Page:EB1911 - Volume 04.djvu/707

 French classic literature begun in 1904, a monograph on Balzac (1906), and various pamphlets of a polemical nature dealing with questions of education, science and religion. Among these may be mentioned Discours académiques (1901), Discours de combat (1900, 1903), L’Action sociale du christianisme (1904), Sur les chemins de la croyance (1905). M. Brunetière was an orthodox Roman Catholic, and his political sympathies were in the main reactionary. He possessed two prime qualifications of a great critic, vast erudition and unflinching courage. He was never afraid to diverge from the established critical view, his mind was closely logical and intensely accurate, and he rarely made a trip in the wide field of study over which it ranged. The most honest, if not the most impartial, of magisterial writers, he had a hatred of the unreal, and a contempt for the trivial; nobody was more merciless towards those who affected effete and decadent literary forms, or maintained a vicious standard of art. On the other hand, his intolerance, his sledge-hammer methods of attack and a certain dry pedantry alienated the sympathies of many who recognized the remarkable qualities of his mind. The application of universal principles to every question of letters is a check to dilettante habits of thought, but it is apt to detain the critic in a somewhat narrow and dusty path. M. Brunetière’s influence, however, cannot be disputed, and it was in the main thoroughly sound and wholesome. He died on the 9th of December 1906.

BRUNHILD (M.H. Ger. Brünhilt or Prünhilt, Nor. Brynhildr), the name of a mythical heroine of various versions of the legend of the Nibelungs. The name means “the warrior woman in armour” (from O.H. Ger. brunjô, brunja, M.H. Ger. brunige, brünje, brünne, a cuirass or coat of mail, O. Eng. byrnie, and O.H. Ger. hiltja, hilta, war), and in the Norse versions of the Nibelung myth, which preserves more of the primitive traditions than the Nibelungenlied, Brunhild is a valkyrie, the daughter of Odin, by whom, as a punishment for having against his orders helped a warrior to victory, she has been cast under a spell of sleep on Hindarfjell, a lonely rock summit, until the destined hero shall penetrate the wall of fire by which she is surrounded, and wake her. This is a variant of the widespread myth which survives in the popular fairy-story of “the sleeping beauty.” The ingenuity of some German scholars has made of Brunhild a personification of the day, held prisoner upon the hill-tops till in the morning the sun-god comes to her rescue, then triumphing with him awhile, only to pass once more under the spell of the powers of mist and darkness. She is thus by some commentators contrasted with “the masked warrior woman” (q.v.), a personification of the power of night and death. But whatever be the dim original of the character of Brunhild—as to which authorities are by no means agreed—even in the northern versions its mythical interest is quite subordinate to its purely human interest. In the Volsungasaga she is the heroine of a tragedy of passion and wounded pride; it is she who compasses the death of Sigurd, who has broken his troth plighted to her, and then immolates herself on his funeral pyre in order that in the world of the dead he may be wholly hers. In the Nibelungenlied, on the other hand, she plays a comparatively colourless rôle. She still possesses superhuman attributes: like Atalanta, she can only be won by the man who is able to overcome her in trials of speed and strength; but, instead of a valkyrie sleeping on a lonely rock, she is, when Sigfrid goes to woo her on behalf of Gunther, queen of Îslant (Îsenlant), living in a castle called the Isenstein. In the tragedy of the death of Sigfrid her part is completely overshadowed by that of “the grim Hagen,” and from the moment that the murder is decided on she drops almost completely out of the story. The poet of the Nibelungenlied evidently knew nothing of the tale of her self-immolation; for, though he has nothing definite to say about her after Sigfrid’s death, he keeps her alive in a sort of dignified retirement. In the last 5000 lines or so of the poem Brunhild is only mentioned four times and takes no active part in the story. (See further under .)

BRUNHILDA (Brunechildis), queen of Austrasia (d. 613), was a daughter of Athanagild, king of the Visigoths. In 567 she was asked in marriage by Sigebert, who was reigning at Metz. She now abjured Arianism and was converted to the orthodox faith, and the union was celebrated at Metz; on which occasion Fortunatus, an Italian poet, who was then at the Frankish court, composed the epithalamium. Chilperic, brother of Sigebert, and king of the west Frankish kingdom, jealous of the renown which this marriage brought to his elder brother, hastened to ask the hand of Galswintha, sister of Brunhilda; but at the instigation of his mistress Fredegond, he assassinated his wife. Sigebert was anxious to avenge his sister-in-law, but on the intervention of Guntram, he accepted the compensation offered by Chilperic, namely the cities of Bordeaux, Cahors and Limoges, with Béarn and Bigorre.

This treaty did not prevent war soon again breaking out between Sigebert and Chilperic. So long as her husband lived, Brunhilda played a secondary part, but having been made captive by Chilperic after her husband’s assassination (575), she succeeded in escaping from her prison at Rouen, after a series of extraordinary adventures, by means of a marriage with Merovech, the son of her conqueror. From this time on, she took the lead; in Austrasia she engaged in a desperate struggle against the nobles, who wished to govern in the name of her son Childebert II.; but she was worsted in the conflict and for some time had to seek refuge in Burgundy. After the death of Childebert II. (597) she aspired to govern Austrasia and Burgundy in the name of her grandsons Theudebert and Theuderich II. She was expelled from Austrasia, and then stirred up Theuderich II. against his brother, whom he defeated at Toul and Tolbiac, and put to death. Theuderich II. died shortly after this victory, and Brunhilda caused one of her great-grandchildren to be proclaimed king. The nobles of Austrasia and Burgundy, however, now summoned Clotaire II., son of Fredegond, and king of Neustria, to help them against the queen. Brunhilda was given up to him, and died a terrible death, being dragged at the heels of a wild horse (613).

Brunhilda seems to have had political ideas, and to have wished to attain to the royal power. She was a protectress of the Church, and Pope Gregory I. (590–604) addressed a series of letters to her, in which he showered praises upon her. She took it upon herself, however, to supervise the bishoprics and monasteries, and came into conflict with Columban (Columbanus), abbot of Luxeuil. As Brunhilda was a great queen, tradition ascribes to her the construction of many old castles, and a number of old Roman roads are also known by the name of Chaussées de Brunehaut.

BRUNI, LEONARDO (1369–1444), Italian scholar, author of the History of Florence, was born at Arezzo, and is generally known as Leonardo Aretino. He was secretary to the papal chancery under Innocent VII. and John XXII. From 1427 to his death in 1444 he was chancellor to the republic of Florence. He was buried at the expense of the state in Sta Croce, where his laurelled statue is still to be seen. He was the first to free the history of Florence from its fabulous elements, but his book, though not unintelligent, only repays very laborious study. The only Latin edition is ''Historiarum Florentinarum libri xii exempto in lucem edit. stud, et op. Sixti Brunonis'' (Argentor. 1610, fol.). A translation into Tuscan was published by Donato Acciajuoli in 1476 at Venice, was republished at Florence in 1492, and again, with Sansovino’s continuation, at Venice in 1561.

BRÜNN (Czech Brno), the capital of the Austrian margraviate and crownland of Moravia, 89 m. N. of Vienna by rail. Pop. (1900) 108,944, of whom 70% are Germans and 30% are Czechs. Brünn is situated for the most part between two hills at the confluence of the Schwarzawa and the Zwittawa, and consists of