[1]The Hohenstaufens were a princely German family, whose castle was at Hohenstaufen in WÜrtemberg. It furnished sovereigns to Germany and Sicily in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The last of them was Conradin, who was executed in 1268.
[2]“Ode,” in German, signifies a desert or wilderness.
[3]The Aar, or Aare, rises in the Bernese Oberland and flows into the Rhine. Its length is about 170 miles.
[4]Engelberg is now a health resort in the Canton of Unterwalden, Switzerland, south of Lucerne. It still has a Benedictine Abbey.
[5]RÆtia was a province of the Roman Empire, and its inhabitants were mountaineers. It was conquered by Tiberius in 15 B. C. The Helvetians were a Celtic tribe living near Lake Geneva, and were conquered by CÆsar. The Huns were a Mongolian race which invaded Europe in the fourth century. Their greatest leader was Attila. The Ostrogoths were the Eastern branch of the Gothic race, and were subjugated by the Huns. The Alamanni were a German race, whose territory in the third century included Alsace and part of Eastern Switzerland. “Franks” was a name assumed by a confederation of German tribes.
[6]Rudolph the First was the son of Albert the Fourth, Count of Hapsburg. He succeeded his father in 1239, and was elected German King in 1273, being the first of the Hapsburg line.
[7]The RÜtli was a meadow in the mountains of Uri, fifteen miles southeast of Lucerne.
[8]Nidwald is the northern part of the Canton of Unterwalden; Oberwald is the southern part.
[9]Winterthur, one of the chief manufacturing towns in Switzerland, about thirteen miles northeast of Zurich.
[10]The Crimea.
[11]Kovno is the capital of the government of Kovno, at the junction of the Vilia and Niemen rivers in Russia.
