... what a strange notion must have been formed as to "woman's mission," when to express the ideal of female excellence such names were chosen as Wulfhilde, the wolf-heroine; Bertramna, the bright raven; Wolflint, the wolf-serpent; Eberlind, the boar-serpent; Ethelinde, the noble serpent; Adalhilt, the noble heroine; Gertrude, the spear-maiden, or warrior-love; Chlothilde, the famous amazon; Mathilda, the mighty amazon; Gudrun, the war-oracle.  Nor are we to fancy that these formidable "additions" were empty sound.  These ladies supported their titles.  On occasion of the two great battles in which Marius defeated the Teutones and Cimbri—the one in Provence, the other on the plains of Lombardy—we get rather startling pictures of the Gertrudes and Mathildas of these peoples.  Plutarch tells us, that when the Romans pursued the routed enemy to their camp, the women were stationed at the rampart of wagons, and slew alike pursuers and fugitives—one her husband, another her brother, another her father; they then threw their children, strangled with their own hands, under the wheels and horses' hoofs; and, finally, plunged their weapons into their own breasts, rather than become captives.  Dangerous mates these for milk-livered men! (Chambers's Miscellany of Instructive & Entertaining Tracts, 1869).