Text #3166
. The Fourth Book of the Chronicle of Fredegar[Fred. Chron. 74--75. Translated by John Michael Wallace-Hadrill. Oxford University Press. 1960 pp. 62--63]
In the tenth year of his reign Dagobert learned that the Wendish army had entered Thuringia. He raised a force in Austrasia, placed himself at its head in the town of Metz, crossed the Ardennes and approached Mainz1 with the object of crossing the Rhine. With him was a corps of picked warriors from Neustria and Burgundy under their dukes and counts. The Saxons sent messengers to Dagobert to ask him to excuse them the tribute that they paid to his fisc; and they promised zealously and bravely to stand up to the Wends and to guard that sector of the Frankish frontier. Dagobert on Neustrian advice, agreed to these Saxon proposals; and the Saxon envoys took an oath upon weapons, clashing them together as their custom is, for the whole Saxon people. But the promise was of little effect. Nonetheless, Dagobert excused the Saxons the tribute they owed him: since the time of the first Chlotar they had given 500 cows yearly. This ceased with Dagobert.
The Ardennes were thus reckoned by Fredegar to extend over the right bank of the Moselle to include the Idarwald and the Hunsrück. [OF] ↩