History of the Langobards

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. 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 ‘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 (Ossopo), Artenia (Artegna), Reunia (Ragogna), Glemona (Gemona), and also in Ibligis (Iplis) 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, 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,

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.

The topic now requires me to postpone my general history and relate also a few matters of a private character concerning the genealogy of myself who write these things, and because the case so demands, I must go back a little earlier in the order of my narrative. At the time when the nation of the Langobards came from Pannonia to Italy, my great-great-grandfather Leupchis of the same nation of Langobards came with them in like manner. When he ended his last day after he had lived some years in Italy, he left five sons begotten by him who were still little boys. That misfortune of captivity of which we have spoken included these, and they were all carried away as exiles from the fortress of Forum Julii into the country of the Avars. After they had borne in that region for many years the misery of bondage, and had already come to the age of manhood, although the four others, whose names we do not retain, remained in the constraint of captivity, the fifth brother, Lopichis by name, who was afterwards our great-grandfather, determined (at the inspiration as we believe of the Author of Mercy) to cast off the yoke of bondage, and to direct his course to Italy, where he had remembered that the race of the Langobards was settled, and he made an effort to regain the rights of freedom. When he had gone and betaken himself to flight, carrying only a quiver and bow and a little food for the journey, and did not at all know whither he was proceeding, a wolf came to him and became the companion of his journey and his guide. Seeing that it proceeded before him, and often looked behind and stood with him when he stood, and went ahead when he advanced, he understood that it had been given to him from heaven to show to him the way, of which he was ignorant. When they had proceeded in this manner for some days through the solitudes of the mountains, the bread, of which the traveler had had very little, wholly failed him. While he went on his way fasting, and had already become faint with exhaustion from hunger, he drew his bow and attempted to kill with his arrow this same wolf so that he could use it for food. But the wolf, avoiding the stroke that he cast, slipped away from his sight. And he, not knowing whither to proceed, when this wolf had gone away, and made very weak moreover by the privation of hunger, now despaired of his life, and throwing himself upon the earth, he went to sleep. And he saw in his dreams a certain man saying to him the following words: “Arise! why are you sleeping? Take your way in that direction opposite to which your feet are turned, for there is Italy which you are seeking.” And straightway rising he began to proceed in that direction Which he had heard in his dreams, and without delay he came to a dwelling place of men; for there was a settlement of Slavs in those places. And when an elderly woman now saw him, she straightway understood that he was a fugitive and suffering from the privation of hunger. And taking pity upon him, she hid him in her dwelling and secretly furnished him food, a little at a time, lest she should put an end to his life altogether if she should give him nourishment to repletion. In fine, she thus supplied him skillfully with food until he was restored...