Note 52 — from the Origins To the Renaissance
Reading edition
Cf. Tacitus, who says of the Germans: "Celebrant carminibus antiquis (quod unum apud illos memoriæ et annalium genus est)...." "De Moribus," i. Eginhard in the ninth century notices the same sort of songs among the Franks established in Gaul: "Item barbara et antiquissima carmina, quibus veterum regum actus et bella canebantur...." "Vita Karoli," cap. xxix. (ed. Ideler, "Leben und Wandel Karl des Grossen," Hamburg and Gotha, 1839, 2 vols. 8vo, vol. i. p. 89).