'judge,' or alderman of the Thervings, had sent through the camp--so
runs the story--the waggon which bore the idol of Woden, and had
burnt, with their tents and their families, those who refused to
worship.

They, like all other German tribes, were ruled over by two royal
races, sons of Woden and the Asas. The Ostrogoth race was the
Amalungs--the 'heavenly,' or 'spotless' race; the Visigoth race was
the Balthungs--the 'bold' or 'valiant' race; and from these two
families, and from a few others, but all believed to be lineally
descended from Woden, and now much intermixed, are derived all the
old royal families of Europe, that of the House of Brunswick among
the rest.

That they were no savages, is shewn sufficiently by their names, at
least those of their chiefs. Such names as Alaric, 'all rich' or
'all powerful,' Ataulf, 'the helping father,' Fridigern, 'the willing
peace-maker,' and so forth--all the names in fact, which can be put
back into their native form out of their Romanized distortions, are
tokens of a people far removed from that barbarous state in which men
are named after personal peculiarities, natural objects, or the
beasts of the field. On this subject you may consult, as full of
interest and instruction, the list of Teutonic names given in
Muratori.

They had broken over the Roman frontier more than once, and taken
cities. They had compelled the Emperor Gratian to buy them off.
They had built themselves flat-bottomed boats without iron in them
and sailed from the Crimea round the shores of the Black Sea, once
and again, plundering Trebizond, and at last the temple itself of