Waltharius324

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Flight of Walther and Hildegund from Attila’s court (324–357)

Tandem dilectam vocat ad semet mulierem,  SSDSDS 
Praecipiens causas citius deferre paratas. 325  DSDSDS 
Ipseque de stabulis victorem duxit equorum,  Aeneid 7.656: victoresque ostentat equos. ‘He displays his victorious steeds.’

 

 DDSSDS 
Ob virtutem quem vocitaverat ille Leonem.  SSDDDS 
Stat sonipes ac frena ferox spumantia mandit.  Aeneid 4.134-135.: ostroque insignis et auro/ stat sonipes ac frena ferox spumantia mandit. ‘Her prancing steed stands brilliant in purple and gold, and proudly champs the foaming bit.’

 

 DSDSDS   This line is taken verbatim from Aeneid 4.135 where it describes Dido’s horse. For consideration of the significance of classical borrowings that alter the gender of the person being discussed, see Dronke 1971. SB. 
Hunc postquam faleris solito circumdedit, ecce  Solito: sc. more

 

 Aeneid 5.310: equum phaleris insignem. . . ‘A horse splendid with trappings. . .’

 

 SDDSDS 
Scrinia plena gazae lateri suspendit utrique. 330  DDDSDS 
Atque iteri longo modicella cibaria ponit  Iteri equiv. to itineri. The different stem is in fact found in archaic Latin, and Lucretius has the ablative itere (5.653).
Modicella equiv. to modica

 

 DSDDDS
Elision: atque iteri
 
 modicella cibaria The moderation in eating and the planning for a fish-based diet suggest, compared especially to the large feast, a Lenten fast, which would keep with the forty-day length of the journey. Juxtaposed to the scenes of luxuria and ebrietas immediately preceding, one is faced inescapably with strong overtones of the Lenten liturgy. SB 
Loraque virgineae mandat fluitantia dextrae.  Ovid, Ars Amatoria 433-434.: modo det fluitantia rector/ lora. ‘The driver now lets the reins float loose.’ Aeneid 5.146: undantia lora. . . ‘The waving reins. . .’

 

 DDSDDS 
Ipseque lorica vestitus more gigantis  Althof points out how the how the armor is described “in a Homeric manner,” i.e., through a portrayal of the act of arming rather than by a static description.

 

 Aeneid 11.487-488.: iamque adeo rutilum thoraca indutus aenis/ horrebat squamis surasque incluserat auro,/ tempora nudus adhuc, laterique accinxerat ensem. ‘And now he had donned his flashing breastplate and bristled with bronze scales; his legs he had sheathed in gold, though his temples were yet bare, and he had buckled his sword to his side.’ 12.87-88.: ipse dehinc auro squalentem alboque orichalco/ circumdate loricam umeris, simul aptat habendo/ ensemque clipeumque et rubrae cornua cristae. ‘Next he binds upon his shoulders a corslet stiff with gold and pale mountain bronze; at the same time he fits on sword and shield and the horns of his ruddy crest.’


Liber I Macchabeorum 3.3: induit se loricam sicut gigans et succinxit se arma bellica sua in proeliis. ‘He put on a breastplate as a giant, and girt his warlike armour about him in battles.’  

    DSSSDS   more gigantis for giants in the Bible, see Genesis 6.4, Numbers 13.34, Deuteronomy 2.11, but it is possible that the strength of Goliath is imagined (1 Samuel 17). SB [Remember too the passage from Maccabees cited above. JZ] 
Imposuit capiti rubras cum casside cristas  Aeneid 11.487-488.: iamque adeo rutilum thoraca indutus aenis/ horrebat squamis surasque incluserat auro,/ tempora nudus adhuc, laterique accinxerat ensem. ‘And now he had donned his flashing breastplate and bristled with bronze scales; his legs he had sheathed in gold, though his temples were yet bare, and he had buckled his sword to his side.’ 12.87-88.: ipse dehinc auro squalentem alboque orichalco/ circumdate loricam umeris, simul aptat habendo/ ensemque clipeumque et rubrae cornua cristae. ‘Next he binds upon his shoulders a corslet stiff with gold and pale mountain bronze; at the same time he fits on sword and shield and the horns of his ruddy crest.’


Aeneid 9.50: cristaque tegit galea aurea rubra. ‘A golden helmet with crimson crest guards his head.’  

   DDSSDS   334-339 Here we have a fuller depiction of Walter’s arms and armor than at 263-5 when he is merely asking Hildegund for the king’s armor. The descriptions of the different pieces of Walter’s panoply (crested helmet, greaves of gold, two-edge sword, second one-edged sword, spear, shield) are taken from earlier poetry, but may be linked to the early medieval weaponry that we know from written and archaeological sources. See Ziolkowski 2008. SB. 
Ingentesque ocreis suras complectitur aureis 335  Aeneid 11.488: surasque incluserat auro. ‘His legs he had sheathed in gold.’ 12.430: suras incluserat auro.

 

   SDSSDS
Elision: ingentesque ocreis
 
Et laevum femur ancipiti praecinxerat ense  Prudentius, Peristephanon 2.502: non ense praecinxit latus. ‘He did not gird a sword on his side.’ Aeneid 7.525: ferro ancipiti decernunt. ‘With two-edged steel they try the issue.’

 

   SDDSDS   Note the attention with which the poet treats the side on which the sword is girded. SB 
Atque alio dextrum pro ritu Pannoniarum:  Pro ritu Pannoniarum: the custom of wearing two swords, the main one being on the left and a smaller one on the right, is in fact Germanic, as archaeological finds and literary sources, including Beowulf, show. (The Romans often also wore two swords, but with the sides reversed.)

 

 Liber Iudicum 3.15-16.: qui utraque manu utebatur pro dextera. . .qui fecit sibi gladium ancipitem. . .et accinctus est eo subter sagum in dextro femore. ‘[He] who used the left hand as well as the right. . . he made himself a two-edged sword. . .and was girded therewith under his garment on the right thigh.’

 

      DSSSDS
Elision: atque alio
 
 in a famous letter from Charlemagne to Offa, Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia, (probably written by Alcuin) Charlemagne mentions a Hunnish sword that he sends to Offa among other gifts. If the Waltharius is dated to the early ninth century, the ethnographic interest may reflect current events. MGH Epp. IV, no. 100, p. 146: "unum gladium Huniscum." See Story, Carolingian Connections: Anglo-Saxon England and Carolingian Francia, c. 750-870 (Aldershot, 2003). SB. 
Is tamen ex una tantum dat vulnera parte.  Is: the second sword.

 

   DSSSDS 
Tunc hastam dextra rapiens clipeumque sinistra    SSDDDS 
Coeperat invisa trepidus decedere terra. 340  The pair make their way on foot in the interests of secrecy while in hostile territory (invisa terra).

 

 Aeneid 3.616: trepidi crudelia limina linquunt. ‘They ran away from the grim gateway.’ 4.306: tacitusque mea decedere terra. . . ‘To steal away from my land in silence. . .’ 3.60: scelerata excedere terra. . . ‘To quit the guilty land. . .’

 

 DSDSDS 
Femina duxit equum nonnulla talenta gerentem,  DDSDDS 
In manibusque simul virgam tenet ipsa colurnam,  Colurnam equiv. to corylum, “a hazel switch.”

 

 Georgics 2.396: in veribus torrebimus exta colurnis. ‘The rich flesh we will roast on spits of hazel.’

 

 DDSDDS   virgam…colurnam early medieval queens were sometimes given a virga among their insignia of rule. Schramm et al., Herrschaftszeichen und Staatssymbolik: Beiträge zu ihrer Geschichte vom dritten bis zum sechzehnten Jahrhundert (Munich, 1978). SB. 
In qua piscator hamum transponit in undam,  SSSSDS   The fishing imagery, evocative of Christianity generally and fasting specifically, seems significant especially in contrast to the drunkenness of the feast immediately preceding. Note the biblical exhortation quoted by the Regula Benedicti in the section dedicated to the diet of monks (40): “Make sure that your hearts are not weighed down by over-indulgence” (Luke 21.34). Whether these Lenten allusions speak to the holiness of Walter and Hildegund, or (more likely) to their need for penitence, it is difficult to say for certain. SB 
Ut cupiens pastum piscis deglutiat hamum.  Deglutiat: “might swallow”

 

 Iona Propheta 2.1: et praeparavit Dominus piscem grandem ut degluttiret Ionam. ‘Now the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonas.’

 

 DSSSDS 
Namque gravatus erat vir maximus undique telis 345  Aeneid 7.520: raptis concurrunt undique telis. ‘They snatch up their weapons and gather from all sides.’

 

 DDSDDS   gravatus erat…undique telis could there be a note of criticism in this description of Walter as gravatus? In the context of the feast at Attila’s court, the passage from Luke quoted by the Regula Benedicti above (40) speaks to ebrietas directly: Luke 21:34: “And take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life: and that day come upon you suddenly” (“adtendite autem vobis ne forte graventur corda vestra in crapula et ebrietate et curis huius vitae et superveniat in vos repentina dies illa”). SB 
Suspectamque habuit cuncto sibi tempore pugnam.  Aeneid 4.97: suspectas habuisse domos karthaginis altae. ‘You have held in suspicion the homes of high Carthage.’

 

 SDSDDS
Elision: H-ELISION: suspectamque habuit
 
 suspectamque…pugnam suspectus often used in this sense by the poet: anticipated with fear. SB 
Omni nocte quidem properabant currere, sed cum  Aeneid 2.725-726.: pone subit coniunx. ferimur per opaca locorum,/ et me, quem dudum non ulla iniecta movebant/ tela neque adverso glomerati examine Grai,/ nunc omnes terrent aurae, sonus excitat omnis/ suspensum et pariter comitique onerique timentem. ‘Behind comes my wife. We pass on amid the shadows; and I, whom of late no shower of missles could move nor any Greeks thronging in opposing mass, now am affrighted by every breeze and startled by every sound, tremulous as I am and fearing alike for my companion and my burden.’

 

 SDDSDS 
Prima rubens terris ostendit lumina Phoebus,  Aeneid 2.725-726.: pone subit coniunx. ferimur per opaca locorum,/ et me, quem dudum non ulla iniecta movebant/ tela neque adverso glomerati examine Grai,/ nunc omnes terrent aurae, sonus excitat omnis/ suspensum et pariter comitique onerique timentem. ‘Behind comes my wife. We pass on amid the shadows; and I, whom of late no shower of missles could move nor any Greeks thronging in opposing mass, now am affrighted by every breeze and startled by every sound, tremulous as I am and fearing alike for my companion and my burden.’


Georgics 4.544: ubi nona suos Aurora ostenderit ortus. . . ‘When the ninth Dawn displays her rising beams. . .’  

 DSSSDS 
In silvis latitare student et opaca requirunt,  Liber Regum I 23.19: David latitat. . .in locis tutissimis silvae. ‘David hides in the safest regions of the forest.’

 

 SDDDDS 
Sollicitatque metus vel per loca tuta fatigans. 350  Fatigans equiv. to prosequens

 

 Liber Regum I 23.19: David latitat. . .in locis tutissimis silvae. ‘David hides in the safest regions of the forest.’


Aeneid 4.379-380.: ea cura quietos/ sollicitat. ‘This is care to vex their peace.’  

 DDSDDS 
In tantumque timor muliebria pectora pulsat,  Georgics 3.105-106.: exsultantiaque haurit/ corda pavor pulsans. . . ‘Throbbing fear drains each bounding heart.’ Aeneid 5.137-138.: exsultantiaque haurit/ corda pavor pulsans. Lucan, De Bello Civili 7.128-129.: animique truces sua pectora pulsant/ ictibus incertis. ‘Fierce hearts beat with irregular throbbing against the breasts that contain them.’

 

 SDDDDS   The fearfulness may be more than a stereotypical depiction of female tendency; perhaps it may refer to the travelers' guilty fear of capture, or, in light of a Lenten/penitential interpretation of this flight, one could as well think of the exhortation of Psalm 2: servite domino in timore. SB 
Horreat ut cunctos aurae ventique susurros,  DSSSDS 
Formidans volucres collisos sive racemos.  Racemos equiv. to ramos (here)

 

 SDSSDS 
Hinc odium exilii patriaeque amor incubat inde.  DDDDDS
Elision: odium exilii; patriaeque amor
 
Vicis diffugiunt, speciosa novalia linquunt, 355  Georgics 3.149-150.: tota exterrita silvis/ diffugiunt armenta. ‘Whole herds scatter in terror through the woods.’

 

 SDDDDS   On a basic level, the couple’s avoidance of human habitations (towns, fields, etc.) is simply the result of their fear of discovery, as the poet explains. But allegorically, their behavior might be pressed for its similarities to monastic or cenobitic abstinence from normal human activities, including eating habits: “Everyone, apart from those who are very weak, should abstain completely from eating the meat of four-footed animals” (Regula Benedicti 40). SB 
Montibus intonsis cursus ambage recurvos  Intonsis: i.e., forested

 

 Virgil, Eclogue 5.63: intonsi montes. . . ‘The mountains, with woods unshorn. . .’

 

 DSSSDS 
Sectantes tremulos variant per devia gressus.  Aeneid 9.164: discurrunt variantque vices. ‘Back and forth they rush, and take their turns on watch.’ Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.676: per devia rura. . . ‘Through the sequestered country paths. . .’

 

 SDDSDS 

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