“Roncesvalles,” ron-thĕs-välˈyĕs. The pass in which Roland and his band were destroyed.
“Ardennes,” arˌdenˈ. The forest of Ardennes lies in the northeastern part of France, covering a portion of the department of the same name, and extending into Belgium.
P. 131, c. 2.—“Frisian,” frisˈi-an. Belonging to the Frisians, a tribe formerly living beyond the Batavi, but pushed to the borders of the North Sea by the Franks.
“Aix,” āks. A town in southern France whose thermal springs were known to the Romans.
“Alcuin,” ălˈkwin. (735-804.) His great reputation for learning caused Charles to invite him in 780 from England, his native country, to open a school in France. This institution is supposed to have been the germ of the present University of Paris. Alcuin afterward opened a school at Tours, which became very famous.
“Verden.” A town lying southeast of Bremen, in Prussia.
P. 132, c. 1.—“Haroun-al-Raschid.” See notes in THE CHAUTAUQUAN for November.
“Bretons.” The inhabitants of Brittany, the triangular peninsula which extends from the western coast of France into the Atlantic Ocean.
P. 132, c. 2.—“Eginhard,” ĕgˈin-hart. He had been a pupil of Alcuin, and by him was introduced at court. Eginhard’s history of Charles and his accounts of the Franconian kings have given him a permanent place among the writers of the middle ages. See Longfellow’s poem, “Emma and Eginhard,” in “Tales of a Wayside Inn.”
It will be found helpful to read the extracts from German Literature in connection with the “Outline of German Literature” in THE CHAUTAUQUAN for November, thus fixing the period to which each author belongs. Care has been taken in selecting the extracts to choose only from those who are in the first rank, and omit all minor writers. The selections are intended to show the style of each, and the lines of thought which he followed.
P. 132, c. 2.—“Würtzburg,” wurtsˈburg. A city of Bavaria on the Main, whose history dates back to the sixth century.
“Minster.” The word comes from the Latin _monasterium_, and is applied to the church or chapel belonging to a monastery; also, as here, to a cathedral.
“War of Wartburg.” In 1206 the landgrave, Hermann I., summoned the poets of his nation to a musical tournament in the castle of Wartburg, in the Thuringian Forest. The competition ran so high that it was called the Wartburg war, and in 1300, a poem, “The War of Wartburg,” appeared, celebrating the event.