CHAPTER IV

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HEROIC NAMES OF THE NIBELUNG.

SECTION I.—_The Nibelung._

As the Greeks believed in the exploits of semi-divine heroes, a sort of borderers between Olympus and the human race, so the Teutonic race had its grand universal legends of beings rising above human nature, and often embodying beliefs that once had attached to the gods themselves.

The great Teutonic legend, holding the same place as the deeds of Hercules, Theseus, and the Argonauts did in Greece, or those of Fionn with the Gael, is the story of the _Nibelung_. How old it may be is past computation, but it was apparently common to the whole Gothic race, since names connected with it come from Spain, Lombardy, and France: fragments of the story are traceable in England and the Faroe Islands, and the whole is told at length in Germany, Norway, and Denmark. Each of these three latter countries claim vehemently to have originated the romance, but there is little doubt that it was one of the original imaginations of the entire race, and that each division moulded the framework their own way, though with a general likeness.

Names of historical personages, probably called from its heroes, have led many to suppose it exaggerated history; but each attempt to fit it on to a real person has resulted in confusion, and led to the perception that the actors are really mythical, and the localities, which chiefly lie in Burgundian Germany, were only connected with it by that general law which always finds a home for every heroic adventure.

The tale is begun by the Norwegian Volsunga Saga, and, about half way through, it is taken up by the Danish Vilkina and Niflung Saga, and by the German Nibelungenlied, and it is finished by numerous Danish ballads and German tales, songs, and poems, with the sort of inconsistencies always to be found in popular versions of ancient myths, but with the same main incidents.

Nifelheim, the supposed abode of these heroes, is interpreted to be _nebelwelt_, the world of mist, or cloudland, and there can be little doubt that the heroes said to be descended from the mythic Vili, Vidga, and Velint, are, in fact, fallen deities. Germany, however, turned Nifelheim into the Netherlands, and placed the realm of Brynhild in Iceland, and the scene of Aldrian’s and Gunter’s court at Wurms, the centre of the Burgundians.

It is highly probable that the story is another form of the original myth, with the same idea, carried through, of the early death of the glorious victor, and of the revenge for his death, but only through a universal slaughter in which all perish. But the whole has become humanized, and the actors are men and not deities; and thus the allegory is far less traceable.

The story, as it begins in the Volsunga Saga, relates that there were three brothers, Fafner, Reginn, and Audvar, or Ottur, whose name is from the same source as _øg_, awe, so that he may be another form of Œgir. Transforming himself into the beast that bears his name, for the convenience of catching himself a fish dinner, Ottur was killed, in this shape, by Loki. The father and the other brothers insisted that, by way of compensation, in the Teutonic fashion, Loki should fill the dead otter’s skin with treasure, which he accomplished, but laid the treasure under the curse, that it should do no good to its owner. Accordingly, the amount excited the avarice of Fafner, and after murdering his father, he transformed himself into a dragon, and kept watch over the treasure, to prevent Reginn from obtaining it.[129]

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Footnote 129:

Lettsom, _Niebelung_; Weber and Jamieson; Koepper; Howitt, _Northern Romance_; Grimm, _Deutsche Heldensagen_.

SECTION II.—_Sigurd._

_Sig_, or _siga_, means, in all Teutonic tongues, conquest; and the Victor seems to have been a very old epithet for the Divinity. St. Augustin speaks of a Gothic exclamation _Sihora armen_, which he translates as Κύριε ἐλεήσον, and the first word of which evidently answers to Ceadmon’s epithets for the Almighty, _Sigorafrea_, _Sigorugod_, _Sigoracyning_.

Odin was called Sigfadir, or conquering father, and this accounts for the later notion that the adventurer was called Sigge, and assumed the divine appellation of Odin.

Thence the victorious god, conquering the serpent, yet afterwards dying, whether he were originally meant for Odin himself, or for another form of Baldur, sank into a human serpent-slayer, bearing the name of victory—Sigward, perhaps originally, but varied into Sigufrit, Siegfried, and Sigurd.

The main points in Siegfried’s story are that he was the son of Siegmund the Volsung, and of Queen Sigelind; born, according to the _Book of Heroes_, under the same circumstances as Perdita, in the _Winter’s Tale_; put, by way of cradle, into a drinking-glass, and accidentally thrown into the river, where he was picked up by the smith Mimir, and educated by him. In the _Book of Heroes_ he is so strong that he caught the lions in the woods and hung them over his castle wall by their tails. Reginn incited him to fight with and slay the dragon, Fafner, and obtain the treasure, including the tarn-cap of invisibility. Also, on roasting and eating the heart of Fafner, he became able to understand the language of the birds. And by a bath in the blood he was made invulnerable, except where a leaf had unfortunately adhered to his skin, between his shoulders, and given him, like Achilles and Diarmaid, a mortal spot. His first discovery from the song of a bird was that Reginn meant to murder him at once; he therefore forestalled his intentions, and took possession of the fatal gift, thus incurring the curse. The _Book of Heroes_ calls him Siegfried the horny, and introduces him at the court of the German favourite, Theodoric, and the _Nibelungenlied_ separates the dragon from the treasure, and omits most of the marvellous in the obtaining it.

His next exploit was the rescue and awakening of Brynhild; but he fell into a magic state of oblivion as to all that had passed with her, when he presented himself at the court of Wurms, and became the husband of Gudrun, or Chriemhild, as a recompense for having, by means of his tarn-cap, enabled Gunnar to overcome the resistance of Brynhilda herself, and obliged her to become his submissive bride. Revelations made by the two ladies, when in a passion, led to vengeance being treacherously wreaked upon Siegfried, who was pierced in his vulnerable spot while he was lying down on his face to drink from a fountain during a hunting party in the forest. The remainder of the history is the vengeance taken for his death; and the North further holds that his child, Aslaug, was left the sole survivor of the race, and finally married Ragner Lodbrog, whence her descendants always trace their pedigree from Sigurdr Fafner’s bane.

His namesakes are well-nigh innumerable. There are nineteen in the _Landnama-bok_; and Sigurdr swarms in the earlier Scandinavian royal lines, being, perhaps, most remarkable in the person of King Sigurd the Crusader of Norway.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │ English. │ French. │ German. │ Bavarian. │ │Sigefrid │Sigefroi │Sigefrid │Sigl │ │Siward │Siffroi │Siegfried │ ————————— │ │Seaward │ ————————— │Sigfrid │ Norwegian. │ │Seaforth │ Italian. │Seifrid │Sigvard │ │Seyferth │Sigefredo │Sikko │Sigurdhr │ │ │Siffredo │Sicco │Siurd │ │ │ │Sigo │Sjul │ │ │ │ ————————— │Syvert │ │ │ │ Polish. │Syver │ │ │ │Sygfryd │Siewers │ └───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

At the instance of the king of Sweden, our Edred had sent a missionary named Sigefried, who is esteemed the apostle of Sweden, and gave a Christian sanction to the serpent-slayer’s name, whence it has continued extremely common there. The stout old Danish Earl Siward, the conqueror of Macbeth, the same who had the bear’s ears and would only die upon his feet, is an English version of the northern Sigurdr, and bore the name that is now Seaward. Indeed Sæward is found among the kings of Essex in 616, and, in fact, that line have so many prefixes of _Sige_, that it is likely that they thought themselves connected with Fafner’s bane. There is a Sigefugel, or Sigewolf, in their descent from Odin, who may be another form of Sigurd. Germany has made the feminine Sigfrida.

Some have considered the story to be chiefly Burgundian; and Sigmund, conquering protection, the name of Sigurdr’s father, was that of the first Catholic king of Burgundy, who was canonized both for the recovery of his kingdom from Arianism, and for the severity of his penance, after having killed his son, Sigeric, on a false stepdame’s calumny. His relics were carried to Prague in the fourteenth century, and the effect of the translation appeared at once in the name of the Bohemian-born Emperor Sigismund, from whom this became European, and formed the feminine Sigismunda. Gismonda is thus an old Lombardic feminine.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ German. │ │Sigismund │Sigismond │Sigismondo │Sigmund │ │Sæmund │ ————————— │Sismondo │Sigismund │ │ │Portuguese. │ │ │ │ │Sigismundo │ │ │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ Norwegian. │ Polish. │ Illyrian. │ Hungarian. │ │Sigmund │Zygmunt │Sisman │Zsigmond │ │Sæmund │ ———————— │ │Zsiga │ │ │ Bohemian. │ │ │ │ │Zikmund │ │ │ └───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

Some have imagined that the curious correspondence of names, when Sigebert, the Frank, married Brynhild, the Goth, is a sign that the _Nibelung_ referred to the Austrasian court; but the Frank Sigebert would have been a very poor serpent-slayer, and, no doubt, only bore the name as a remembrance of him, as did our East Saxon monarch Sæbert, and the Spanish bishop Siseberto. It has lasted on in Germany and Friesland, to be called Sizo, Sitto, Sibert, and Sidde, and is the English surname Sebright. Sigelind, conquering snake, now and then used by German ladies, has the Eastern-looking abbreviation Zelinde.

Sigridur, or conquering impulse, was a favourite among northern ladies. Sigrid the haughty of Sweden, was wooed by King Olaf Trygvesson, and had accepted him; but on her refusal to be baptized, he struck her on the face with his glove, and said, ‘Why should I have thee, an old faded jade, and a heathen to boot.’ She remembered his discourtesy against him, and stirred up the war, which ended in his fatal battle with Earl Sigvalddr. Sigrid is Sired in Domesday; in the North, she is shortened into Sîri, and then Latinized as Serena.

Sigvalldur, conquering power, curiously ran into Sjovald, from whence we take our surname Shovel, one of the many by which our naval commanders are traceable to the vikings.

Sigeheri, Sigehere, Sighar, conquering warrior, is what on Norman lips was Sagar, and then Saher, the hereditary name of the De Quincys, and as a surname spelt Sayers.[130]

The other forms are,

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ North. │ │ Sigbiorg } │ │ Siborg } Conquering protection Ger. Sigburg │ │ Siber } │ │ │ │ German. English. Frisian. Italian. │ │ Sigebald │ Sibbald │ Sibold │ Sibaldo } Conquering │ │ │ │ Sibel │ } prince │ │ │ │ North. Sigbiorn; Eng. Siborne—Conquering bear │ │ │ │ German. Frisian. Spanish. │ │ Sigbod │ Sibot │ Sisebuto } │ │ │ Sibo │ } Messenger of victory │ │ │ Sibbe │ } │ │ │ │ Nor. German. Frisian. │ │ Sigbrand │ Sigbrand │ Sibrant } │ │ │ │ Sibbern } Conquering sword │ │ │ │ Nor. Sigfus—Conquering impetuosity │ │ │ │ German. English. Frisian. French. │ │ Sighard │ Sigehard │ Siard │ Sicard } Conquering │ │ Siegert │ │ Siade │ } firmness │ │ │ │ Ger. Sighelm—Conquering helmet │ │ Nor. Sighvatr—Conquering swiftness │ │ Nor. Sigmar; Ger. Sigmar—Conquering greatness │ │ Nor. Signy—Conquering freshness │ │ Ger. Sigrad—Conquering advice │ │ Ger. Sigrich—Conquering ruler │ │ Sigtrud—Conquering maid │ │ Nor. Sigtrygge—Conquering security │ │ Nor. Sigulf, Siulf; Eng. Sigewolf—Conquering wolf │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Footnote 130:

_Nibelung_; Weber and Jamieson; Kemble, _Beowulf_; Michaelis; Pott; Butler; _Heimskringla_.

SECTION III.—_Brynhild._

A thorough Valkyr was Brynhilda, the maiden whom Odin had touched with his sleep-thorn, so that she lay in a deep slumber in the midst of a circle of flame, through which Sigurd made his way, aroused her, and won her for his own; but became utterly and magically oblivious of all that had passed as soon as he had returned to common life. This is the northern version, the evident origin of our fairy tale of the _Sleeping Beauty_, pricked not by the thorn of Odin, but by the distaff, perhaps, of one of the Nornir. The _Book of Heroes_ reduces the circle of flame to a mere strong castle, with seven gates; and the _Nibelungenlied_ only takes up the story at the time of Sigfried’s appearance at the court of Burgundy, and courtship of Brynhild’s rival, Chriemhild.

Brynhild had retained her matchless strength, and, like the Greek Atalanta, was only to be won by a champion who could excel her in games of strength, and her conquered suitors were all put to death. Gunther, the brother of Chriemhild, being willing to obtain her on these conditions, Siegfried, by means of his tarn-cap, invisibly vanquished the Valkyr, while Gunther appeared to be her conqueror; and when she thus had been compelled to give her hand, it was Siegfried who, again unseen, broke down her violent resistance, and compelled her to become a submissive wife, on which she lost all her supernatural strength. Siegfried was rewarded by the hand of Chriemhild, Gunther’s sister.

By-and-by the two sisters-in-law had a desperate quarrel about precedence; in the old northern version, which should wade farthest into the Rhine when bathing; in the half-civilized German song, which should first enter the cathedral of Wurms; and in the course of it Brynhild was roundly informed that she had not given way to her husband, but to Siegfried. Valkyr nature could not stand such an affront, so Brynhild set on Hagen to assassinate Siegfried. The northern story makes her slay herself, and be burnt with his corpse on a funeral pile, in Suttee fashion; the German tames her into being merely brought to repentance too late by the death of her husband.

No doubt Brynhild was commemorated by the name of the Gothic princess, daughter of King Athanagild, who, for her misfortune, was married to the Frank Sigebert, and through the whole of her long life continued a fierce and dauntless resistance to her savage rival Fredegund, until, when both were aged women, Brenhilda fell into her rival’s power, and was implacably sentenced to be dragged to death by wild horses. French historians aver that her name was at first only Bruna, and that hilda was added to make it royal; but this is very unlikely, since Spanish historians call her Brenhilda. The Latinism is Brunechildis, in French Brunehault, but the name has not been followed, except by the northern race, whose existence was hardly developed at the time of the misfortunes of the Austrasian queen, and who therefore take it from her original. Among these it has been contracted to Brunilla and Brynil.

The meaning is the Valkyr of the Breastplate, the _byrni_ of old Scottish, _bryne_ of the North, _bruniga_ of the German, _broigne_ in Old French, _bronha_ in Provençal. A near connection of this name is the northern Bryngerd, placing the gentle Gerda in this cuirass; and the North has likewise Brynjar, properly _hari_, the Cuirassier, and Brynjolfr, which wolf in a breastplate was a great Icelandic ancestor, and has been cut short into Brynjuv and Brynjo.

The Chriemhild, or Helmet Valkyr of the _Nibelung_, is the Gudrun of the northern version; and Gudrun, as before said, would be either good wisdom, or, far more probably, war wisdom. In the _Nibelungenlied_, the

## action of the story begins with Chriemhild telling her mother her dream

of her favourite falcon being torn to pieces by two eagles; and when it is explained to mean her future husband, vowing that she will never marry. However, Siegfried’s arrival, and his successful exertions in winning Brunhild for Gunther, overcame all the lady’s scruples.

She had lived happily ten years in the Netherlands with Siegfried before, on a visit to Wurms, she was so ill-advised as to reproach Brynhild with his victory over her; and afterwards was deluded into sewing a mark upon his garments to show where was his vulnerable spot. After his death, she found out the murderer by the ordeal of touch, and treasured up a deadly and enduring spirit of revenge; perhaps the most terrible of all the many forms in which legend has proclaimed the old rule of blood for blood.

She was left the heiress of all Siegfried’s treasure, as well as of his _Nibelungen_ or Netherlandian troops, but it was taken from her by her husband’s murderer, and sunk beneath the Rhine. After thirteen years of widowhood, she was induced to marry Etzel, or Atli, king of the Huns, by the promise that he would avenge all her injuries; but still she bided her time for thirteen more years, at the end of which space she invited her brothers and all their champions to visit her in Hungary at Etzelenburg. They had not long been there before she stirred up a most tremendous battle, in which mutual destruction took place, as is minutely related in the ancient lays. Finally her brother Gunther was captured and slain at her savage command, and she herself slew the murderer Hagen with Siegfried’s own sword. Immediately after, however, she was put to death as an act of justice by old Sir Hildebrand; at least so says the _Nibelungenlied_; but in the _Kœmpe Viser_ there is a still further revenge, for the secret of the deposit of the treasure is left with the son of Hagen, who beguiles Grimhild into the cave with the hope of its restoration, and there locks her in and starves her to death.

The historical Attila is really said to have had a German wife named Kremheilch. The Gudrun of the North is a far more amiable personage. She forgives her brother, and is with difficulty persuaded to marry Atli, who is, in this version, Brynhild’s brother, and lays the plot against Gunther, in order to avenge his sister’s death. She does all in her power to warn them, but in vain; and when all had been slain, her senses failed her, and in her frenzy she slew her two children by Atli, and made him drink their blood; he died of horror, and she cast herself into the sea, but was carried alive to the land of King Jonakr, whom she married, and then underwent other misfortunes which extinguished the last remains of her family. Her name of Gudrun has already been treated of.[131]

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Footnote 131:

_Nibelungenlied_; Weber and Jamieson; Thierry; Mariana; Munch.

SECTION IV.—_Gunther._

_Gunth_ (Goth.), _guth_ (A.G.S.), _gunnr_ (North), _gond_ or _gonz_ (High German), all meant war or battle, and have an immense number of derivative names, inextricably mixed up with those from God and Gut; and it is even thought that there may be a close connection between them, so much did the Teutons believe their deities to be gods of battle, and goodness to be courage. The word _gunth_ has lived on even in Lombardy in the Gonfalon, the war banner, solemnly carried out to battle in a car as the images of the gods had formerly been, in charge of the official known as the _gonfaloniere_ in the republics of northern Italy. Gundahari, warrior, was really an old name among the kings of Burgundy, who were, no doubt, called in honour of Gunther or Gunnar, the eldest brother of Kriemhild, and husband of Brynhild. He seems to have been brave but weak, led first by Sigurd, then by Hagen, but at last fighting with great spirit.

Gunthar, or Gunnar, at full length Gundahari, continued in favour with the Burgundians; and an abbot in Brittany being canonized, left Gonthier to France, and Gontiere to Italy.

This masculine Gunnar was very common in the North, and so was likewise the feminine Gunnr, war, or Gundvar, war prudence, both confounded in Gunnar, which historians generally render as Gunnora.

Gunnhildur was in high favour in the North. One most celebrated owner was the wicked queen of Eric Blodaxe. She was said to be a native of the Orkneys, and to have filled Scandinavia with her crimes, upon the details of which, however, Norse and Danish histories are not quite agreed.

Gunhild again was the Danish princess whose murder on St. Brice’s night brought her brother Sweyn down in fury upon England; and her nephew Knud likewise had a daughter so called, but who was Anglicized into Æthelthryth; and each generation of the Godwine family records a lady Gunhild. After the Conquest, however, Gunhild died away in England; but it has never been discarded in the North, where it is now called Gunnilda, or Gunula.

That daughter of William the Conqueror, or sister of Gherbod the Fleming, whichever she was, who was the ancestress of the Warrennes, and is buried at Lewes, has a name so much disguised as to be as doubtful as her birth. It maybe Gunatrud, a Valkyr title, or Gundridur, war haste, or Gundrada, war council, the same as the Spanish Gontrado; at any rate it has had few followers.

Gunnr and Göndol were both Valkyr titles, and the Valkyr Göndol’s most noted namesake was a maiden of the Karling race, who was bred up by St. Gertrude, at Nivelle; and on her return to her father’s castle at Morzelle, used to go to her early devotions at a church half a league distant from home. On winter mornings she was lighted by a lantern, which the legend avers to have been blown out by the wind, but rekindled by her prayers. Thence comes the name of St. Gundula’s lamp, applied to the _Tremella_, an orange-coloured jelly-like fungus that grows on dead branches of trees in the winter. She is the patroness of Brussels, where the church of St. Gudule is the place used for coronations; but her common title in Flanders is Ste. Goëlan, while the convent built in her honour at Morzelle, in Brabant, is Ste. Goule.

War could not fail to have her wolf, the Gundulf of Norman England, the Gunnolfr of Iceland, the Gundolf of Germany, and, far more notable than either, the Gonsalvo or Gonzalo of Spain, always frequent among the Visigothic families, and becoming especially glorious in the person of the great captain, the brave and honourable conqueror of Naples, and the trainer of the infantry that gave the predominance to Spain for a hundred years, until they fell as one man at Rocroy.

┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐ │ French. │ Provençal. │ Spanish. │Portuguese. │ Italian. │ │Gonsalve │Guossalvo │Gonzalo │Gonçalo │Consalvo │ │Gonzalve │ │ │ │ │ └────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘

The war raven, Gunthram, figures in French history as Gontran, and the war serpent is the German Gundlin, or Gondoline, when a lady; when a man, the terrible Guthorm, whom, as King Alfred’s foe, godson, and tributary, our histories call Guthrum. In Denmark, the name was very early contracted into Gorm; but it has been so often spelt Gudthorm, that a doubt has arisen whether the latter half of the word may not be _thorm_ or _thyrma_.

It is very difficult to distinguish between the derivatives of _God_ and _Gund_, both being very apt to eliminate the distinctive letters. On the whole, however, it seems as if these warlike names had been some of the most universal throughout the continent, though in England they were very scarce, and do not occur in royal pedigree, nor in hagiology, except in the case of St. Guthlac, the first founder of the original Croyland Abbey, whose name in the North would be Gudleik or Gulleik, war sport.

Hosts of northern Frankish and Visigothic names thus commence, and many feminines end with this word. The other varieties thus beginning are:—

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Nor. Gunbjorg; Ger. Gondaberge; Goth. Sp.—War protection │ │ Nor. Gunbjorn—War bear │ │ German. French. │ │ Gondebert │ Gondobert } │ │ Gondeberta │ Gombert } War splendour │ │ Gumpert │ Jombert } │

│ Ger. Gondebald; Fr. Gondebaud; Sp. Gondebaldo—War prince │ │ Nor. Gudbrand, Guldbrand, Gulbrand—War sword │ │ Ger. Gundekar—War spear │ │ Nor. Gunlaug, Gullaug—War liquor │ │ Nor. Gunleif, (Eng. Cunliffe)—War love │ │ Nor. German. Spanish. │ │ Gudmar │ Gundemar │ Gondomiro } War Greatness │ │ Gulmar │ Gutmar │ Gondomar } │ │ Nor. German. │ │ Gudmund │ Gundemund } War hand │ │ Gulmund │ Gunimund } │ │ Ger. Gunderich; Fr. Gonderic; Sp. Gonderico—War ruler │ │ Sp. Gondesinda—War strength │ │ Nor. Gunnstein—War jewel │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Gunthe was the old German feminine contraction for any of these warlike damsels, and being further endeared into Jutte, or Jutta, was probably the source, under the hands of chroniclers, of the Judiths, who made their appearance among the Franks so long before the days of Scripture or saintly names.[132]

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Footnote 132:

Munch; Michaelis; _Nibelung_; Weber and Jamieson; Mariana; Thierry; _Garland for the Year_; Alban Butler; Fleischner, _Onomatologie_; Lappenberg; Dasent, _Burnt Njal_; Marryat, _Jutland_.

SECTION V.—_Hagen._

Haghen, Hagano, or Hogni, may be considered as the villain of the _Nibelungen_. In the Danish version he is the half-brother of Grimhild and Gunther, with an elf-father; in the German, he is their wise and far-travelled uncle, who first related the adventures of the newly-arrived stranger, Siegfried, but always seems to have disliked him, and readily undertook to revenge Brynhild’s injuries upon him. As Loki deceived Frigga, he persuaded his niece to mark where was the mortal spot on her husband’s skin, and contrived that no wine should be taken into the forest, so that Siegfried might be reduced to lie down to drink at the stream, and thus expose the fatal place.

The body bled at his touch, and he was the chief object of Chriemhilt’s vengeance, more especially after he had taken the treasure away from her, placed it in a cave beneath the Rhine, and jealously guarded the secret of the spot. When she invited the brothers to Hungary he was much averse to the journey, till he found that his disclination was imputed to fear, when he became vehemently set upon going, in spite of the omens against it. Taunts and injuries passed between him and Chriemhilt, and the next day the fierce and furious battle began, which raged till Gunther and Haghen alone were left. After Gunther had been killed, Chriemhilt offered Haghen his life, on condition that he would disclose the place where the treasure was, but he refused, and died by her hand.

There is a curious poem, called the _Duke of Aquitaine_, which is evidently another version of the same notion of Haghen. Hagano, a descendant of the Trojans, is there sent to deprecate the invasion of Attila, and afterwards assists the Burgundian king Gunther of Wurms in an attack on Duke Walther of Aquitaine, and Hildegunna, sister to Gunther, in order to recover a treasure that they had carried off from Attila’s court, where they had been hostages. This version of the great central story of Europe named Hagen, Count of Aquitaine, the uncle of Charles the Bald; but the North has used it more, in the form of Hogen.

The name is either from _hagr_, deft or handy, or else from _hagi_, a hook; most probably the latter, perhaps in connection with the other meaning, a thorn or prickle, so that here we may find a personification of the thorn destroying the victor. The word _hag_ is seldom found in names, and is probably imitated from Hagen, without much regard to the meaning. It occurs only in the Danish, as Hagbrand, Hagbart, contracted as Habaar, or Habor; Hagthor, which is incorrectly modernized as Hector; and Hagny. The more usual form in Denmark is Hogne, probably from the German Hagano.

But there has been a confusion between this Hagan, or Hogni, and Haagan, properly Haakvin, from _haa_, high, and _kyn_, meaning of high kin, the well-known Norwegian and Danish name of many a fierce viking; sometimes Latinized as Haquinus, Frenchified as Haquin, and called in the North Haaken, or Hakon. Domesday has it as Kaco, Hacon, Hacun, and Hakena; and Hacon still lingers among the fishermen of the Orkneys. Other northern names, with the same opening, _haa_ (pronounced _ho_), are Haamund, no doubt the parent of our Hammond, and Haavard, whence our Hayward, both alike meaning high protection.[133]

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Footnote 133:

Lettsom; _Nibelungenlied_; Weber and Jamieson; Munch; Anderson, _Royal and Noble Genealogies_.

SECTION VI.—_Ghiseler._

Ghiseler is one of the brothers of Gunther, an inoffensive personage, and the only one of the party of whom Chriemhild took any civil notice, when she had decoyed them to her court to their destruction. Nevertheless he did not escape, but died in combat with Wolfhart, of Bern, when the champions of Dietrich could not be withheld from the fray.

His name is tolerably clear—Giselhar, the pledged warrior. The first syllable is from _gildan_, _geldan_, _keltan_, to owe, or to pay what was due. The terms ran through all the Gothic tongues, and caused the Anglo-Saxons to call all the offerings due to the gods _gield_ and _ghëlstar_.

A pledge of mutual obligation was, in Anglo-Saxon, _gisel_, and is still _gidsel_ in the North; in the German, _geissel_. Thence, far more probably than from the older word _geisli_, a beam, or nimbus, was derived the Frank Gisel, as a maiden’s name. A daughter of Pepin, so called, was offered to Leo X. of Constantinople; and afterwards the daughter of Charles the Simple, who became the pledge of amity between the Karlingen and Northmen, by her marriage with Rollo. She was called by the French Gisèle, by the Normans Gisla, in which same form it has lived on in Friesland and in Norway. The commencement is not, however, a very common one in the North, though Giselher is repeated in Gissur Isleifson, Bishop of Iceland, in the eleventh century. Gislaug, the pledge drink, is likewise northern, but though _gils_ is an extremely common termination, almost all the names where it is a commencement are Frankish, or German, and thus probably Giselfrid came to the North as Gisrod.

Giselhilda, and Giselberge, were German, also Gisalhart, and Giselof; and Gisalrico is found among the Spanish Goths. Geltfried and Giltimir are also German forms, and the latter explains Gelimer, the Vandal king in Africa, conquered by Belisarius.

Gils is a common Norwegian name, and no doubt contributed to the English Giles, French Gilles, and Spanish Gil, though all these look to the Greek hermit in France, Aigidios, as their patron. In the North, Ægidius is rendered by Ilian, Yljan, Yrjan, Orjan, but not by Giles: and it would seem as if Julius had been confounded with the name, as well as, perhaps, Giolla, a servant.

Giolla Brigde, or Bridget’s disciple, is thought to have contributed the Scottish examples of Gilbert, which is incorrectly explained by some as Gelb-bert, or yellow bright; but is clearly traceable to the old Frank Giselbert. There were four saints so called, namely, an abbot of Fontenelle, a great friend of William the Conqueror, an Auvergnat knight in the second Crusade, the English founder of the order of Gilbertine monks, and a bishop of Caithness; and it has been a prevalent name in England, Scotland, and the Low Countries, with many contractions, especially in the latter.[134]

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ German. │ │Gilbert │Guilbert │Gilberto │Giselbert │ │Gilpin │Gisebert │ ———————— │Gilbert │ │Gil │Gileber │Dutch. │Gisbert │ │Gibbon │Gilbert │Gysbert │Gispert │ │Gipp │Ghiliber │ ———————— │Giseprecht │ │ │ │Flemish. │ │ │ │ │Gilli │ │ └───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

Footnote 134:

Munter; Munch; Michaelis; Grimm; Took.

SECTION VII.—_Ghernot._

Ghernot was Gunther’s second brother, who was free from the guilt of the murder of Siegfried, and greatly displeased with Haghen for depriving Chriemhilt of the treasure; but he shared the fate of his brothers, being killed early in the encounter by the Markgraf Rudiger.

Perhaps, necessity of war, or spear compulsion, would be the best sounding translations of this remarkable name.

Ghere, the same as the northern Gejr and German Kero, is the messenger sent to invite Siegfried and Chriemhild to Wurms, when they paid the visit that had such fatal consequences; and _gher_ or _gjer_ is one of the most frequent of the component parts of names. Its right and original meaning is a spear, the same as that of the Latin _quiris_ and Keltic _coir_. Thence the Anglo-Saxons called all other weapons _waren_, and the battle _war_, a word we still use, just as the French do _guerre_, and the Spaniards _guerra_.

_Gar_ is _quite_ in modern German, and _gher_ has dropped out of the language, and thus most of the German names commencing with it have been misinterpreted to mean _all_, but it is impossible to compare them with their northern cousins without tracing the same spear in both.

The chief favourite amongst these spear titles seems to have been once a Valkyr name Gêrdrûd, or Geirthrud, the spear maid; for, alas! the pretty interpretation that has caused so many damsels of late to bear it, as meaning _all truth_, is utterly untenable, unless they will regard themselves as allegorically constant battle-maids, armed with the spear of Ithuriel.

The ancient popularity of this name was owing to a daughter of one of the great Pepins, in their _maire du palais_ days. She founded the abbey of Nivelle, and was intensely revered by the Franks and Germans, chiefly on account of the miracles imputed to her. At old heathen feasts, the cups quaffed in honour of gods or demi-gods were prefaced by the words “_Wuotansminne, Thorsminne_,” meaning in Woden’s or Thor’s memory; but the Christian teachers changed these toasts to be in the memory of the saints, such as Michelsminne for the guardian angel. _Johannisminne_ was the special favourite, and was supposed to be a charm against poison, because the Evangelist was thought to have experienced the fulfilment of the promise, “If ye drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt you,” as typified by the dragon in his cup. The royal nun, Gertrude, was almost as great a favourite as the Apostle with the Germans, and the regular toasts at their banquets came to be _Johannisminne_ and _Gerdrutsminne_, till drinking to St. John and St. Gertrude were almost a proverb for revelry.

Let us observe, _en passant_, that _minne_, lately in honour of Minna Troil erected into a lady’s name, is from the Gothic _munan_, to remember, from the Saxon form of which we take our _mind_. Minnie has lately become a favourite name, and must be referred to this source.

A second St. Gertrude, of noble blood in Saxony, was abbess of Heldelfs, had an exceedingly high reputation for sanctity, and died in 1334, leaving her name doubly popular.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ Portuguese. │ │Gertrude │Gertrude │Gertrude │Gertrudes │ │Gatty │ │Geltruda │ │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ German. │ Bavarian. │ Netherlands. │ Danish. │ │Gertraud │Traudl │Drutje │Gertrud │ │Trudchen │Traul │Trudje │Jartrud │ │ │ │Trudel │ │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ Slovak. │ Lettish. │ Esth. │ Polish. │ │Jera │Gêrde │Kert │Giertruda │ │Jerica │Gerte │Truto │ ———————— │ │Jedert │Gedde │Truta │ Lithuanian. │ │Jra │ │ │Trude │ │ │ │ │ ———————— │ │ │ │ │ Hungarian. │ │ │ │ │Gertrud │ └───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

There is great confusion between Gerwald and Gerhard; the one meaning spear power, the other firm spear.

Though _gar_ was not a common English prefix, the first Saint Gerhold was Anglo-Saxon. He migrated to Ireland, received the cowl in the monastery of Mayo, founded that of Tempul Gerald, died in 732, and became the subject of one of the Irish legends of saints. It declared that the wife of Caomhan, king of Connaught, turned him out of the fort of Cathair Mhor, with his 300 saints, who thereupon joined him in one of the peculiar prayers of Irish saints, that there never should be another king of the same race for ever. However, he afterwards relented, and only cut off from the throne the offspring of the lady herself, while to those of the king’s former wife he granted the right of sitting first in the drinking house and of arraying the battle. The Irish call him Garalt, and have confused his name with the Keltic Gareth, one of the knights of the Round Table, so that Garrett and Gerald are regarded as identical.

The great prevalence of the name in Ireland is, however, chiefly owing to the Normans. There had been two Frank saints thus called in the twelfth century, Gerard of Toul, and Girroald of Fontenelle; but it was also a Lombardic name, and the old Florentine family of the Gherardi claims the parentage of one of the many Gerolds who accompanied William the Conqueror, the same whose descendant, Maurice Fitzgerald, was one of the companions of Earl Strongbow, the parent of the Fitzgeralds, or Geraldins, of Kildare, the turbulent race, who disputed with the Butlers of Ormond the supremacy of the island. Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald, a daughter of this house, was the lady who, in imitation of Beatrice and of Laura, was erected by Surrey into the heroine of his poetry, under the title of the Fair Geraldine, thus leading to the adoption of this latter as one of the class of romantic Christian names. Gerald Barry, the Welsh chronicler who Latinizes himself as Giraldus Cambrensis, may have been rightly Gareth, and the provincial form Jarrett, still common in the North, is probably rather a remnant of the Gareth of Strathclyde, than a version of the Norman Gerald.

Another St. Gerald, bishop of Namur, left his name to be very common in the Low Countries, where we have already shown how curiously the transformation was effected of Gerhard Gerhardson into Desiderius Erasmus. Lastly, a St. Gerhard went on a mission to convert the Hungarians, and the name, or rather the two names, for there is no distinguishing between them, have become universal.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │ English. │ French. │ Provençal. │ Italian. │ │Gerard │Gerard │Girart │Gherardo │ │Garrett │Giraud │Guerart │Gerardo │ │Jarett │Girairs │ │ │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ German. │ Netherlands. │ Dutch. │ Frisian. │ │Gerhard │Gerard │Gerhardus │Geerd │ │ │Gerrit │Gerrit │ │ │ │Geert │ │ │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ Danish. │ Polish. │ Lettish. │ Hungarian. │ │Gerhard │Gieraud │Gerkis │Geller │ │Geert │ │Gêrts │ │ └───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐ │ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ German. │ Frisian. │ │Gerald │Giraud │Giraldo │Gerold │Gerold │ │ │Guirauld │ │ │Gerelt │ │ │Girault │ │ │Gerel │ └────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘

Gerhardine in German, and Giralda in Italian, are the feminines, besides our own Geraldine. Possibly Giralda may once have been the Valkyr name Geirhilda, which has survived in the North in the form of Jerilla, _jer_ being the northern corruption of _geir_. Jerlau is thus Geirlaug, and Jeruf, or Jerul, Geirolf.

In like manner, though with different pronunciation, we make Jervis out of the old Norman Gervais, which was probably Geirfuss, or warlike eagerness. It used to be explained as _gerfast_, all firm, but this is, of course, wrong; though, as I have not found Geirfuss in the roll of northern names, and it would have been Gerfuns in Germany, where Gerwas is common, as is Gervais in France, and Gervaso in Italy, this must be doubtful.

The Gerberge of French history, the queen of Louis l'Outremer, was the same as the Geirbjorg of the North: Gerwin, or spear friend, made the Guarin of France, whence the Waryn of a few English families, and Guarino of Italy.

The old Spanish-Gothic feminine Garsendis was certainly Garswinth, or spear strength, and the equally ancient Garsias, or Garcia, so common in Galicia and Navarre, must have its commencement from the same source, though the last syllable has lost its individuality on the soft Spanish tongues. It was long a royal name, but was dropped about the thirteenth century, and makes its last public appearance in the person of the Peruvian prince and author Garcilasso de la Vega.

The spear raven, Gerramn, is the old English Jerram, that has become lost in Jerome; and the spear prince, Gerbold, has furnished the family name of Garibaldi. _Gar_ is very rare in native Anglo-Saxon names, whether as a beginning or end, but most frequent in all the other branches of the Teuton stock; and its other form, _gais_, is the most reasonable explanation of the beginning of the name of Geisserich, the king of the Vandals, who has been made into Genserich, and then translated into the Gander king! The remaining forms are:—

┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Ger. Gerbert; It. Gerberto—Bright spear │ │ Ger. Gerfrid—Spear peace │ │ │ │ Nor. German. Neth. Frisian. │ │ │ │ Gierlac │ Gerlach │ Garlef │ Spear sport │ │ │ Gerlib │ Garlaf │ Garleff Spear relic │ │ │ │ Nor. Geirmund, Garmund—Spear hand │ │ Nor. Geirny—Spear fresh; Gierrandur—Spear house │ │ Nor. Geirridur—Spear impulse; Gierstein—Spear stone │ │ Nor. Geirthiofr—Spear thief; Geirvör—Spear prudence │ │ Nor. Geirvart; Fris. Gerber—Spear guard │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

SECTION VIII.—_Folker._

Of all the champions of Burgundy, none is more full of gallantry and _bonhommie_ than Folker, the mighty fiddler of Alsace, a true knight, always equally ready for music or for fighting. If the _Nibelungenlied_ be really another form of the Eddaic myth, Folker may answer to Bragi, the god of poetry, but he has his own individual character of blithe undaunted courage. Even when the terrible battle has begun, and the heroes find themselves hemmed in by Chriemhild’s warriors, Folker fiddles on, until he dies by the hand of Hildebram.

Folker’s name is from our own word _folk_, the near relation of the Latin _vulgus_, whose progeny are found all over Europe in _vulgar_, _vulgo_, _foule_, &c. Most likely Folkvard is really the right version, and would mean people’s guard, and Folker is rather its corruption than independently the people’s warrior, and the same with Folko; they are, therefore, all thrown together in the following table.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │English. │German. │Frisian. │Nor. │ │Fulk │Volquard │Folkert │Folkvard │ │ ———————— │Volkvart │Foke │Folke │ │ French. │Folkward │Fokko │Fokke │ │Fulcher │Folquhard │ │ │ │Feuquiers │Folkhard │ │ │ │Foulques │Folker │ │ │ │Fouques │Folko │ │ │ │ │Fulko │ │ │ └───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

In the Foulques stage, this name was home, alternately with Geoffroi, by the counts of Anjou, and with the strange soubriquets of _Nerra_ and _Réchin_. One of these counts, the grandfather of our Henry II., became king of Jerusalem; but our English Angevins did not perpetuate the name; and though six Fulcos are recorded in Domesday, Fulk never took root in England, and is chiefly remembered because it belonged to Fulk Greville, the friend of Sydney. It was, in fact, with all its varieties, chiefly Burgundian.

Germany shows a few other forms: Folkwin, or Volquin, which exactly answers to Demophilos, or Publicola; Folkrad, Folkrich, and Folkmar; also Folkbert, which some prefer to Wilibert, as the origin of the Savoyard Filiberto, and our Fulbert.[135]

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Footnote 135:

_Nibelungenlied_; Weber and Jamieson; Munch; Michaelis.

SECTION IX.—_Dankwart._

In the _Nibelungenlied_ the father of Chriemhilt, who dwelt at Wurms, was ‘hight Dankrat,’ and the marshal at the court was Dankwart the swift, Hagen’s brother. Innocent as he was of a share in his brother’s crime, he was the first to be assailed while he was dining with Etzel’s knights, and he had to fight his way through Chriemhild’s warriors before he could return to his comrades in the hall, when he kept the door until, like all the rest, he perished in the massacre.

The first syllable of the name is the same as our word _thank_, and the name means thankful or grateful. The father of Chriemhild was thus Thank-rede, or grateful speech, and from him the Northmen seem to have taken their Thakraad, which in Normandy became Tancred, the knight of Hauteville, whose twelve gallant sons chased the Saracens from Apulia, and were the founders of the only brave dynasty that ever ruled in the enervating realms of the Two Sicilies. The son of one of these gallant knights, Tancredi di Puglia, was the foremost in the first crusade, and the favourite hero of Tasso, in whose epic he is a Christian Achilles; and Tancredi again was the last Sicilian king of the true Norman line, the same whose bickerings with Cœur de Lion make so unpleasant an episode in the third Crusade.

Dankwart, thankful guardian, lingered in Germany; and in 1668, a Yorkshire register records the baptism of Tankard, the son of a ‘Turkey merchant,’ who had probably learnt the name from some of his foreign connections. Dankheri, thankful warrior, was in Normandy Tancar. Dankker is the German surname, and has even come to Tanzen; so that our surname Dance may have the same origin. Thangbrand was the German priest whom King Olaf Tryggvesen of Norway sent to convert Iceland, but whose severity led to his expulsion; and Germany also mentions Dankmar; but the prefix is almost exclusively German.[136]

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Footnote 136:

_Nibelungenlied_; Munch; Pott.

SECTION X.—_Theodoric._

Theodoric of Bern is hardly a genuine hero of the _Nibelung_, being really the main figure in a cycle of Germanic romances of his own; but as he, under the abbreviation Dietrich, is brought in to play a considerable part in the final action of the tale, this seems the fittest place for treating of him and the names in connection with him.

He seems to have been brought into the _Nibelungenlied_ because the Germanic mind could conceive of nothing considerable passing without him. He is represented as one of the four-and-twenty princes in King Etzel’s train, and as anxious to prevent mischief to the visitors from Burgundy, warning them of Chriemhilt’s enmity, and refusing to attack them at her request. When the great slaughter began, it was Dietrich who conveyed the king and queen safely out of the _mêlée_, and withheld his men from engaging in it, until almost at the end, when they could no longer be restrained, and rushing into the fray were all slain except old Sir Hildebrand, though on the other hand, Gunther and Haghen alone remained alive of the Burgundians. Dietrich then armed himself, and after a fierce combat, made them both prisoners, and delivered them up to Chriemhilt, fully intending that she should spare their lives; but when her relentless fury had fallen on them, he assisted King Etzel to bury the dead, and to return the horses and armour of their fallen champions to their respective countries.

Other German romances, however, elevate this prince to a much higher rank. The _Book of Heroes_, written by Wolfram of Eschenbach and Heinrich of Ofterdingen, makes Dietrich of Bern, in Lombardy, son of King Dietmar. Hearing of Chriemhilt’s rose garden, which measured seven miles round, and was guarded by twelve champions, he was seized with a desire to do battle with them, for love of battle, not of ladies, though the victor was to receive a chaplet of roses and a kiss from the young lady. The wise old Sir Hildebrand, of the Wolfing line, conducted him and his eleven companion champions to Wurms, where the single combats took place. Dietrich’s knights were successful, and for the most part took the Chaplets, but refused the kisses, because they disdained Chriemhild as a faithless maiden.

A Danish ballad describes ‘Kong Tidrich’s’ tremendous battle with a Lindwurm, the progeny of one that had escaped his great-grandfather Wolfdietrich. He was led to enter on the battle by entreaties for help from a lion whom the dragon had seized; but at first he came by the worst, for his sword broke, and

‘The Lindwurm took him on her back, His steed beneath her tongue, Bore them into the hollow hill To her eleven young.’

She bade them eat the horse to pass away the time while she rested, promising that on her awakening they should devour the knight. In the cave, however, Tidrich found the magic sword of Siegfried and two knives; and in spite of the threats of the young dragons, and the promises of the old one, he killed them all; but the old worm fell so as to choke the mouth of the cave, whereupon the friendly lion dug him out, and supplied the place of the slain steed by carrying him to Bern on his back.

So much for romance. History mentions a real Theodoric, son of Theudemir, and king of the Ostrogoths in Italy, from 475 to 527. He had been sent as a hostage to Constantinople, and there educated; and though he could not write his name, and had a stamp perforated with the letters Theod to enable him to sign his edicts, he was exceeding able, wise, and skilful, and Arian as he was, conciliated the love of the Catholics. Verona was his chief city, and is evidently the Bern of the romances. He lived too late for the historical Attila, who had died in 453; and though there is a report of a previous Theodoric, who meddled in a dissension between Attila’s sons, and took part in a great slaughter that lasted fifteen days, it is most likely that the original Theuderik was a mythical personage, after whom these historical princes were called, and who afterwards received the credit of some of their deeds, and was localized in the places of their dominion. It is in favour of this notion that Dietrich of Berne is one of the many titles of the wild huntsman, though the Lusatians corrupt him into Dietrich Bernhard, and the Low Countries into Dirk-mit-den-Beer, or with the beard. Indeed, Dirk, the Dutch form of Theodoric, was a half-mythical king of Holland.

It was a most universal name, Anglo-Saxon and Visigothic, as well as Frank and German; and two saints made it everywhere popular in the middle ages, though the Dutch at present chiefly use it.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │ English. │ French. │ Italian. │Span. and Port.│ │Theodric │Theodoric │Teodorico │Theodorico │ │Theodoric │Thierry │Dieterico │ │ │Derrick │Thian │ │ │ │Terry │Thean │ │ │ │Tedric │ │ │ │ │ (_Domesday_) │ │ │ │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ German. │ Bavarian. │ Frisian. │ Danish. │ │Diotrich │Dietl │Tiaderik │Tjodrckr │ │Dietrich │ ———————— │Tiarik │Didhrikr │ │Diez │ Dutch. │Tiark │Theodrckr │ │Diether │Diederik │Tiado │Tidrich │ │ │Dierk │Tiaddo │Didrik │ │ │Dirk │Todo │ ———————— │ │ │ │Tade │ Slovak. │ │ │ │Tido │Todorik │ │ │ │Tide │ │ │ │ │Dudde │ │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ Polish. │ Bohemian. │ Lettish. │ Hungarian. │ │Dytrych │Detrich │Diriks │ │ │ │ │Didschis │Ditrik │ │ │ │Tiz │ │ └───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

The name of Dietmar, the father of Theodoric, is to be found in many forms; in Theudemir, a Frank, who faithfully served Constantius; in an Ostrogothic Theodomir; Spanish, Theodomiro; and the modern Frisian, Thiadmar, Tiedmer, Tyeddemer, Tidmer. It means people’s greatness.

Dietleib, his friend, is rightly Ditlev; and in the North, Thjodleif, the people’s relic, or what is left to them. He, too, survives in constant Friesland, as Teallef, Taedlef, Tiadelef.

The chief favourite of this class is, however, the people’s prince, occurring both among the Frank and early Anglian kings, and belonging to two French hermits and one English archbishop. It took firm root in Provence, and has an aroma of crusades and courts of love surrounding it; and though it is not in Domesday, it and its contractions survive as English surnames; and in a Gloucestershire parish register of the eighteenth century, the feminine form occurs frequently in every variety of spelling; Tibelda, Tiballa, Tibotta, Tybal.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │ English. │ French. │ Spanish. │ Portuguese. │ │Theodebald │Theudobald │Theudebaldo │Theobaldo │ │Theobald │Thiebault │ │ │ │Tybalt │Thiebaud │ │ │ │Tibble │Tibaut │ │ │ │Dibble │ │ │ │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ Italian. │ German. │ Dutch. │ Netherlands. │ │Teobaldo │Dietbold │Tibout │Dippolt │ │Tebaldo │Diephold │ │ │ └───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

The people’s wolf was canonized as a Frank hermit, who gets called St. Thiou. Our friend Theodolf, the Icelander, as Fouqué calls him, would have been in his own land Thjodolf, and the contraction is there Kjold, or Kjol, as Kjoil, or Kjoille, is for Thjodhild, the same as the Diuthilt of the Germans, and Theudhilda, a nun-sister of Clovis. St. Audard has undergone a still greater change; he was once archbishop of Narbonne, and called Theodhard, or ward, the Tiard of Friesland, and Thjodvar, or Kjovar, in the North.

The remaining forms are,

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Ger. Dietbert; Frank. Theudebert—People’s brightness │ │ Ger. Dietbrand—People’s sword │ │ Ger. Dietburg—People’s protection │ │ │ │ Nor. German. Frank. │ │ Thjodgjer } │ │ Toger } │ │ Kiogjeir } Dietgar Theodokar—People’s spear │ │ Kygeir } │ │ Kyer } │ │ │ │ Ger. Dietfrid; Frank. Theodofrid—People’s peace │ │ Ger. Theodegisel; It. Teodisclo—People’s pledge │ │ Ger. Diether—People’s warrior │ │ Nor. Thjodhjalm; Ger. Diethelm—People’s helmet │ │ Ger. Dietlind; Lomb. Theudelinda—People’s snake │ │ Ger. Dietman—People’s man │ │ Ger. Diutrat; Frank. Theodorada—People’s council │ │ Ger. Dietram—People’s raven │ │ Nor. Thjodvald, Kjodvald, Kjoval—People’s power.[137] │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Footnote 137:

Weber and Jamieson; Munch; Grimm; Butler; _Nibelung_.

SECTION XI.—_Uta, Ortwin._

Frau Uote was the mother of Kriemhild, who interpreted her dream and predicted the early death of her bridegroom. Ortwin, of Metz, was _truchsess_, or carver, and was the nephew of Hagan and Dankwart, sharing, of course, their fate.

They are not very interesting personages, but it is curious that they bear the only names, among all the Nibelungen, which have any genuine Anglo-Saxon likenesses; that is, if Uote is, indeed, from the word in Anglo-Saxon, _ead_, in the North _aud_, in Mæso-Gothic _audr_, in High German _od_, everywhere meaning wealth. Some ascribe it to the same root as _good_ and as _Woden_, including them with _adel_, noble; but its derivatives are more easy to follow than its forefathers.

In the North, _odel_ is the term for property to which an entire family retains an equal right, _all-od_, or allodial property. But when the warriors made incursions on their neighbours, they obtained, in addition, their share of spoil, originally cattle, _feh_, or _feo_, i. e., their _fee_. So _feh-od_ came to be the word for possessions gained by the individual by personal service to his lord, and thus passed from cattle to land itself, when held of the chief on condition of following him in war; and thus we have the _feudal_ system, with its _feoffs_ and, too often, its _feuds_.

The feminine of this word probably named Uta. It was popular everywhere. Audur-diupaudga, or Audur the deeply rich, was a female viking, one of the first Icelandic settlers, who called a promontory Kambness, because she dropped her comb upon it; nor has her name passed from her own country, while, in Norman-England, it appears first as Auda and then as Alda, answering to Alda the wife of Orlando the Paladin, and Alda queen of Italy in 926, also to another Alda, a lady of the house of Este, in 1393. These are from the Gothic and Scandinavian _aud_; but the High German form was also represented by Oda and the Low German by the old Saxon Ead, which was soon translated into Ide, the most common of all the early feminines in the Cambrai register, together with its diminutive Idette. Ida was the name of King Stephen’s granddaughter, the Countess of Boulogne, was always used in Germany, and has of late been revived in England, from its sounding like the title of a poetical mountain of the Troad.

It is not quite clear whether Othilie, the Alsatian virgin of the seventh century, who was said to have been born blind, but to have obtained sight at her baptism, is a form of Odel, noble, or a diminutive of Oda, or whether she is Otthild, answering to our Eadhild, one of the many sisters of Æthelstane: and there is the same doubt with Odilo and Odilon, the masculines.

The masculine form of _aud_ was extremely common. We had it in the person of Ida, king of Bernicia; the North owned many an Audr; the Germans used Odde, Orto, and Otto, and when the gallant Saxon counts won the imperial crown, they took the old Latin Otho for the rendering of their name. France, meantime, had called her Burgundian prince Eudon, but when a relay of Norman Audrs appeared, they were Odons; and in the needlework with which Queen Matilda adorned Bayeux cathedral, her husband’s doughty episcopal half-brother is always labelled ‘Odo Eps.’ But though we had previously had a grim Danish archbishop Odo, and though Domesday shows plenty of Eudos and Odos, neither form took root, and both are entirely continental.

┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐ │ French. │ Provençal. │ Italian. │ German. │ Nor. │ │Odon │Orzil │Otto │Odo │Audr │ │Eudon │ ———————— │Ottone │Otto │Odo │ │Eudes │ Lettish. │Ottorino │Orto │Oddr │ │Othes │Atte │ │Otho │ │ │ │Attinsch │ │ │ │ └────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘

Ortvin the truchsess, had his namesake in the Lombard Audoin father to Alboin, also, in the Frank Audwine, blessed by St. Columbanus, beloved by St. Eligius, and bishop of Rouen, whose loveliest church is that of St. Audoenus, now transformed by French lips into St. Ouen. And, at home, we hail the same ‘rich friend’ in Eadwine, the first Christian king of Northumbria, whose conversion is the most striking portion of Bede’s history. His dominion extended over the Lothians, and he disputes with Aodh and the Ædui the naming of Edinburgh. Beloved as he was, his name of Edwin never entirely died away, and became in modern times diffused by the popularity of Goldsmith’s ballad, and of Beattie’s _Minstrel_. It is just known upon the Continent. Ortwin, or Audoenius, is very possibly the Don Ordoño of the early Spanish kingdoms; but Germany has chiefly dealt in the independent Odvin. Edwin, in spite of Mr. Taylor’s tragedy of _Edwin the Fair_, is not the same as Edwy, namely Eadwig, rich war, a name well remembered for the unhappy fate of the owner.

Odoacer, as the Romans called him, who was put to death by Theodoric, was properly Audvakr, treasure watcher; not quite the same as the Germanic Ottokar, or Ortgar, happy spear, which is identical with our familiar Eadgar, or Edgar. This name, after being laid to rest with the Anglo-Saxon monarchy, came to life again with the taste for antiques; and Edgar Ravenswood, in his operatic character, has brought Edgar and Edgardo.

Eadmund, or happy protection, is one of our most English names, belonging to the king of East Anglia, who, as the first victim of the Danes, became the patron saint of Bury St. Edmund’s, and the subject of various legends. The sudden deaths of Sweyn, and afterwards of Eustace de Blois, when engaged in ravaging his shrine, made him be regarded as an efficient protector; and Henry III., when he had the good taste to make his sons Englishmen, christened the second after this national saint, so that Edmunds were always to be found in the House of Plantagenet, and thence among the nobility and the whole nation. The Irish called it Emmon, the Danes adopted it as Jatmund, in addition to their own Oddmund, the French occasionally use it as Edmond, and Italy knows it as Edmondo.

The most really noted of all our own genuine appellations is, however, Eadvard, the rich guardian. It comes to light in our royal line with the son of Alfred, and won the popular love for the sake of the young king whom St. Dunstan and the English called the martyr, in their pity for his untimely fate. And again, little as ‘the Confessor’ had been loved in his feeble lifetime, enthusiastic affection attached to him as the last native sovereign; while, on the one hand, it was the policy of the Norman kings to regard him as their natural predecessor, and of the barons to appeal to the laws that had prevailed in his time. All parties thus were ready to elect St. Edward to be the patron saint of England, and, in the ardour of embellishing his foundation of Westminster Abbey, it was natural to give his name to the heir of the crown, afterwards ‘the greatest of the Plantagenets.’ The deaths of his three children bearing Norman or Spanish names confirmed this as the royal name, and the third king so called spread it far and wide. It was carried by his granddaughter to Portugal, and there had its honour so well sustained by her noble son, as there to find another home; and with us it has recurred continually in every rank.

The contraction Neddy, common to all of these, is one of the titles of a donkey.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │ English. │ Welsh. │ French. │ Italian. │ │Edward │Jorwarth │Edouard │Odoardo │ │Neddy │ Irish. │ │ │ │Teddy │Eudbaird │ │ │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ Portuguese. │ German. │ Nor. │ Netherlands. │ │Duarte │Eduard │Jaward │Ede │ │ │Oddward │Audvard │ │ └───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

The other less celebrated parallel varieties are:—

┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Eng. Eadbald—Rich Prince │ │ Eng. Eadburh—Rich pledge │ │Eng. Eadburge; Nor. Oddbjorg; Ger. Edburge—Rich protection │ │ Eng. Eadbryht—Rich splendour │ │ Eng. Eadfrith; Ger. Otfrid; Prov. Audafrei—Rich peace │ │ Eng. Eadfled; Fr. Audofled—Rich increase │ │ │ │ Nor. German. │ │ Oddgrim │ Ortgrim } │ │ Audgrim │ } Rich helmet │ │ │ │ Nor. Odgisl—Rich pledge │ │ │ │ Nor. German. French. │ │ Audgunnr │ Oddgund │ Augen } │ │ Ougunna │ │ } Rich war │ │ Augunna │ │ } │ │ │ │ Nor. Odkel, Odkatla—Rich kettle │ │ Fr. Authaire—Rich warrior │ │ Oddlaug—Rich liquor │ │ Nor. Oddleif; Ger. Ortleip, Ortleib—Rich relic │ │ Eng. Eadmar; Nor. Odmar; Ger. Otmar—Rich greatness │ │ Nor. Oddny—Rich freshness │ │ Eng. Eadred—Rich council │ │ Eng. Eadric, Edric; Ital. Odorico—Rich king │ │ │ │ English. Nor. German. │ │ Eadulf │ Odulf │ Oddulf } │ │ │ Oulf │ Ortwulf } Rich wolf │ │ │ │ English. German. │ │ Eadwald │ Edvald } Rich power. │ │ Edwald │ Odvald } │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Eadswith, Eadgifu, and Eadgyth, all once separate names, together with Adelgifu and Ælfgifu, seem to have been all mixed up together by the Normans. Eadgyth was undoubtedly the name of Earl Godwin’s daughter, of whom Ingulf said, ‘_Sicut spina rosam, genuit Godwinus Egitham_;’ but in the roll of her lands in Domesday, she is Eddeva, Eddid, and Edeva, and for some little time Edeva seems to have been used among the Normans, though the queen of Henry I. was not allowed to retain anything so Saxon. Aline and Edith were used in a few families, but Edith survived the others.

_Giav_ or _give_ is not a very common commencement; but in the Vilkina Saga, King Gjuko is the father of Gunnar and Gudrun, and the whole family are called Giukungr. In German, in the _Book of Heroes_, he is Gibicho, and there was really a historical Burgundian King Gibica, mentioned as a law-giver; but in the _Nibelungen-nôt_, Gibich is only a vassal king of Etzel’s. The North had Gjaflaug, liquor giver, no doubt the Hebe of the Norse banquets, Gjavvald, in German, Gevald, and perhaps Gabilo and Gavele, the Gebelius of Latinists. Germany had likewise Gebahard, a firm or perhaps a strong giver, which still survives under the unpromising sound of Gebhard.

Gyda, or Gytha, that most difficult name, sometimes sounds like Gith, the contraction of Eadgyth; but it was evidently northern, having belonged to the proud damsel of Hordaland, who refused to marry Harald Harfagre, unless he was sole king of all Norway. Afterwards it was borne by the semi-Danish ladies of Earl Godwin’s family, and melted into Gjutha, then became confounded with Jutta, which was considered as short for Juditha.

SECTION XII.—_Sintram._

Sindolt was the _schenke_, or butler, at the court of Wurms, in the _Niebelungenlied_; and in the Vilkina Saga, Sintram is one of the heroes of Thidrek’s following. The derivation of the first syllable is uncertain. Michaelis takes it from the old High German _sinths_, a journey. Professor Munch refers Sindre to a word meaning sparkling or spark, and mentions a mythological dwarf who was a famous smith, and was yclept Sindre; also a poet in Harald Harfagre’s time, whose appellation was Guthorm Sindre, or the sparkling. Sundre or Sondre is, the same authority tells us, more used in the Thellmarken in Norway than elsewhere; and another possible derivation for it is from ‘_sondra_,’ to sunder. The forms Sunrir and Sunris are there found; and Germany had a few others, such as Sindwald, or Sindolt, Sindbald, the Sinibaldo of Italy, Sindbert, Sindolf, and the above-mentioned Sindhram, chiefly interesting to us as chosen by Fouqué for the name of his masterpiece, the wonderful allegory spun out of Albert Durer’s more wonderful engraving.

SECTION XIII.—_Elberich._

The elf king Elberich here brings in his own fairy kindred. In the _Nibelung_, he is watching over the fatal treasure when Siegfried comes to claim it, and, dwarf as he is, does such fierce battle over it that Siegfried was ‘in bitter jeopardy;’ but he is at length overcome sworn to Siegfried’s service, and brought by him to Wurms, where he has no more to do but to lament when Haghen makes away with the treasure.

He is called very ancient, and well he may be, for he had appeared in the _Book of Heroes_ long before the time of even Hughdietrich, when King Otnit of Lombardy had set forth to win the daughter of the king of Syria, and Elberich showed himself under a linden tree in the guise of a beautiful child. Otnit was about to pick him up, but received from him a tremendous blow, and after a sharp fight came to terms, and thenceforth he assisted him in his enterprise, gave him magic armour, and assisted him to gain the lady. Much of this story is repeated in the French romance of _Huon de Bourdeaux_, where Auberon, as he is there called, gives the knight an ivory horn wherewith to summon him to his aid in an emergency, and thus arose the English Oberon, the elf-rik or king, the graceful but petulant fairy whom Drayton marries to the Irish Mab, and Shakespeare to the Greek Titania. He had his human namesakes, too; Alberich was in fashion as a Frank name, as Ælfric was as a Saxon; and the Domesday Book shows that while we had plenty of the latter native form, Edward the Confessor had already imported two specimens of ‘Albericus comes,’ and these or their sons contracted into Aubrey, which was known to fame as almost hereditary among the De Veres, earls of Oxford. France, too, had her Aubri; and Alberico was used in Lombardy, where likewise the notable and terrible monarch Alboin, whose name as Alboino is still common among the peasantry, bore the name that Anglo-Saxons called Ælfwine, or elf-friend, perhaps likewise an allusion to the aid and friendship of ‘Oberon the faëry,’ whose first protégé was a Lombard. Alwine is the feminine used in Germany, and _perhaps_ may be our Albinia.

The elf of England and Germany, the _alfr_ of the North, was a being dear to the imagination of the people. His name means the _white_, the same word already mentioned as forming the Latin _albus_, and designating the Elbe and the Alps, as well as appearing in the Elphin of Cymric legend. The elves, or white spirits, were supposed to be beautiful shadowy gifted beings, often strangely influencing the life of mortals, so that in old Germany the Alfr were the genii of man’s life, like the Disir of the North; and Elberich probably originally attended Otnit in this capacity. Christianity did not destroy the faith in the elf-world, but the existence of these beings was accounted for by supposing them children of Eve, whom she had hidden from the face of her Maker, and He had therefore condemned to be hidden from the face of man. They were thought to mourn for their exclusion from Redemption, and to seek baptism for their infants; but in process of time their higher attributes dropped off from them, and they were mixed up with the malicious black dwarfs. They took to stealing young maidens, as the Scottish Burd Ellen, and to exchanging infants in the cradle; and Scotland created an Elfinland, which was a striking element of worldly vanity. In England, the traditions of the Keltic spirits, pucks and pixies, were mixed up with them, and our Elizabethan poets treated them as the males of the French fairies; and what comes to us so recommended, surely we must accept.

These elves, in their more dignified days, played a considerable part in our native nomenclature; nay, the most honoured of all our English sovereigns wrote himself upon his jewel Ælfred, _i.e._, Elf in council, wise as a supernatural being. Some have tried to read the word Alfried, all peace; but there is no doubt that the Elf is the right prefix. The English loved to continue his name, but it was Latinized as Aluredus, and thus Alured is the form in which it is borne by many persons recorded in Domesday, and is still kept up and regarded as a separate name, though Alfred has been within the last century resumed in England; it is much used about the good king’s birth-place at Wantage in Berkshire, and has of late been adopted in France and Germany.

Ælfhæg was as high as an elf; whether given to a very small infant, or supposed to refer to a being of unearthly stature, does not appear. It was the very inappropriate name of the archbishop who, under Ethelred the Unready, was pelted to death at a Danish banquet because he would not oppress his flock to obtain a ransom. The offence given by Lanfranc in refusing to regard him as a true martyr may be judged by the large numbers called after him in Domesday. In Sussex they are set down as Ælfech; in Hants as Ælfec; in Nottingham as Ælfag; and thanks to the Latinism of Alphegius, our calendar calls him Alphege.

Ælfgifu, or the elf gift, was the unfortunate Elgiva of history, a not unsuitable name for one whose beauty was like a fatal fairy gift, bringing ruin on her and on her husband; but it was also used to translate into Saxon that of the Norman Emma, which was regarded as too foreign for the Saxons. Knut’s first wife, Ælfwine (elf darling), the daughter of Ælfhelm, Earl of Southampton, is recorded by Dugdale as Ailive; and Aileve, Ælveva, or Alveva, is very common in Domesday. Aileve indeed continued in use for many years.

In fact, it was England that made by far the most use of elf names. The North was perhaps the next in the use of them, having an immense number of instances of Alfr in the _Landnama-bok_, but there the elf at the end of a word has such an unfortunate tendency to transform himself into a wolf, that it is impossible to tell which was the original, the same person being sometimes written Thoralf, and sometimes Thorulf. There are few instances preserved from the other Teutonic branches, except as we have seen the two Lombardic names, that seem direct from Elberich.

English names in Æthel often contract into El, and when followed by an _f_, appear to be _elves_; but they must be pursued to their original form before being so rendered.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Nor. Alfdis—Household fairy │ │ Nor. Alfgejr; Eng. Ælfgar—Elf spear │ │ Nor. Alfgerdur—Elf woman │ │ Nor. Alfheidur, Alfeidur—Elf cheerfulness │ │ Eng. Ælfhelm—Elf helmet │ │ Nor. Alfhild—Elf battle maid │ │ Nor. Alfliotr—Elf terror │ │ Eng. Ælfric—Elf king │ │ Eng. Ælfthryth, Elfrida—Threatening elf │ │ Eng. Ælfwold—Elf power │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Alvaro and Elvira are the Spanish forms of these elf names.

A bishop of Lichfield, whose name was Ælfwine, was always called Ælla, and thus there is reason to suppose that _elves_ named both the Ælle of Deira, whose name caused Gregory the Great to say that Alleluja should be sung in those regions, and also the later Ælla, who put Ragnar Lodbrog to death. Otherwise these would be referred to the word in Gothic, _aljan_, meaning battle, found in the Old German Ellanheri and Ellanperaht.

Some of our commencing _els_ are no doubt from the fairy source; but there are others very difficult to account for, beginning in Anglo-Saxon with _ealh_, which is either a hall, or without the final _h_, the adjective _all_, by which in fact they are generally translated. The most noted of them is Ealhwine, the tutor of Charlemagne’s sons, generally called Alcuin, though his name has remained at home as Aylwin. Some Aylwins, are, however, certainly from Ægilwine, or awful friend; Ealhfrith, Ealhmund, and Ealhred, are also found, and one of these must have formed the modern Eldred. Among ladies are Ealhfled, and Ealhswyth, or Alswitha. On the whole it seems to us that the _hall_ is the more probable derivation; the _h_ so carefully used in the Saxon Chronicle is unlike a contraction.[138]

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Footnote 138:

Munch; Weber and Jamieson; St. Pelaye, _Huon de Bourdeaux_; Grimm; Keightley; Lappenburg; _Landnama-bok_; _Domesday_; Scott, _Minstrelsy of Scottish Border_; Sharon Turner; Kemble, _Names of the Anglo-Saxons_.

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