_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]
-----
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]
-----
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]
-----
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]
-----
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_.
CHAPTER V.
THE KARLING ROMANCES.
SECTION I.—_The Paladins._
Another remarkable cycle of romantic fable connected itself with a
prince, not lost in the dim light of heroic legend, but described by a
contemporary chronicler, and revealed in the full light of history.
However, in reality, the records of Eginhard were, no doubt, as unread
and unknown as if they had never existed, and with the notion that a
magnificent prince had reigned over half Europe, there was ample scope
for tradition to connect with him and his followers all the floating
adventures that Teutonic, Keltic, or Latin invention had framed; and,
by-and-by, literature recorded them, using them as her own world of
beauty and of wonder, until nothing but the names were left in common
with their originals.
France, Germany, Lombardy, and Spain, all looked back to the same
emperor, and hung their traditions around him, with a far more national
sentiment than it was possible for them to possess for the British
Arthur. In the Charles who bore the surname of the Great, all the
legends centred. He was at once emperor, and, like his grandfather,
champion of Europe against the Saracens, with whom in popular fancy,
both his own Saxons and his grandson’s Northmen were fused together; he
was besieged, like his grandson, in Paris, and lost all his best
followers in the pass of Roncesvalles, by the treachery of the
Navarrese.
These were the materials that fancy had to work upon. The existing
feudal system supplied the machinery, and not with utter incorrectness,
since it had actually then existed in its infancy, and the chiefs of the
Frank court were veritably obliged to pay martial service to their head
for the lands that they had received from him on the conquest of the
country. _Pfalz_, the same word which we now call _palace_, the central
court, furnished the title for the feudatories employed at the court;
_Pfalzen_, a word that continued in use in its proper region, Germany,
naming the Pfalzgraf of the Rhine, whence we have learnt to speak of the
Count Palatine and the Palatinate.
Pfalzen, then, on French tongues, became Paladins, and Paladins were
supposed to have been not so much political as military, so that we
regard the term as meaning a champion of high prowess. There was an idea
likewise of a council of these Paladins as the twelve peers of France in
the golden age of her constitution; and the Docipairs, as the Douzepairs
were sometimes run together, stood on a level in romantic imaginations
with the Seven Champions of Christendom, or the Knights of the Round
Table.
Spanish ballads, German lays, and Provençal songs, had been working up
the stories of the Paladins, when somewhere about the year 1100, there
came forth a French translation of the supposed chronicle of Turpin, who
had really been archbishop of Rheims in the reign of Charlemagne. The
chronicle was confirmed in 1122 by the infallible authority of the Pope,
and was translated again and again, amplified and referred to by every
one who wrote or sung of the Paladins, for the events they celebrated,
whether it contained them or not.
The influence of the Karlingen upon our subject has been great. First,
some of the genuine historical characters left hereditary Christian
names; next, several were adopted in romantic and chivalrous families,
and in the poetical ages of literary Italy, they became absolutely
frequent.
Paladins, however, connect themselves with hardly any genuine female
names of the same period. The Ossianic Fenians have their wives and
beloved maidens, the knights of the Round Table are united with ladies
of Cymric title, like their own, and evidently as traditionary as
themselves; the dames of the _Nibelungenlied_ are intimately connected
with the whole structure of the legend; but the knights of Charlemagne
have brought with them few genuine ladye loves. Orlando once had a wife,
the Alda, or Belinda, of the old traditions; but even the Clarice of
Renaud in the _Quatre Fils Aymon_, betrays a late French, or rather
Romanesque, influence; and far more do the Doña Clara, Belerma, and
Sebilla of the Spanish ballads, show how late they must have arisen;
whilst Angelica, Marfisa, Bradamante, Fiordespina, and Fiordiligi, and
the like, are absolute Italian inventions.
The Frankish ladies seem, in fact, to have been held in little
estimation. Chivalry had not blossomed into respect for womanhood, and
they had probably been left behind by their lords in the march of
civilization. The female names from time to time cast up in the surging
tide of affairs seldom appear except for disgrace or misfortune, so that
we come to the conclusion that womanhood in the Frank empire was seldom
happy or honourable except in the cloister. Thus, no traditional names
of woman came down with the Paladins; and when love became an essential
part of the machinery of the Italian poets, they had to invent, and
entitle, the heroines for themselves.
SECTION II.—_Charles._
Most heroes gain by becoming the subjects of romance, but this has been
by no means the case with the great Karl of the Franks, for though ‘il
Rè Carlo’ be three rolled into one, he has lost the heroism of him of
the hammer, and the large-minded statesmanship of the first emperor,
obtaining instead the dulness and weak credulity of him who was called
the Bald.
The three Charleses are matter of history, and the Carlo Magno of
romance and ballad is little more than a lay figure, always persuaded to
believe traitorous stories of his best friends, and meeting with
undignified adventures, as in the case of the enchanted ring that bound
his affections to lady, bishop, and lake. We therefore pass on at once
to this name, which a foolish old story thus accounts for. As an infant
he was put out to nurse, and when brought home, much grown, his mother
exclaimed, ‘What great carle is this?’ whence he continued to be so
called, instead of by his baptismal name of David. This tale may have
been suggested by the fact, that the veritable Charles the Great, when
laying aside his state he became a scholar in his palace hall, under the
teaching of the English Alcuin, assumed the appropriate title of David.
Karl was in fact, as we have shown in the chapter on ancestral names,
the regular family name of the line, used in regular alternation from
its first appearance with the grandfather of the hammering Charles, who
perhaps took his soubriquet from Thor, and gradually acquiring more and
more ignominious epithets till it sunk into obscurity in Lorraine,
whence it only emerged again when the Karlings intermarried with
Philippe Auguste, and brought the old imperial name into the French
royal family, where five more kings bore it. They sent it to Naples with
Charles of Anjou; and his son, Charles Robert, or Caroberto, being
elected to Hungary, had so many namesakes that Camden was led to suppose
that all Hungarian kings were called Carl. It went to Germany when the
son of the blind king of Bohemia received it from his father’s
connection with the French court, and afterwards reigned as the 4th Karl
of Germany, taking up his reckoning from the old Karlingen. Again, the
second ducal house of Burgundy was an off-shoot from the line of Valois,
and it was from Charles the Bold that the name was transmitted to his
great grandson of Ghent, soon known to Europe as Carlos I. of Spain,
Karl V. of Germany, Carolus Quintus of the Holy Roman Empire. He was the
real name spreader from whom this became national in Spain, Denmark, and
even in Britain, for his renown impressed James I. with the idea that
this must be a fortunate name; when, in the hope of averting the unhappy
doom that had pursued five James Stuarts in succession, he called his
sons Henry and Charles. The destiny of the Stuart was not averted, but
the fate of the ‘royal martyr’ made Charles the most popular of all
appellations among the loyalists, and afterwards with the Jacobites, in
both England and Scotland, so that rare as it formerly was, it now
disputes the ground with John, George, and William, as the most common
of English names.
Another namesake of Charlemagne must not be forgotten, namely, the son
of St. Olaf, of Norway, whom his followers, intending an agreeable
surprise to the father, baptized after the great emperor by the name of
Magnus, whence the very frequent Magnus, of Scandinavia, and Manus of
Ireland.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ Keltic. │ French. │Span. and Port.│
│Charles │ GAEL. │Charles │Carlos │
│Charlie │Tearlach │Charlot │ German. │
│ │ ERSE. │ │Karl │
│ │Searlus │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Italian. │ Swedish. │ Danish. │ Dutch. │
│Carlo │Karl │Karl │Carolus │
│Carolo │Kalle │Karel │Carel │
│ │ │ │Karel │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Polish. │ Bohemian. │ Illyrian. │ Lusatian. │
│Karol │Karel │Karlo │Karlo │
│Karolek │ ————————— │Karlica │Karlko │
│ │ Slovak. │Karlic │ │
│ │Karol │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│Lettish. │ Esthonian. │ Hungarian. │ Dantzig. │
│Karls │Karl │Karoly │Kasch │
│ │Karel │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
The two feminines are of late invention. The first I have been able to
find was Carlota or Charlotte, of Savoy, who married Louis XI., and thus
introduced this form to French royalty. Charlotte d'Albret had the
misfortune to be given in marriage to Cesare Borgia, and had one
daughter, who married into the house of La Tremouille, whence the brave
Lady Derby carried it into England, and our registers of the seventeenth
century first acknowledge Charlet. The Huguenotism of the house of La
Tremouille connected it with that of Bouillon, where the heiress Carola,
or Charlotte, was married in 1588. The house of Orange probably thence
derived it, and it became known in Germany, whence it was brought to us
in full popularity by the good queen of George III. A sentimental fame
was also bestowed on it, as the name of Göthe’s heroine in _Werther_.
Carolina, the other form, seems to have been at first Italian, and
thence to have spread to Southern Germany, and all over that country,
whence we received it with the wife of George II., by whom it was much
spread among the nobility, and is now very common among the peasantry.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Spanish. │ Italian │
│Charlotte │Charlotte │Carlota │Carlotta │
│Lotty │Lolotte │Lola │Carlota │
│Chatty │Caroline │ │Carolina │
│Caroline │ │ │ │
│Carry │ │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ German. │ Swedish. │ Slovak. │ Lettish. │
│Charlotte │Lotta │Karolina │Latte │
│Lottchen │ │Karolinka │ ————————— │
│Caroline │ │Karla │ Dantzig. │
│Lina │ │ │Linuschca │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
Ceorl was the name of an early king of Mercia, and of a thane of
Alfred’s, who defeated the Danes, and Carloman was almost as common as
Carl in the old Karling family.[139]
-----
Footnote 139:
Sismondi; Roscoe; Michaelis; Pott; Anderson, _Genealogies_.
SECTION III.—_Roland, &c._
When the army of Charles the Great was marching back from Spain, the
Gascons, Navarrese, and Goths, who were afraid of being swallowed up by
his empire, if they exchanged his protection for that of the Arabs,
plotted together, fell on the rear of his columns as they were passing
through the defile of Roncesvalles, close to the little town of Fuente
Arabia, and slaughtered the whole division that were guarding the
baggage. ‘There was slain Rotlandus, prefect of the Armorican border.’
So says Eginhard, the contemporary chronicler, and as he mentions only
two other nobles as having been killed, it is natural to conclude that
this Rotlandus was a man of mark. Who was he? Certainly Warden of the
Marches of Brittany, but was he a Frank Hruodland (the country’s glory),
the repressor of the Kelts, or was he a Breton in the Frankish service?
The Cymry have laid claim to him; they say that the rolling word is
intended to render Tallwch, a rolling or overwhelming torrent, the name
of the father of Tristrem; and in the later romances, this knight has
actually been turned into Rowland, which thus has become a favourite
national Welsh name.
It is far more likely that ‘Rotlandus’ was Frank, but the next question
is, what were the deeds that made his birth worth contending for, and
the war song of Rou be the chant of the gallant minstrel Taillefer, to
cheer the Normans on to their victory at Hastings?
Eginhard is utterly silent. Turpin tells us that Rolandus was the
emperor’s nephew, the son of his sister Bertha, and of Milo de Anglars.
With Turpin, the expedition to Spain is the prominent feature of the
reign, and he gives us an account of a mingled battle and controversy
between Roland and Ferragus, a giant of the race of Goliath, and only
vulnerable in one point, where, however, Roland managed to pierce him.
Very soon after follows the ambush of Roncesvalles, the enemy being
Saracens, not Christians, but conducted by the traitor Ganelon. After a
terrible battle, Roland, sorely wounded, lay down under a tree, and
apostrophizing his good sword Durenda, in the most tender manner, thrice
struck it upon a block of marble, and shattered it in twain, lest it
should fall into the Saracen hands. Then he blew upon his horn, which
had such wondrous tones that all other horns split at the sound, and
this blast was with such effort that he burst all the veins in his neck,
and the sound reached the king, eight miles off! He then commended his
soul to heaven, and made a most pious and beautiful end.
That block of marble is magnified by popular fame into the mountain
itself, and la Brèche de Roland is supposed to be the cleft made by his
sword! The Northern Lights, too, are said to be King Charles riding by,
and Roland bearing the banner. The Spaniards, so far as they were
Christians and Teutons, felt with the Franks; so far as they were
Celtiberians, against them, and the result was a collection of admirable
popular ballads, all prime authorities with Don Quixote, in which _il
rey Carlos_ and his peers are treated as national heroes. Nevertheless
they are proud of his defeat at Roncesvalles, declare that the emperor
broke his word to Don Alfonso of Leon, and that the attack was therefore
made in which Don Alfonso’s nephew, Bernardo de Carpio, was leader, and
demolished the invulnerable Conde Roldan, by squeezing him to death in
his arms.
It is the Spaniards alone who have transferred to Roldan the
invulnerability of Achilles, Siegfried, and Diarmaid; the French and
Italians bestow it only on Ferragus, who is, as already mentioned, an
evident Keltic importation through the Breton poets, being either the
Irish Fergus, or the Welsh Vreichfras, though he has since become a
Moorish giant.
The English, having their own Arthur to engage their attention, did
little more than versify Turpin, but allowed Roland’s sword to be
carried away by his friend Sir Baldwin, and took vengeance for his
death.
But it was the Italians who did the most for their Orlando. Some
floating Valkyr notion had attached itself in German fancy to his
mother, who was at first Bertha the goose-footed, and then the
large-footed, and romance further related that she was the emperor’s
sister, who had secretly married the knight Milone di Anglante, and
therefore was driven out of the court, and forced to take refuge in a
cave, where the hero was born, and was called Rotolando, from his
rolling himself on the ground. His father went to the wars, and Berta
became the diligent spinner before alluded to, but she was still so poor
that his young companions each gave her boy a square of cloth to cover
him, two white, and two red, whence he always bore those colours
quartered on his shield. Afterwards he was taken into favour, and became
the chief Paladin.
Here Luigi Pulci took him up, and made him the hero of a poem called the
_Morgante Maggiore_, from a giant whom Orlando converted, and who
followed him faithfully about through all his adventures. Orlando is
here a high-spirited Christian knight, brave, pious, and faithfully
attached to his wife Alda. When slain at Roncesvalles, he mentions her
in his last and very beautiful prayer, and his sorrow for his comrades,
and parting with his horse and sword, are very touching.
It was Bojardo who deprived Orlando of his old traditional character of
the high-minded champion, that crusading days had dwelt upon. Led,
perhaps, by the idea of the frenzy of Amadis de Gaul, he made Orlando
fall desperately in love with the fair and false Angelica, princess of
Catay, and leave the court and all his duties just as the Saracen king
Gradasso was invading France, to obtain possession of Durindana,
Orlando’s sword. The action of the poem is taken up with the adventures
imposed upon Orlando by the mischievous beauty, and the pursuit of him
by the other Paladins, and finally it leaves off with the whole chivalry
of Charlemagne besieged in Paris by the Saracens.
Orlando was only _innamorato_ according to Bojardo; Ariosto took him up
and made him _furioso_. Continuing the poem where it had dropped from
Bojardo’s hands, Ariosto made Angelica fall in love with an obscure
youth, and marry him, whereupon Orlando, after the example of Amadis de
Gaul, went into the state of frenzy that Don Quixote tried to imitate;
and the Christians suffered as much as the Greeks did without Achilles,
till the champion’s senses were brought back from the moon; when he
returned to his duty, restored fortune to the Christians, and saved
France from becoming tributary to the infidel.
Charles VIII. of France, in his romantic youth, named one of his
short-lived children, Charles Roland, by the way of union of the two
heroes.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│English. │ French. │ Italian. │ Spanish. │
│Roland │Roland │Orlando │Roldan │
│Rowland │ │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│Portuguese. │ German. │ Netherlands. │ │
│Rolando │Roland │Roeland │ │
│Roldao │Ruland │ │ │
│ │Rudland │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
The derivation of the first syllable is the word _hruod_ in Frank,
_hrothr_ in the North, and in modern German _ruhm_, meaning fame or
glory.
_Hruod_ is a most prolific word. As Hruodgar, famous spear, it figures
in the _Nibelungenlied_, where the Markgraf Rudiger is the special
friend of Dietrich, and for a long time, like him, refrains from the
fray, though at last he plunges into it and is killed.
There seems to have been a veritable Hruodgar living in the time of
Pepin, who married a lady whose father’s name was Hector, whence it was
taken for granted that she descended from Hector of Troy. Therefore the
House of Este bore the white eagle in their coat of arms, because it was
said he of Troy had a shield azure with a silver eagle! Roger, Olivier,
and Roland are mentioned together as subjects of minstrel songs. In the
old romances there is a Ruggieri de Risa, or Reggio, who marries an
Amazon, called Galaciella, but is soon after murdered, and she is
carried off by sea by her enemies, whom, however, she manages to
overpower and destroy on the voyage, but only to be driven to a desert
island, where she dies at the birth of her twins, Ruggiero and Marfisa.
This Ruggiero is the prime favourite of the Italian poets. Bojardo tells
how he was bred up on lion’s marrow by the enchanter Atlante, in Africa,
and when his education was finished, was sent to France with the
wonderful hippogriff, or winged horse. And Ariosto, probably in
compliment to the House of Este, made his adventures the main plot of
the _Orlando Furioso_, and completed it by converting him to
Christianity, and marrying him to the brave and amiable Amazon,
Bradamante.
Bojardo probably adopted Ruggiero because his country was Reggio, a
country with which the name had become connected, when Roger de
Hauteville had founded the kingdom of Sicily, and Ruggero, the son of
his elder brother, Robert Guiscard, had been count of Apulia. These were
both, of course, direct from the northern Hruodgeir, as was the
turbulent Roger de Montgomery, who gave so much trouble in Normandy. It
was once a famous knightly name, but is now too much discarded. Roger
must once have been very frequent in England, since Hodge is still
proverbial for a rustic,—whereas as a rule he is never so called, though
the Registrar-General noted an extraordinary number of Roger Tichbornes
in the year of the claimant’s trial!
┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ Spanish. │ German. │
│Roger │Roger │Ruggiero │Rogerio │Rüdiger │
│Hodge │ │Rogero │ │Roger │
├────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤
│ Nor. │Netherlands.│ Russian. │ Polish. │ Lettish. │
│Hrodgjer │Rogier │Rozer │Rydygier │Rekkerts │
│Raadgjer │Rutger │ │ │ │
└────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘
Hrothgar was also a famed name among the Angles. It appears in Beowulf,
as the chief of the Scyldings, the son of Healfdane. There, too, are
found Hrothmund and Hrothwulf; and the northern names of Hroar and
Hrolfr are contractions of these, though the characters they belong to
are not the same as those in Beowulf. Hrolf Krake was the subject of a
northern Saga; and the father of our Norman kings, whom we are wont to
call by his Latinism of Rollo, formed from the French stammer of Rou,
was in fact Hrolf Gangr, or at full length, Hrothulf, Fame-Wolf. A name
of fame and terror it was, when the mighty man, too weighty for steed to
carry him, was expelled from his own land, and fought for a home, not
for plunder, among the fertile orchards of Neustria, when his followers'
rude homage overthrew the degenerate Karling, and ‘the grisly old
proselyte,’ in his baptism, assumed, without perhaps knowing of the
similarity, the French Robert. This change prevented his original name
from being very prevalent among the Normans; and the German form,
Rudolf, is chiefly from a sainted Karling prince, who was bishop of
Bourges, and from whom Rudolf of Hapsburg must have derived it. From him
it became imperial, and other countries received it, without knowing it
for their old friend.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Spanish. │ Italian. │
│Rodolph │Rodolphe │Rodulfo │Rodolfo │
│Rolf │Raoul │ ————————— │Ridolfo │
│ │Roul │ Portuguese. │ │
│ │Rou │Rodolpho │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ German. │ Bavarian. │ Frisian. │ Swiss. │
│Rudolf │Ruedolf │Rulef │Ruedi │
│ │ │Rulves │Ruedeli │
│ │ │Rotholf │Rudi │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
│ Swedish. │ Nor. │ Lettish. │ Hungarian. │
│Rudolf │Hruodulf │Rohlops │Rudolf │
│Rolf │Hrolfr │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
Robert, the name assumed by Rolf Gauge at his baptism was Frank, rather
than Northern, inasmuch as _bjart_ is an uncommon conclusion among his
native race. Hruadperaht, or bright fame, was the original form, the
property of a bishop, who somewhere about the year 700 founded the first
Christian church at Wurms. Honoured alike in France and Germany, he
became Ruprecht in the latter, and Robert in the former. Like St.
Nicolas, he is in Germany supposed to exercise a secret supervision over
children; in some places _Knecht Ruprecht_ dispenses Christmas gifts,
but he more often keeps watch over naughty children, and thus answers to
the English Robin Goodfellow, or Hob Goblin. _Red_ was long supposed to
be the origin of the name, which some made Redbert, or bright speech,
others Redbeard! The German form, however, disproves both of these, and
Ruprecht continued in honour in its own country, naming in especial that
wise Pfalzgraf of the Rhine, who in 346 founded the university of
Heidelberg; and on the deposition of the crazy Bohemian Kaisar Wenzel,
was elected Emperor of Germany, and reigned for nine years with great
success and glory. It was after him that the infant, born at Prague,
during the brief greatness of the Winter King, received that name of
Rupert, which was so terrible to the Roundheads, but which for the most
part they translated by their native Robert—native, because thoroughly
Anglicized, for it was of French growth, had belonged to two or three
saints, and to the hymn-writing and much persecuted king called the
pious, the second of the Capet or Parisian dynasty; but after the son of
St. Louis carried it off to the House of Bourbon, it scantily appeared
among the royal family. Normandy, however, cultivated it after it had
been chosen at the baptism of her first duke, and sent it to Apulia with
the astute Robert Guiscard, whence Roberto became national in the
Neapolitan realms, and was adopted by the Angevin line, among others by
the king who patronized Petrarch. The next Duke of Normandy who bore it
was that wild pilgrim, whose soubriquet varies between the Devil and the
Magnificent. The disinheritance of his equally wild, but more
unfortunate grandson, Robert Courthose, diverted it from the English
throne, but a flood of knights and nobles had poured in and established
it so completely, that in a few generations more Hob was one of the
established peasant names in England. Robin was its more gracious
contraction—let our dearly beloved archer be who he will—either as
ballad tells, the outlawed Earl of Huntingdon, or as late critics would
have us believe, only another manifestation of Robin Goodfellow, or of
the wild huntsman. Robin was the epithet by which Queen Elizabeth was
wont to address the two earls, step-father and stepson, who so long
sunned themselves in her favour; and though it has now acquired a homely
sound, and the popularity of the full name has somewhat waned, it is
still frequent. To Scotland it was brought by the Anglo-Norman barons,
and when the English Bruces had made their distant drop of Royal
Scottish blood float them to the throne, Robert the Bruce became a
passionately beloved national hero, and his name one of the most
favoured in the Lowlands. In Ireland it is called Roibin, a gentleman
called in English Robin Lawless being in Irish, Roibin Laighleis.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ Scotch. │ French. │ Italian. │
│Robert │Robert │Robert │Roberto │
│Robin │Robin │Robers │Ruberto │
│Hob │Robbie │Robi │Ruperto │
│Bob │Rab │Robinet │ │
│Rupert │ │Rupert │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
│ German. │ Bavarian. │ Slovak. │ Lusatian. │
│Hruodebert │Ruprecht │Ruprat │Huprecht │
│Ruprecht │Prechtl │ │ │
│Rupert │ │ │ │
│Rudbert │ │ │ │
│Robert │ │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
Not behindhand in glory is the northern Hrothrekr, or Germanic
Hruoderich, famous ruler. In Gothic Spain, it was indeed Rodrigo, who
lost his country to the Moors, but became in his people’s minds the
centre for pity as much as for blame, and the subject of the beautiful
legends that Southey has embodied in the finest of his poems. And it was
Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar,‘Ruy mi Cid Campeador,’ in whom ballad lore
delighted. This became one of the most frequent of all the
grand-sounding names prefaced by Don, and Rodriguez and Ruiz to be very
common surnames.
The northern Hrothrekr was not long in being shortened to Hrorekr, and
thence came the name of that Norseman, who, according to Russian
historians, was invited by the Slaves to be their protector, and founded
the Norman dynasty of Ruric, which continued on the throne during the
troubled days of Tatar supremacy. Roric and Godwald were the first
Northmen to obtain fiefs in France. In Wales, Scotland, and Ireland,
Roderick has a sort of false honour, being adopted as the equivalent of
the native Keltic names, the Welsh Rhydderc, and the Gadhaelic Ruadh;
for Roy and Rorie, though rightly and traditionally so called by their
friends, would now all make Teutons of themselves, and use the signature
of Roderick.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ Spanish. │
│Roderick │Rodrigue │Rodrigo │Rodrigo │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ German. │ Nor. │ Russian. │ │
│Roderich │Rothrekr │Rurik │ │
│ │Hrorek │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
There are numerous other forms from this prolific source. Rother, who
figures in Lombardic history, is the German Hruodhari, or famous
warrior, and in the North divides with Hrothgar the property of the
strange abbreviation, Roar, and in the harsh old Latinisms of Frank
names is Crotcharius.
There too is found Chrodovaldus, which in German was once Hrodowald, and
afterwards Rudold, perhaps, too, the Danish and Scottish Ribolt, and in
the North Roald, and in Italian Roaldo, the founder of an order of
monks. Nay, Romeo de' Montecchi himself, the Montague of Shakespeare,
bore a common Lombardic name, softened down from the Chrodomarus of
Frankish Latin, as in Germany Hruotmar is Rudmar and Romar. Hromund, or
Romund, must not be confused with the derivatives of Ragin, though it is
most likely that the Irish Redmond is a Danish legacy from this source.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Nor. Hrodbern—Famous bear │
│ Frank. Chrodogang—Famous progress │
│ Nor. Hrothild; Ger. Hrodhilde; Frank. Chrodehilda—Famous │
│ heroine │
│ Ger. Hrodfrid—Famous peace │
│ Ger. Hrodhard—Famous strength │
│ Ger. Hrudo; Frank. Chrodo; Nor. Hroi—Fame │
│ Nor. Hrodny—Famous freshness │
│ Nor. Hrollaug—Famous liquor │
│ Nor. Hrolleif—Relic of fame │
│ Nor. Hrodsind; Frank. Chrodoswintha—Famous strength │
│ Ger. Hrodstein—Famous stone. │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Ruod must have been evolved from the word meaning speech, _razda_ in
Gothic, _rœdo_ in Anglo-Saxon, whence advice became _rede_ in Old
English and Scottish, and _rath_ in modern German.
_Rad_ is chiefly a Frankish prefix, though we had one king Redwald.
Radegond, or war council, was a Frankish queen who became a nun at
Poitiers, and left a name still used by French girls in that
neighbourhood. King Ordoño of Gallicia married, about the year 910, a
lady recorded as Radegonda, or Arragonda, or Urraca, so that the
perplexing Urraca may possibly be a contraction of this name. In the
Spanish vernacular a magpie is called _urraca_, but probably from the
likeness of the word to the note of the bird.
Radegist or Radelchis, and Radegar, were princes of Beneventum. Radbad,
the Frisian Rabbo, and Radbert, seem to be Old German forms, but it is a
word liable to be confused with _hramn_, and with _rand_, and though a
common masculine termination in England, in the North it is only a
corruption of _fred_, peace.
SECTION IV.—_Renaud._
To the French, Renaud de Montauban was a far more popular and national
hero than even Roland.
His name, Raginwald, was common among the Franks, and his origin is
suspected to be an Aquitanian Rainaldus, who in 843 was killed in
fighting with the Bretons, when in the miserable days of Charles the
Bald, they invaded France under Nominoë, and were joined by the
traitorous Count Lambert.
Charles the Bald, as has been said, seems to have sat for the picture of
his grandfather, the Bretons turned into the Saracens, Count Lambert’s
treachery went to swell the account of Gano, and Rinaldus could fall at
Roncevaux quite as well as at Mans!
He is just mentioned by Turpin as among the knights who accompanied
Charlemagne, and were killed at Roncesvalles; and the Spanish ballads
dwelt much upon the exploits of Don Reynaldos; indeed it appears that he
enjoyed Don Quixote’s special admiration for having carried off, in
spite of forty Moors, a golden image of Mahomet, which he wanted to melt
up for the payment of his men!
Such an exploit was decidedly in the line of the French hero Renaud, or
Regnault, who is in romance a sort of prince of freebooters. He and his
three brothers go by the title of the Quatre Fils Aymon, and he is a
sort of chivalrous Robin Hood to the French mind, insomuch that country
inns may still be found with the sign of the _Quatre Fils Aymon_. In the
old French tale, the outlawry of Renaud is accounted for by his having
been insulted by the emperor’s nephew Berthelot, while playing at chess,
and replying with a blow of the golden board that struck out the
offender’s brains. He and his brothers then were banished, lived a
freebooting life, built the castle of Montalban in Gascony, the king of
which country bestowed on him in marriage his daughter Clarice, and
finally went on pilgrimage, made his peace with the emperor, turned his
hand to the building of Cologne Cathedral, and was killed there by his
jealous fellow-workmen.
In Italy Rinaldo became a wild, high-spirited Paladin, always fighting
and falling in love, and retaining little in common with his French
original, except the possession of his matchless horse Bayard, or
Bajardo, which fought as well as his master, and on his loss ran wild in
the woods. In the _Morgante_, Rinaldo mistrusts Gano, and avoids the
ambush of Roncesvalles, but is afterwards carried with his brother
Ricciardetto by two devils, to revenge the slaughter, which they do most
effectually.
In the _Orlando Innamorato_, Rinaldo is at first ensnared by Angelica’s
beauty, but is cured by drinking unwittingly of the fountain of hate,
while she drank of the fountain of love, and was enamoured of him. He is
carried off by Malagigi to an enchanted island of delight, but returns
during the great siege of Paris, takes a counter-draught of the fountain
of love, fights in single combat with Ferrau, but is interrupted by
Bajardo straying into a wood, whither he pursues the animal, and is
there deserted by Boiardo, to be taken up by Ariosto, and after many
adventures brought to relieve the Christian army in the utmost danger,
and to give his sister Bradamante in marriage to Ruggiero.
Some have thought that Tasso’s one fictitious hero, Rinaldo, was partly
borrowed from the Paladin, going as he does to the enchanted gardens of
Armida, and being only brought back when the crusading host was in the
utmost jeopardy. The chief mission of this latter Rinaldo was, however,
it may be suspected, to be a compliment to the House of Este.
Some even think Roland himself only another version of Ragenwald, but
the one Paladin is undoubtedly traceable to Hruoland, as is the other to
Ragenwald, though I am inclined to think that the Rolandsaulen, that
accompany the Irminsaulen at the gates of old cities, may perhaps be
rightly from Raginwald, judgment-power.
The Normans received this name from two sources, the French Regnault or
Renaud, generally from the Paladin, and from their own northern Ragnwold
or Rognwald. So Domesday has it in various forms, as Ragenald, Reynald,
and Rainald, the latter fourteen times after the Conquest; and amongst
them all we have derived our Christian name of Reginald, and the surname
of Reynolds. The Scots took their form from the northern Rognvald,
belonging to a great Jarl of the Orkneys, a noted skald, and thus
obtained Ronald, which is in Gaelic Raonmill.
_Ragn_, or judgment, the leading word in this class of names, is
connected with the Latin _rego_, to rule, and as _rectus_ sprang from
the one, so the Gothic _raihts_ and our _right_ arose from the Teutonic
forms, as well as to _wreak_, and the German _rache_, vengeance, both
from the old idea of justice. _Ragn_, though primarily meaning justice,
is also used, as judgment is, in the sense of wisdom. Reginald Pole was
in his own time known as Reynold. We get the longer name from his
Latinism as Reginaldus.
Some of Renaud’s freebooting fame may have come from a person whose name
so closely resembles his own, that it is by no means easy to distinguish
their progeny; namely, Raginhard, or firm judge. A nobleman of this name
was Count of the Palace, or Pfalzgraf, to Louis de Debonnaire, and
engaged in a conspiracy against him, with Bernard, king of Italy. They
were made prisoners, and condemned; the emperor commuted the sentence to
the loss of their sight; but his wife, who wanted Bernard’s inheritance,
took care that so savage a person was sent to perform the operation that
they both died in consequence.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ Scottish. │ Gaelic. │ Italian. │
│Reginald │Ronald │Raonmill │Rinaldo │
│Reynold │Ranald │ │ │
│Rex │ │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Spanish. │ French. │ German. │ Polish. │
│Reynaldos │Regnauld │Reinwald │Raynold │
│ │Renaud │Reinald │ │
│ │Regnault │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Esthonian. │ Lettish. │ Frisian. │ │
│Rein │Reinis │Reinold │ │
│Reino │ │Rennold │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
Another Reginard is said by Le Grand to have been a cunning politician,
who lived in Austrasia in the ninth century, and much troubled his lord
by sometimes taking part with the Germans, sometimes with the French, by
which means he became so much detested that he was the subject of many
songs in which he was called the Little Fox. At any rate, in the great
animal epic, the fox has taken the name of Reinart, or Reinecke Fuchs,
and as early as 1313, when the sons of the wily Philippe le Bel were
knighted, the edifying spectacle was represented before them of the life
of Renard the Fox, who became successively physician, clerk, bishop,
archbishop, and pope, eating however hens and chickens all the while,
much after the fashion of their father’s unhappy tool at Avignon. Renard
has thus become the absolute name of the animal in France, to the entire
exclusion of the ancient _golpe_, and in England Reynard is his
universal epithet. It was not however confined to the creature, but was
once prevalent among the human kind.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Provençal. │ Italian. │
│Reynard │Regnard │Rainart │Rainardo │
│ │Renart │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ German. │ Frisian. │ Polish. │ Hungarian. │
│Raginhart │Renert │Raynard │Reinhard │
│Reinhard │Rinnert │Raynard │Reinhard │
│Reineke │Rennart │ │ │
│Renke │Rienit │ │ │
│Renz │ │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
Another old Frankish form is Raginmund, much in use in southern France,
where there was a long line of counts of Toulouse, called Raymond, one
of whom was celebrated by Tasso in the first Crusade as a gallant
knight, but the last of whom, Raymond Berenger, one of the earliest
examples of double names, went down before the sword of the first Simon
de Montford, as a supporter of the Albigenses. The counts of Barcelona,
in Spain, bore the like name, and the old Romanesque territories are
still its usual home.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ Provençal. │ Italian. │ German. │
│Raymond │ Raimons │Raimondo │Reinmund │
│ ————————— │ ————————— │ │Reimund │
│ French. │ Spanish. │ │ │
│ Raimond │Ramon │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
Terrible to us, but glorious to Denmark, was the name of Ragnar. Once we
had it peacefully in East Anglia, as Raginhere, the warrior of judgment,
but in that same East Anglia it was to have a deadly fame. The
historical Ragnar seems to have been decorated with a few mythical
exploits of some more ancient hero, for he is one of the dragon killers.
His first wife, Thyra, had her bower encircled by a deadly poisonous
serpent, the ravager of the whole country, until he won her hand by the
slaughter of the serpent, having guarded himself from its venom by a
suit of hairy garments covered with pitch, whence he obtained the
soubriquet of Lodbrog. Afterwards he married a poor but beautiful maiden
called Krake, who, after she had borne him four sons, disclosed that she
was the last of the Wolsungen, the daughter of Sigurd and Brynhild. Nay,
Icelandic families connect themselves through her with the heroes of
Wurms! And after this it is strange to find Jarl Ragnar sailing up the
Seine, and ravaging Paris, in the days of Charles the Bald, being in
fact the Agramante of the poets. Again he was the cause of bitter woe to
England, falling into the hands of King Ælle of Northumbria, and being
put to death by being thrown into a pit filled with vipers, where, till
his last breath, he chanted the grand death song that is worthy to stand
beside the dirge of King Eric Blödaxe. It was revenge for his death that
brought his fierce sons with that dire armament which ravaged
England—the invasion that was fatal to Edmund of East Anglia, ruined the
great abbeys of the fens, and though finally mastered by Alfred, made
the North of England Danish. This name of dread was brought to Normandy
by his kindred, and figures in Domesday as Raynar, a frequent surname in
England. In France it was cut down to René, a name that crept into the
House of Anjou, and was bestowed on the prince—too much of a troubadour
and knight-errant for a king—who vainly tried on so many crowns, and was
hated in England because ‘Suffolk gave two dukedoms for his daughter.’
Why the feminine of this name, Renée, was chosen for the younger
daughter of Louis XII., does not appear, but when she married into the
House of Este, it was translated into Renata, and the Italians, in their
revived classicalism, seem to have fancied it had some connection with
regeneration. Renira is the Dutch feminine form.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Provençal. │ German. │
│Rayner │Reignier │Raynier │Reiner │
│Rainer │Renier │ ———————— │ ———————— │
│ │René │ Italian. │ Nor. │
│ │ │Renato │Ragnar │
│ │ │Ranieri │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
Raginmar, great judgment, still exists in Germany, as Reinmar, or
Reimar, and is the most probable origin of the Ramiro, so frequent among
the early kings of the small struggling Pyrenean realms.
Ragnhild, a favourite with old Norwegian dames, has become in Lapp,
Ranna.
The German contraction _rein_ has been often translated into pure, but
this is an error, as these names can almost uniformly be traced back to
_ragn_.
The remaining forms are—
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ German. English. │
│ Ragnfrid, M. │ Renfred, M. } Judgment of peace │
│ Ragnfrida, F. │ } │
│ │
│ Nor. │
│ Ragnfrid, F. } │
│ Ragnrid, F. } Fair judgment │
│ Randid, F. } │
│ Randi, F. } │
│ │
│ Ger. │ Prov. │
│ Raginbald │ Rambauld } │
│ Reinbold │ } │
│ Renbold │ } Prince of judgment │
│ Rembald │ } │
│ │
│ Ger. Reginbrecht, Reinbert—Splendour of judgment │
│ Nor. Ragenheid—Wise impulse │
│ Ger. Reinger—Spear of judgment │
│ Nor. Reginleif—Relic of judgment │
│ │
│ German. Frisian. │
│ Raginward │ Remward } │
│ Reinward │ Renward } Guardian of judgment │
│ │ Remma } │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
And lastly Regina, called in Bavaria Reigl and Regl, was originally less
the Latin queen than the feminine of _ragn_. Nor in effect is the
meaning far apart.[140]
-----
Footnote 140:
Roscoe, _Bojardo and Ariosto_; Sismondi, _Histoire de France_; Mallet;
_Northern Antiquities_; _Spanish Ballads_.
SECTION V.—_Richard._
Richard, or Richardet, was one of the Quatre Filz d'Aymon, who,
according to one version, was the person who gave the fatal blow with
the chess-board, instead of Renaud. He is not a very interesting
personage, being rather the attendant knight than the prime hero, the
rescued, not the rescuer; but under his Italian name of Ricciardetto, he
has a whole poem to himself, a mere scurrilous satire upon friars, and
was the lowest depth to which romantic poetry fell.
It was not to this Paladin that his name owed its frequency, but to
Ricehard, or stern king, an Anglo-Saxon monarch of Kent, who left his
throne to become a monk at Lucca, and was there said to have wrought
many miracles. The third Norman duke bore the name, and transmitted it
to two successors, whence we obtained as many as twenty Richards at the
Conquest, and have used it as a favourite national name ever since. Two
more saints bore it, the excellent bishop of Chichester, and a hermit,
who was made bishop of Andria, in Apulia. Three times has it been on the
throne, though finally discarded by royalty after the enormities imputed
to the last Plantagenet; and latterly it has lost a little of its
popularity, though it has never been entirely disused.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ Netherlands. │
│Richard │Richard │Riccardo │Rijkert │
│Ritchie │ ——————————— │Ricciardo │Riikard │
│ (_Scot._) │ Portuguese. │Ricciardetto │Riik │
│Diccon │Ricardo │ │ │
│Dick │ ——————————— │ │ │
│ │ Polish. │ │ │
│ │Ryszard │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
The leading syllable is from the same source as _ragn_; it is he who
executes judgment, the ruler or king, the same word as the Indian
_rajah_, and the Latin _rex_. It was _reiks_ in Gothic, _rich_ in old
German, _ryce_ in Anglo-Saxon; and its derivative _reich_ was the origin
of the Neustria and Austrasia, the _oster reich_ and _ne oster reich_,
eastern and not eastern, realms, of the Franks, and of the present
Austria or eastern kingdom. _Reich_ is the home term for the German
empire at the present day. Our adjective _rich_ is its sordid offspring,
and in France a wealthy peasant is _un richart_.
_Rik_ is more in vogue as a Gothic and Frank commencement than among
most of the other Teutons, though all use it as a conclusion. Richard is
its only universal name; but among the first foes of the Romans, we find
among the Suevi, Rechiarius, who is the same with the German Richer, or
kingly warrior, and the French saint, Riquier. Ricimar, the name of the
terrible Goth who for a short time held Rome, is the great king, and was
the maker and dethroner of the four last Augusti; and his namesakes,
Ricimer and Rechimiro, appear in Spain, and may, perhaps, be the right
source of Ramiro. Recared, Richila, Riciburga, are also Gothic.
The Franks show Rigonthe, or royal war, a daughter of Fredegonda;
Rictrude, a saint, as well as Richilde, also a queenly name, which
continued for some time in use, and is better than the Richenza and
Richarda, sometimes used in England as the feminines of Richard. Richolf
endures in Friesland as Rycolf, Ryklof, or Rickel, and Germany once had
Ricbert.
One great name of this derivation is the northern Eirik. The first
syllable is that which we call _aye_ to the present day, the word that
lies at the root of the Latin _œvum_, the German _ewig_, and our own
_ever_. Ei-rik is thus _Ever King_. An ancient Erik was said to have
been admitted among the gods, and Earic was the second name of Æsc, the
son of Henghist; but it was the northern people who really used Eirik,
which comes over and over in the line of succession of all the Northern
sovereignties, figures in their ballads, and, in the person of King
Eirik Blödaxe, is connected with their finest poetry. In the present day
it is scarcely less popular than in old times, and has the feminine
Eirika.
┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ German. │ Nor. │ Swedish. │
│Eric │Eric │Erich │Eirik │Erik │
├────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤
│ Polish. │ Slovak. │ Lettish. │ Esth. │ Lapp. │
│Eryk │Erih │Erik │Erik │Keira │
│ │Areh │ │Eers │ │
└────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘
Two other names of the North have the same commencement, Eimund, ever
protecting, or eternal guard, commonly called Emund, and Eilif, the
ever-living, answering to the Greek Ambrosios. Eilif is also written
Eiliv, Elliv, Ellef, and even Elof, and Latinized in Elavus.[141]
-----
Footnote 141:
Roscoe; Munch; Butler; Michaelis.
SECTION VI.—_Astolfo._
Astolfo is to the Paladins what Conan is to the Feen, the butt or
_grazioso_. In his full-blown perfection he is first cousin to Orlando,
being the son of Milone’s brother Ottone, and was also related to
Rinaldo, according to the quaint genealogies of the chivalrous heroes
that exact heraldry loved to draw up. He joined the four sons of Aymon,
when they left the court after the quarrel at chess, and shared in their
wild exploits; but apparently permitted no meaner interlopers in the
trade, for when he caught a party of robbers, he insisted on some
unfortunate hermits being their executioners, declaring such an office
was quite as pleasing to Heaven, ‘_che dire il Pater nostro_,’ and
finally pummelling them into compliance. In Bojardo, Astolfo gained
possession of a magic lance, brought by Angelica from Catay, which
unhorsed all its antagonists, and secure in its aid, refused when he was
required to deliver up to Gradasso, Bajardo and Durindana, which had
been left in his charge while their masters were wandering after
Angelica, but challenged Gradasso to single combat, defeated him, and
then went in search of his cousins. Ariosto conducts him into the
enchanted palace, where every one was pursuing something lost; Rinaldo,
his horse, Bradamante, Ruggero, Ruggero, Bradamante.
One blast of Astolfo’s horn, also magical, destroyed the enchantment,
and he became possessed for the time of the Hippogriff, upon whom he
soared to the terrestrial paradise, and was conducted by St. John to the
moon, where he obtained possession of Orlando’s senses, and restored
them to him. The later writers, who added to the burlesque element and
diminished the chivalrous, made more and more of Astolfo’s boastfulness,
till he is quite the buffoon of their poems. He was finally killed at
Roncesvalles; and the Spaniards call him Don Estolfo.
The person killed at the same time as Rotlandus is called, by Eginhard,
Anselmus, and he, no doubt, contributed in the idea of the Astolfus,
Count of Champagne, whose burial after the battle is recorded by
Archbishop Turpin. But the real bearer of the name of Astolfo was one of
the enemies of the Karlings, namely, Astolfo, king of the Lombards, who
held his court at Pavia, and whose encroachments on the Roman territory
were the first cause of the interference of the Franks in Italy. He was
besieged by Pepin at Pavia in 755, and forced to come to terms; but he
was evidently a very considerable sovereign; and Ernesto, Marchese
d'Este, was killed in battle with him in 745. His promotion to be a
Paladin is accounted for by his having been a Christian, and the
character he bears, by the possibility of there having been satirical
songs and poems upon him, especially at the time when Charlemagne
ill-treated his granddaughter, Desirata. Astolfo is still a current name
in Lombardy, though we do not find it anywhere else, and its congeners
only in Scandinavia.
The meaning of the last syllable is, of course, wolf; the first is
_aast_ or _ast_, love or wishes, or if the sense of hot impetuosity be
allowed, Astolf is the swift wolf. Aasta was rather a favourite name
with the maidens of the North, and Asta is not disused, though too often
treated as the short for Augusta.
Astridur is from _hridhur_, an impulse, and thus would mean swift
impulse, or the impulse of love. It was greatly used by the royal ladies
of the North, among whom may be specified the mother of St. Olaf, and a
daughter of Knut, called by Danish pronunciation, Estridh, but
transmuted into Margaret.
The diminutive of Ast, under various mispronunciations, named that most
terrible of vikings, Hasting, whose ravages, though kept from England by
the policy originated by Alfred, were fearful all along the French
coast, and even extended to Italy. It is he who is said to have many
times submitted to baptism, and then returned to his fury again; and
there is a curious report, that Rollo’s Normans found him settled in
France, and reproached him with the tameness of his old age, so that he
dashed away again, and returned to his ships and his piracy. Hastinc
occurs in Domesday, and Warren Hastings' family claimed descent from the
old Sea King.[142]
-----
Footnote 142:
Roscoe; Sismondi; Munch; Michaelis; _Histoire de Normandie_.
SECTION VII.—_Ogier le Danois._
One of the Paladins was, undoubtedly, the legacy of a much more ancient
myth, namely, Ogier le Danois. He does not play a very prominent part in
the poems of the Italians, but as Ogier the Dacian he is one of Turpin’s
catalogue of knights, and a ballad especially dear to Don Quixote thus
commences:—
‘De Mantua sale el Marques,
Danes Urgel el leal.’
It proceeds to tell how he found Valdovinos, his nephew, dying under a
tree, having been assassinated by the emperor’s son, Carloto. The ballad
further relates how the Marques proceeds to court, gets Carloto tried by
his peers and doomed to death, and though el Rey Carlo banishes them all
for uttering the condemnation, the sentence is carried out.
This Italian marquis is an exceedingly droll development of the old
Teutonic hero, Holger Danske. In Italy he is Oggieri, Oggero, or Uggieri
il Danese; in French, Ogier le Danois; and, at times, _le damné_, or _il
dannato_, which title is further accounted for by the story that he was
a Saracen who became a Christian, and that his friends wrote from home
‘_tu es damné_,’ whence he chose to be thus christened. In the _Reali de
Francia_, Charlemagne cuts off, with his own hand, the head of an
unfortunate Oldrigi, whose blood was too noble to be shed by any one
else. Now this Oggier was without doubt a contribution from the stores
of Norman tradition; for Holger, or Olger, Danske is the grandest
national hero of Denmark. There is a ballad, given by Weber, where he
and Tidrek the Strong have a tremendous battle, and he comes off victor.
Moreover, he has eaten of the fruit of the trees of the sun and moon,
and has become immortal, and there he sits with his fellows in the
vaults of the Castle of Kronberg, near which are two ponds, called his
spectacles. A peasant, with a plough-share on his shoulders, once lost
his way, and wandered in; he found a circle of tall old men in armour,
all asleep round a stone table, with their heads resting on their
crossed arms. Holger Danske, who sat at the head of the table, raised
his head and the stone broke asunder, for his beard had grown into the
stone. He asked his guest some questions about the upper world and
dismissed him, offering his hand. The peasant, dreading the gigantic
grip of the old champion, gave his ploughshare. ‘Ha! ha!’ said Holger,
as he felt its firmness, ‘it is well. There are still men in Denmark.
Tell them that we shall come back when there are no more men left than
can stand round one tun!’ But the ploughshare had been twisted round by
his fingers. Can this return of Holger be the Roger Bon Temps of the
French peasantry?
But Holger, though I have placed him among the Paladins, might have gone
even farther back than the days of Dietrich. He is a mythical king, well
nigh a god, originally called Haaloge, and owing, as his sacred island,
Haalogaland, or Heligoland.
His name itself is _holy_, our very word _holy_—the _halig_ of the
Anglo-Saxons, the _hellig_ of the North, the _heilig_ of Germany, and
these words sprang from those denoting health; as the Latin _salve_,
hail, _salvus_, safe, and _salvatio_, safety, are all related to
soundness.
Leaving this, as not belonging to our main subject, we find that Helgi,
the Norse form of the word for this holy old mythic king, was
exceedingly popular in the North. Helgi has a poem to himself in the
elder _Edda_. A son of Burnt Njal was called Helgi, and forty-two cases
are found of the name in the _Landnama-bok_, and thirty-four of its
feminine, Helga. In Domesday there are five called Helgi, besides
fourteen Algars, very possibly meant for Holger; and it may be suspected
that the Helie of the early Norman barons may have been as much due to
the Helgi of their forefathers as to the prophet whom they learnt to
know on Mount Carmel. Perhaps, too, Helga was the source of Ala, or Ela,
by which name a good many Norman ladies are recorded, the best known of
whom was Ela, heiress of Salisbury, the wife of one William Longsword
and mother of the other, one of the founders of Salisbury Cathedral, and
the witness of a vision of her son’s death in Egypt.
Helgi’s descendants towards the East are far more certain matters.
Helgi, called Oleg by the Russian historians, was the son of Rurik, the
first Norman grand prince of Kief, and his daughter, Olga, visited
Constantinople, and was there baptized by the name of Helena, which
makes the Russians suppose her two names to translate one another; but
they have fortunately not discarded either Oleg or Olga, which thus
remain mementoes of the northern dynasty among the very scanty number of
Russian names that are neither Greek nor Slavonic.
In its own country Helgi gets contracted into Helle, and Helga into
Hæge.[143]
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