ERMANARIC (ft. king of the East Goths, be longed to the Amali family, and was the son of Achiulf. His name occurs as Ermanaricus (Jordanes), Airmanareiks (Gothic), Eormenric (A. Sax.), Jormunrek (Norse), Ermenrich (M.H. German) . His vast kingdom eventually extended from the Danube to the Baltic and from the Don to the Theiss, but in his later days the west Goths threw off his yoke, and, on the in vasion of the Huns, rather than witness the downfall of his kingdom, Ermanaric is said by Ammianus Marcellinus to have committed suicide. His fate early became the centre of popular tradition, which found its way into the narrative of Jordanes or Jornandes (de rebus geticis, chap. 24), who compared him to Alexander the Great and certainly exaggerated the extent of his kingdom. In German legend Ermanaric became the typical cruel tyrant, and references to his crimes abound in German epic and in Anglo-Saxon poetry. He is made to replace Odoacer as the enemy of Dietrich of Bern, his nephew, and his history is related in the Norse Vilkina or Thidrekssaga, which chiefly embodies German tradition. The tale is told with variations by Saxo Grammaticus (Historia Danica, ed. Muller, p. 408, etc.), and in the Icelandic poems, the Lay of Hamtheow, Gudrun's Chain of Woe, and in the prose Edda.