Request hints for creating TOC in HTML table

I'll think something like this must have been done a thousand times before,
but right now, my brain and my search capabilities are to tired.

I have a xml document e.g.

<content>
	<item>bedrock</item>
	<item>alphaville</item>
	<item>Zebra<item>
	<item>365 BC</item>
	...
</content>


What I would like is to transform this document into a HTML table like with
four columns

-----------------------------
| #    | E    | J    | Q    |
|365 BC|      |      | R    |
| A    | F    | K    | S    |
|alpha |      | L    | T    | 
| B    | G    | M    | U    |
|bedroc| H    | N    | V    | 
| C    | I    | O    | X    |
| D    |      | P    | Z    |
-----------------------------

Right know I can't either figure out how to sort the items in groups, or
find out how many groups to put into each column to make it look nice.

Any hints is appreciated.

<thomas/>


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