In this paper we study the eigenvalues of Hermitian Toeplitz matrices with the entries 2, −1, 0, . . . , 0, −α in the first column. Notice that the generating symbol depends on the order n of the matrix. If |α| ≤ 1, then the eigenvalues belong to [0, 4] and are asymptotically distributed as the function g(x) = 4 sin 2 (x/2) on [0, π]. The situation changes drastically when |α| > 1 and n tends to infinity. Then the two extreme eigenvalues (the minimal and the maximal one) lay out of [0, 4] and converge rapidly to certain limits determined by the value of α, whilst all others belong to [0, 4] and are asymptotically distributed as g. In all cases, we transform the characteristic equation to a form convenient to solve by numerical methods, and derive asymptotic formulas for the eigenvalues.