Getting Away with Murder
When I saw the 15th century illustration,
King Chilperic of 6th century Neustria
strangling his wife, Galswintha,
older sister of Brunhild,
the prototype of Wagner’s heroine
in the epic opera cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen,
I wondered, though he was never punished,
if he really did get away with murder, after all,
remembered a thousand years later for the deed.
In the painting, the king holds both ends
of a scarf around Galswintha’s neck.
Jealous of his older brother Sigibert
for his marriage to Brunhild,
Chilperic, who’d sent first wife away
to a convent in Rouen years before,
asked King Athanagild for his daughter’s hand,
offering the entire southern third of his kingdom
to Galswintha for a morgengabe,
the husband’s gift to his bride
after consummating the marriage on the wedding night.
An offer like that?
How could Athanagild refuse the Frankish king?
But just a year into their marriage,
Galswintha caught Chilperic in bed
with his favorite slave girl.
Outraged, Galswintha threatened to go back home.
Shortly after, she was found dead in her bed,
strangled in her sleep.
True, Brunhild demanded her husband
declare war on his younger brother,
but Chilperic never even attempted
to find his wife’s murderer,
as good as a confession.