“So spake Hadubrand,
    Son of Hildebrand: 
    ’Said unto me
    Some of our people,
    Shrewd and old,
    Gone hence already,
    That Hildebrand was my father called,—­
    I am called Hadubrand. 
    Erewhile he eastward went,
    Escaping from Odoaker,
    Thither with Theodoric
    And his many men of battle,
    Here he left in the land,
    Lorn and lonely,
    Bride in bower,
    Bairn ungrown,
    Having no heritage.’”
           Song of Hildebrand (Bayard Taylor’s tr.).

Hildebrand then rejoined his wife, Ute, and Dietrich, having slain the traitor Sibich, who had made an attempt to usurp the throne, marched on to Romaburg (Rome), where he was crowned Emperor of the West, under the name of Theodoric.  Some time after his accession, Dietrich lost his good wife Herrat, whom, according to some accounts, he mourned as long as he lived.  According to others he married again, taking as wife Liebgart, widow of Ortnit.

Etzel, according to this version, having been lured by Aldrian, Hagen’s son, into the cave where the Nibelungen hoard was kept, was locked up there, and died of hunger while contemplating the gold he coveted.  His estates then became the property of Dietrich, who thus became undisputed ruler of nearly all the southern part of Europe.

[Sidenote:  Dietrich and the coal-black steed.] In his old age Dietrich, weary of life and imbittered by its many trials, ceased to take pleasure in anything except the chase.  One day, while he was bathing in a limpid stream, his servant came to tell him that there was a fine stag in sight.  Dietrich immediately called for his horse, and as it was not instantly forthcoming, he sprang upon a coal-black steed standing near, and was borne rapidly away.

The servant rode after as fast as possible, but could never overtake Dietrich, who, the peasants aver, was spirited away, and now leads the Wild Hunt upon the same sable steed, which he is doomed to ride until the judgment day.

In spite of this fabulous account, however, the tomb of Theodoric is still to be seen near Verona, but history demonstrates the impossibility of the story of Dietrich von Bern, by proving that Theodoric was not born until after the death of Attila, the unmistakeable original of the Etzel in the “Heldenbuch.”

[Illustration:  THE TOMB OF THEODORIC.]

CHAPTER VIII.

CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS PALADINS.

One of the favorite heroes of early mediaeval literature is Charlemagne, whose name is connected with countless romantic legends of more or less antique origin.  The son of Pepin and Bertha the “large footed,” this monarch took up his abode near the Rhine to repress the invasions of the northern barbarians, awe them into submission, and gradually induce them to accept the teachings of the missionaries he sent to convert them.