Note 58 — from the Origins To the Renaissance

In Gregory of Tours, book iii. chap. 3 ("Historia Ecclesiastica Francorum," Société de l'histoire de France, vol. i. p. 270); in "Beowulf" II. 1202 et seq.—

"The life of the king [Higelac] became the prey of the Franks." Grundtvig was the first to identify Higelac with the Chlochilaicus of Gregory of Tours. The battle took place about 515; the Scandinavians led by "Chlochilaicus" were plundering lands belonging to Thierri, king of Austrasia (511-534), eldest son of Clovis, when he sent against them his son Theodebert, famous since, who was to die on his way to Constantinople in an expedition against the Emperor Justinian. Theodebert entirely routed the enemy, and took back their plunder, killing their chief, the Chlochilaicus of Gregory, the Huiglaucus "qui imperavit Getis, et a Francis occisus est" of an old "Liber monstrorum," the Higelac of our poem. See H. L. D. Ward, "Catalogue of Romances in the British Museum," vol. ii. 1893, pp. 6 ff.