into his faithful ear.’

 

    DSSDDS   inquit in aurem i.e. “whisper”; cf. Horace, Sermo 1.9.9-10: “in aurem /

dicere nescio quid puero” (“to whisper I know not what to the boy”). SB 

Publica custodem rebus te nempe potestas    DSSSDS 
Fecerat, idcirco memor haec mea verba notato:  Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.813: nam memoro memori animo pia verba notavi. ‘For I treasured up thy gracious words in retentive mind, and now recall them to thee.’

 

   DSDDDS 
Primis galeam regis tunicamque, trilicem  Aeneid 3.467: loricam consertam hamis auroque trilicem. ‘A breatplate triple-woven with hooks of gold.’ 5.259: levibus huic hamis consertam auroque trilicem. ‘A coat of mail, linked with polished hooks of triple gold.’ 7.639-640.: clipeumque auroque trilicem/ loricam induitur. ‘He dons his shield and coat of mail, triple-linked with gold.’

 

   SDSDDS   263-65 Cf. 334-339, where Walter’s actual arms and armor are described in greater detail: “Imposuit capiti rubras cum casside cristas / Ingentesque ocreis suras complectitur aureis / Et laevum femur ancipiti praecinxerat ense / Atque alio dextrum pro ritu Pannoniarum: / Is tamen ex una tantum dat vulnera parte. Tunc hastam dextra rapiens clipeumque sinistra” (“Then places on his head a crimson-crested helmet / And wraps his massive calves in greaves of gold; he girds / A two-edged sword on his left thigh; and following / The manner of the Huns, another on his right: / This one, however, will wound only from one edge. / His right hand grasps a spear; his left hand grasps a shield.” Kratz). Here, by contrast, Walter asks only for armor from Hildegund, i.e. defensive gear, not offensive weapons. This may be of significance, as his departure is presented by Ospirin, at 376-377, as the ruin of what upheld and defended the Huns: “En hodie imperii vestri cecidisse column / Noscitur en robur procul ivit et inclitsa virtus” (“Behold, today, the column of your empire is known from afair to have fallen; behold its bulwark and its famous courage have gone.” Not Kratz). It is especially significant, and symbolic, that Walter is asking for the king’s own armor. The gear requested is the king’s galea, “helmet,” and tunica, “byrnie,” which is described as a trilix lorica, “three-fold cuirass” that “bears the mark of smiths.” See Althof for the significance of smith-work in so-called Germanic culture. Ziolkowski 2008 discusses the physical nature of some of these arms in an early medieval context. As for the scrinia, these are presumably large casks. In medieval Latin scrinium often described the cases in which books were held, and by extension, archives. Thesaurus Linguae Latinae. Our ability to visualize these carrying cases is assisted by 269, where one is described as a vas, “vessel” but also “pack,” “kit,” and 330 where Walter attaches them, in the manner of panniers, to the horse: “Scrinia plena gazae lateri suspendit utrique” (“On either side he hangs the coffers filled with treasure.” Kratz). Whether the poet imagines these to be bags, boxes, or circular casks, however, is hard to say. SB 
Assero loricam fabrorum insigne ferentem,  Assero: “I mean” (specifying the tunica as the lorica)

 

   DSSSDS
Elision: fabrorum insigne
 
 assero perhaps simply “I mean” as the Kratz 1984 translation suggests, i.e. clarifying which tunica exactly ought to be taken (“I mean the three-fold cuirass…”), but assero may have a more symbolic meaning here. It was originally a technical term for the liberation of a slave, but it came to mean an act of appropriation or a claim of ownership (Thesaurus Linguae Latinae). In line with the fact that Walter is taking the king’s own armor, this technical or juridical sense of the verb may be significant, i.e. he is asserting his right to the king’s personal defense, since he himself is that defense. This undergirds Ospirin’s fears that Walter’s departure means the loss of the Hunnish bulwark (376-77). SB 
Diripe, bina dehinc mediocria scrinia tolle. 265    DDDDDS 
His armillarum tantum da Pannonicarum,  Armillarum: “arm-rings” of gold or silver, such as were worn by Germanic warriors. Here they are a valuable treasure with an important role in the plot.

 

      SSSSDS   armillarum “arm bands”; rings of precious metal were a common currency for the remuneration of warriors in early medieval kingship. See J. R. Maddicott “Power and Prosperity in the Age of Bede and Beowulf,” Proceedings of the British Academy 117 (2002), 49-71 for some of the intricacies of supporting Germanic kingship on a material level. Compare also Alfred the Great’s translation of Boethius (late ninth century): “In the case of the king, the resources and tools with which to rule are that he must have his land fully manned: he must have praying men, fighting men, and working men. You know also that without these tools no king may make his ability known…[and] he must have the means of support for his tools, the three classes of men. These, then, are their means of support: land to live on, gifts, weapons, food, ale, clothing, and whatever else is necessary…” in Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge, Asser’s Life of King Alfred and other contemporary sources (London, 1983), 132. See Ziolkowski 2008 for discussion of the arm bands within this matrix of early medieval kingship. SB 
Donec vix unum releves ad pectoris imum.    SSDSDS 
de quater binum mihi fac de more coturnum,  Quater binum…coturnum: i.e., “four pairs of shoes.”

 

 Aeneid 1.318: de more. . . ‘According to custom. . .’

 

   DSDSDS   coturnum the word coturnus or cothurnus is originally the name of a high boot or buskin used to increase the height of a tragic actor in ancient Greek drama, and consequently the word can also refer to a tragic actor himself (Thesaurus Linguae Latinae). Presumably such shoes are not what the poet has in mind. It is possible that tragic or heroic undertones are being summoned here, but unlikely. What sort of shoes these are envisioned as by the poet is probably lost to us, and it is hard to say whether de more refers to a common way of making shoes or whether it is being suggested that Hildegund often makes shoes (a fact of some anthropological interest if the poet is also suggesting that shoe-making is a gendered activity). SB. 
Tantundemque tibi patrans imponito vasis:  Patrans: perfect in meaning
Vasis equiv. to scriniis

 

   SDSSDS 
Sic fors ad summum complentur scrinia labrum. 270    SSSSDS 
super a fabris hamos clam posce retortos:    DSSSDS 
Nostra viatica sint pisces simul atque volucres,    DDSDDS 
Ipse ego piscator, sed et auceps esse coartor.  Coartor equiv. to cogar

 

   DSDSDS
Elision: ipse ego
 
 Again, Walter does not ask for any weapons in his instructions to Hildegund, not even for proper hunting. Instead, he requests fishing gear. Fishing in the middle ages carries a strong Christian resonance. Important apostles were of course fishermen to begin with. Christ summons his apostles Simon Peter and Andrew (both fishermen) to become “fishers of men” (Mark 1.17, Matthew 4.18). Nor is this the only section of the bible in which Christ and fishing are linked (see also Luke 9.13-16, Matthew 14.16-21, Matthew 15.34-38, John 21.5-6, and Luke 5.5-6, inter alia). Cassiodorus recommended fishing to his monks at Vivarium. In the later middle ages, canonical writers deemed it proper for a cleric or monk to fish, but improper for one to hunt. Any straightforward Christian messages here are complicated by auceps, however. SB 
Haec intra ebdomadam caute per singula comple.  Ebdomadam: “week”

 

 Aeneid 8.618: oculos per singula volvit. ‘He moves his eyes from piece to piece.’

 

   SDSSDS
Elision: intra ebdomadam
 
Audistis, quid habere vianti forte necesse est. 275  SDDSDS
Elision: necesse est
 
Nunc quo more fugam valeamus inire, recludo:  Aeineid 4.115-116.: nunc qua ratione quod instat/ confiere possit. . . ‘Now in what way the present purpose can be achieved. . .’ 8.49: nunc qua ratione quod instat/ expedias victor. . . ‘Now in what way you can make your way triumphant. . .’

 

 SDDDDS 
Postquam septenos Phoebus remeaverit orbes,  Aeineid 5.64-65.: si nona diem mortalibus almum/ Aurora extulerit. . .'Teucris ponam certamina classis. ‘Should the ninth Dawn lift her kindly light for mortals. . .I will ordain contests for the Trojans.’

 

 SSSDDS 
Regi ac reginae satrapis ducibus famulisque  Liber Hester 1.3: fecit grande convivium cunctis principibus et pueris suis fortissimis Persarum et Medorum inclitis et praefectis provinciarum coram se. ‘He made a great feast for all the princes, and for his servants, for the most mighty of the Persians, and the nobles of the Medes, and the governors of the provinces in his sight.’

 

 SSDDDS
Elision: regi ac
 
 satrapis here evidently referring to some high level of the nobility. The poet occasionally uses it to describe a king as well. The term is used to describe royal officials in the Book of Esther (3.12), an important parallel for this section of the poem. SB. 
Sumptu permagno convivia laeta parabo  SSSDDS 
Atque omni ingenio potu sepelire studebo, 280  Aeneid 2.265: invadunt urbem somno vinoque sepultam. ‘They storm the city, buried in sleep and wine.’ 3.630: vinoque sepultus. . . ‘Drowned in wine. . .’

 

 SDSDDS
Elision: atque omni; omni ingenio
 
Donec nullus erit, qui sentiat hoc, quod agendum est.  SDSDDS
Apheresis: agendum est
 
Tu tamen interea mediocriter utere vino  Aeneid 9.422: tu tamen interea. . . ‘You, meanwhile. . .’

 

 DDDDDS 
Atque sitim vix ad mensam restinguere cura.  Ad mensam: “at table,” i.e., during the meal.

 

 Eclogue 5.47: sitim restinguere rivo. . . ‘The slaking of thirst in a rill. . .’ Aeneid 2.686: restinguere fontibus ignis . . . ‘To quench with water the fires. . .’

 

 DSSSDS 
Cum reliqui surgant, ad opuscula nota recurre.  DSDDDS 
Ast ubi iam cunctos superat violentia potus, 285  DSDDDS   violentia potus violentia as opposed to vis underscores the moral irresponsibility of the king’s court in its drunkenness. Cf. the “excessive drink” which prompts Xerxes to act irresponsibly in Esther 1.10. 
Tum simul occiduas properemus quaerere partes.'  DDDSDS   occiduas…partes occiduus is a common adjective for such scenes in Statius (Thebaid 1.200, 3.33, 4.283, 5.477, 5.538, and 10.84) and in early medieval authors (e.g. the Gesta Berengarii) who admired him. SB 

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