If they are met with in
connection with historical facts, fabulous legends or fanciful
traditions are mingled with them; Priam appears as a predecessor of
Pharamond; Clodion, who passes for having been the first to bear and
transmit to the Frankish kings the title of "long-haired," is
represented as the son, at one time of Pharamond, at another of another
chieftain named Theodemer; romantic adventures, spoilt by geographical
mistakes, adorn the life of Childeric.
All that can be distinctly affirmed is that, from A.D. 450 to 480, the
two principal Frankish tribes were those of the Salian Franks and the
Ripuarian Franks, settled, the latter in the east of Belgica, on the
banks of the Moselle and the Rhine; the former toward the west, between
the Meuse, the ocean, and the Somme. Meroveus, whose name was
perpetuated in his line, was one of the principal chieftains of the
Salian Franks; and his son Childeric, who resided at Tournai, where his
tomb was discovered in 1655, was the father of Clovis, who succeeded him
in 481, and with whom really commenced the kingdom and history of
France.
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