time the Romans called to their aid the hordes of Huns, who had
been growing rapidly in power and were already pressing hard upon
the German nations from the east. Only too glad for an excuse,
the Huns poured into the land in great numbers and practically
swept the Burgundian people from the face of the earth.
According to the Roman historians, twenty thousand Burgundians
were slain in this great battle of the Catalaunian Fields.
Naturally this catastrophe, in which a whole German nation fell
before the hordes of invading barbarians, produced a profound
impression upon the Teutonic world. The King Gundahar, the
Gunther of the "Nibelungenlied", who also fell in the battle,
became the central figure of a new legend, namely, the story of
the fall of the Burgundians.

Attila is not thought to have taken part in the invasion, still,
after his death in 454, his name gradually came to be associated
with the slaughter of the Burgundians, for a legend operates
mainly with types, and as Attila was a Hun and throughout the
Middle Ages was looked upon as the type of a cruel tyrant, greedy
for conquest, it was but natural for him to play the role
assigned to him in the legend. Quite plausible is Boer's
explanation of the entrance of Attila into the legend. The
"Thidreksaga" locates him in Seest in Westphalia. Now this
province once bore the haute of "Hunaland", and by a natural
confusion, because of the similarity of the names, "Huna" and
"Huns", Attila, who is the chief representative of Hunnish power,
was connected with the legend and located at Seest. This would
show that the original extension of the legend was slight, as
Xanten, the home of Hagen, is but seventy miles from Seest. The
original form would then be that Hagen was slain by a king of