Chapter CLXV: Section IV: Frey

Every false religion preserves in some form or other the perception of a Divine Trinity, and the Teutonic Triad consisted of Odin, Frey, and Thor, whose images always occupied the place of honour in the temples, and who owned the three midmost days of the week.

The history of the word _freyr_ is very curious. The root is found in _pri_, Skt., to love or rejoice, the Zend _frî_, the Greek φίλος. To be glad was also to be free; so _freon_ or _frigon_ means to free and to love, and thence _free_ in all its forms (N. _fri_; Goth, _frige_; H. G. _frei_; L. G. _freoh_). Thus, again, the Germans came by _froh_, and we by _fresh_. _Fro_ was both glad and dear; and as in Gothic _frowida_ was joy, so is _freude_ in modern German; and we exult in _frolics_ and _freaks_. He who loved was known by the present participle, _frigonds_, the _friend_ of modern English, the same in all our Teutonic tongues; and as the effect of love is peace, the term was _fred_ or _fried_, our Saxon _frith_, which we have lost in the French-Latin word. To be free was to be noble, so the free noble was _Frauja_, the name by which Ulfilas always translates Κύριος, in the New Testament, by a beautiful analogy, showing, indeed, that our Lord is our Friend and our Redeemer, loving us, and setting us free.

_Frauja_, or free, was the lord and master, so his wife was likewise _frea_, both the beloved and the free woman; the northern _frue_, German _frau_, and Dutch _vrowe_, all, as _donna_ had done in Italy, becoming the generic term for woman.

Out of all the derivatives of this fertile and beautiful term, there were large contributions to mythology, and a great number of names.

Freyr, lord, lover, was once a god of very high rank, lord of sun and moon, hermaphrodite, and regulating the seasons, blessing marriage, and guarding purity: and this was probably a universal idea brought from Asia.

As old notions formed into mythic tales, and the gods grew human, the wife of Odin was invented, and what could she be but the _frau_, the lady of Asgard, Frigga? Again, Freyr was brought down from his mysterious vagueness, and turned into a nephew of Odin, with the moon to take care of, and, moreover, was disintegrated into a brother and sister, called Freyr and Freya.

The sixth day of the week had probably originally belonged to Freyr, but Frigga got possession of it; and, in right of her presiding over love and marriage, she was considered to be Venus; and in France and Italy her day is still Vendredi and Venerdì, while we have it as Friday, the Germans as Freitag, the North as Fredag.

Freya is also a goddess of love, and drives over every battle-field with her car drawn by cats (once, perhaps, panthers, like those of Bacchus, whom her brother is thought to resemble), and chooses half the slain, whom she marshals to their seats at the banquet of Valhalla. Her husband, Othur or Odhr, curiously repeats Odin’s name, as she does Frigga’s. She weeps continually drops of gold when he is absent, and the metal is poetically called Freya’s tears.

Her brother, Freyr, was always a chaste, dignified, beneficent personage, a sort of severe Bacchus, or grave Apollo. In the great final battle, he is to be destroyed by Surti. He is the tutelary god of Sweden, as was Odin of the Saxons.

There are hosts of names connected with these deities, or the words sprung from their source. _Frith_ in Saxon, _frey_ or _freya_ in the North, _fried_ in German, falling in France into _froi_, was a favourite termination generally masculine, and so probably in honour of Freyr; and though it is safe to translate it peace, it probably also meant freedom.

Old Spanish has Froila, or Fruela, among the kings of the Asturias, and this may be translated lord, and compared with the Freavine, or Frowin, free darling, now become Frewen. Franta, too, was a king of the Spanish Suevi.

Fritigern, king of the Visigoths, who first fixed himself on the Danube, bore the name afterwards Frideger (spear of peace), in Germany, a compound much resembling that borne by that Jezebel of the Meerwings, Fredegunt, or Frédégonde, as she is called by French historians. Freygerdur of the North, as found in the _Landnama-bok_, serving four men and two women, is there explained either as freedom-preserver, or peace-keeper.

But what is to be said of Fridthjof, or Frithjof, the renowned hero of the Frithjofsaga, being no better than peace-thief? Northern pirates thought no scorn of being thieves, and we shall fall on plenty more of them; but the compound is certainly startling.

Fridulf, or Fridolf, peace wolf, is nearly as bad; but it seems to have contracted into Friedel in Germany, and expanded into Fridolin, probably in imitation of Fedlim, or some such Erse name, since the saint thus recorded in the calendar is one of the many Scottish missionaries of the fifth century, who preached to the Burgundians. He is the titular patron of the Swiss canton of Glarus, whose shield bears his figure in the Benedictine dress he never wore. Thence Schiller took the name of the youth in his ballad on the strange adventure of Isabel de la Paz of Portugal, which is best known through Retzch’s illustrations. The German Friedel must be short for this, as Frider is for Fridheri, peace-warrior. In fact, Germany is the great land of this commencement, and has fostered the best known of the whole. There was indeed a Fridrikr in the _Landnama-bok_, and a Fredreg, or Frederic, in Domesday, but these would have been forgotten but for an old Frisian bishop, Freodhoric, who, in the time of Louis le Debonnaire, had been murdered while praying in his chapel, and being canonized, was a patron saint of the Swabian house. Friedrich with the red beard, or Barbarossa, a Ghibelline hero, caused Federigo to be popular among that party in Italy; and when his Neapolitan grandson’s claims to the kingdom of the Two Sicilies had been transmitted, through Manfred’s daughter, to the Aragonese monarchs, Fadrique became usual in Spain. Friedrich had grown national in Germany, and not a king of Prussia till the present has reigned without being so called, in compliment to their hero, who, while the soldiers called him Old Fritz, thought it graceful to write himself Frédéric, having with his French tastes, taken a dislike to the sound of his own name, even in the softened spelling of his adopted language. It was from the father of this monarch that the son of George II. was called Frederick, a name we have twice had next in succession to the crown. The Danes obtained the name from their German connections, and make it alternate on the throne with Christiern. The feminine is a late invention in Germany, very common there but barely recognized elsewhere.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Breton. │ Spanish. │
│Frederick │Frédéric │Fêidrik │Fadrique │
│Fred │Ferry │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Portuguese. │ Italian. │ German. │ Dutch. │
│ │ │ │ │
│Frederico │Federigo │Fridrich │Frederik │
│Federico │ │Fritz │Freerik │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Frisian. │ Swedish. │ Danish. │ Swiss. │
│Frerk │Fredrik │Frederik │Fredli │
│Frek │ │ │Fridli │
│Friko │ │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Russian. │ Polish. │ Slovak. │ Bohemia. │
│Fridrich │Fryderyk │Friderik │Bedrich │
│ │Fryc │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Lusatian. │ Lettish. │ Lithuanian. │ Finn. │
│Fidrich │Sprizzis │Prydas │Rietu │
│Bedrich │Prizzis │Prydikis │Wettrikki │
│ ———————— │Wrizzis │Priczus │Wetu │
│ Hungarian. │Wridriks │ ———————— │Wetukka │
│Fridrik │Pridriks │ Greek. │ │
│ │ │Φρεσδερικος │ │
├───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┤
│ FEMININE. │
├───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┤
│ English. │ French. │ Portuguese │ Italian. │
│Frederica │Frédérigue │Frederica │Federica │
│Freddie │ │ │Feriga │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ German. │ Swiss. │ Polish. │ Bohemian. │
│Fridrike │Fredrika │Frydryka │Bedriska │
│Fritze │ ———————— │ │ │
│Fritzinn │ Greek. │ │ │
│Rike │Φρεδερική │ │ │
│Rikchen │ │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

Probably this popular Frederick has devoured all the other forms with the same commencement; for after the middle ages had fairly begun, we hardly ever hear of the German Fridrad, Fridrada, Fridhelm, Fridrun, Fridbald, Fridbert, Fridburg, Fridgard, Fridilind. Fridmund, peace protection, Fridwald, peace-power, has been preserved in Friesland as Fredewolt, Fredo, or Freddo. Fridleifr in the North has fallen into Friedlieb in Germany: it is the same as the Frithlaf whom our Saxon chroniclers bestowed on Wuotan by way of ancestor.

Our own Saxon saint, Frithswith, strong in peace, was the daughter of the Lord of Oxford, in the eighth century. She lived in a little cell at Thornbury, had various legendary adventures, which may be seen portrayed in a modern window of the cathedral at Oxford, and became the saintly patroness of the University and Cathedral, where, by the name of St. Fridiswid, she reigned over Alma Mater, till Wolsey laid hold of the church and its chapter for his own splendid foundation of Christchurch. Frethesantha Paynell was wife of Geoffrey Lutterell, about the fourteenth century; and Fridiswid is by no means uncommon in the old genealogies of Essex and the northern counties. Alban Butler gives Frewissa as the contraction; but in Ireland, according to Mr. Britton’s capital story of _The Election_, it is Fiddy.

From _frei_, free, modern Germany has taken Freimund, by which they mean Freemouth, though it ought to be free protection, Freimuth, free courage, Freidank, free thought. But the older word for free plays a far more important part in modern nomenclature, namely, _Frang_, the High German form of free lord.

The nation called Cherusci by Tacitus denominated themselves Frangen when they warred on northern Gaul, overspread it, and termed it for themselves Frankreich. As their primary energy decayed their dominion divided; Frankenland, under the Latinism of Franconia, became leagued with the lands of the Swabians, Allemanni, and Saxons, and thus became part of Deutschland and of the Holy Roman Empire, while Frankreich was leavened by the Gallo-Romans, who worked up through their Frank lords, and made their clipped Latin, or _Langue d’oui_[108] (the tongue of aye), the national language, and yet called themselves _Les Français_, and the country France. And as the most enthusiastic and versatile of the European commonwealth, they so contrived to lead other nations, and impress their fashions on them, that the Eastern races regarded all Europeans as Franks, called their country Franghistan, and the patois spoken by them in the Levant became Lingua Franca.

Franc, or Franco, was the archbishop of Rouen who made terms with Rollo; but the name of real fame arose otherwise.

Long before the emperor Charles V. had pronounced French to be the language for men, an Italian merchant of Assisi caused his son, Giovanni, to be instructed in it as a preparation for commerce. The boy’s proficiency caused him to be called ‘il Francesco,’ the Frenchman, until the baptismal Giovanni was absolutely forgotten; and as Francesco he lived his ascetic, enthusiastic life; as Franciscus was canonized; and the mendicant order, humbly termed by him _fratres minores_, lesser brethren, were known as Franciscans throughout the Western Church.

Many a little Italian of either sex was christened by his soubriquet, and though one of the first feminines on record was the unhappy lady whose fall and doom Dante made famous, yet the sweet renown of the devout housewife, Santa Francesca di Roma, assisted its popularity; there was a Françoise at Cambrai even in 1300, and Cecarella is the peasant mother of a damsel in the Pentamerone.

San Francesco di Nola reformed the Franciscans into a new order, called the Minimi, or least, as the former ones were the Minores. It is to him that the spread of the name beyond the Alps is chiefly owing, for Louise of Savoy was so devoted to him, that she made him sponsor and name-father to her passionately loved son, and sewed his winding-sheet with her own hands.

The name was not absolutely new to France, for that of the grandson of the first Montfort, Duke of Brittany, had been Fransez, and so had been that of the father of the Duchess Anne, who carried her old Keltic inheritance to the crown of France; but it was her daughter’s husband, François I., the godson of the saint of Nola, who was the representative Frenchman, the type of showy and degenerate chivalry; and thus spread François and Françoise universally among the French nobility, where they held sway almost exclusively till the memories of the House of Valois had become detestable; but by that time the populace were making great use of it, and at the present time it is considered as so vulgar that a French servant in England was scandalized that a child of the family should be called Francis.

Franz von Sickingen is an instance that already Germany knew the name; but it did not take root there at once. The grandchildren of François I., intermarrying with the house of Lorraine, rendered his namesakes plentiful, both in the blood-stained younger branch of Guise, and in the dull direct stem, the continuation of the Karlingen, who at length, by the marriage with Maria Theresa, were restored to the throne of Charlemagne, in the person of him whom the classicalizing Germans termed Franciskus I. This cumbrous form is still official, but Franz is the real name in universal use in the German parts of the Austrian Empire, though the Slavonic portions generally use the other end of the word, as Zesk.

It was the same gay French monarch who sent us our forms of the name. Mary Tudor, either in gratitude for his kindness, or in memory of her brief queenship of France, christened her first child Frances—that Lady Frances Brandon whose royal blood was so sore a misfortune to her daughters, and who had numerous namesakes among the maidens of the Tudor court; but they do not seem to have then made the distinction of letter that now marks the feminine, and they used what is now the masculine contraction. “Frank, Frank, how long is it since thou wast married to Prannel?” was the rebuke of the Duke of Richmond to his Howard lady when he was pleased to take down her inordinate pride, by reminding her of her youthful elopement with a vintner.

The modern Fanny is apparently of the days of Anne, coming into notice with the beautiful Lady Fanny Shirley, who made it a great favourite, and almost a proverb for prettiness and simplicity, so that the wits of George II.’s time called John, Lord Hervey, ‘Lord Fanny,’ for his effeminacy. Fanny, like Frank, is often given at baptism instead of the full word; and, by an odd caprice, it has lately been adopted in both France and Germany instead of their national contractions.

The masculine came in at the same time, and burst into eminence in the Elizabethan cluster of worthies—Drake, Walsingham, Bacon; but it did not take a thorough hold of the nation, and was much left to the Roman Catholics. It was not till Frank had been restricted to men that it took hold of the popular mind, so as to become prevalent.

The original saint of Assisi made devout Spaniards use Francisco and Francisca, before the fresh honour won for the first by two early Jesuits—the Duke of Gandia, the friend and guide of Charles V., and Xavier, the self-devoted apostle of the Indies. His surname has thrown out another stock. It is in itself Moorish, coming from the Arabic Ga’afar, splendid, the same as that of our old friend, the Giaffar of the _Arabian Nights_, the Jaffier of old historians. Wherever Jesuits have been, there it is; Savero in Italy, Xavier in France, Xaverie in Wallachia, Xavery in Poland, Saverij in Illyria; Xaveria for the feminine in Roman Catholic Germany, marking the course of the counter-Reformation. Even Ireland deals in Saverius, or Savy, though when English sailors meet a Spanish negro called Xaver, they call him Shaver! Savary de Bohnn, whom Dugdale places under Henry I., was probably a form of Sigeheri, or Saher, which may have been absorbed by Xaver in Roman Catholic lands.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ Erse. │ Breton. │ French. │
│Francis │Fromsais │Franse │François │
│Frank │ │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Spanish. │ Portuguese. │ Italian. │ Wallachian. │
│Francisco │Francisco │Francesco │Francisk │
│Francilo │Francisquinho │Franco │ │
│ │ │Cecco │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ German. │ Dutch. │ Scotch. │ Swedish. │
│Franciskus │Frenz │Francie │Frans │
│Franz │ │ │ │
│Frank │ │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Polish. │ Bohemian. │ Slovak. │ Lettish. │
│Franciszek │Frantisek │Francisek │Spranzis │
│Franck │ │Franc │ │
│ │ │Franjo │ │
│ │ │Zesk │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Lithuanian. │ Finn. │ Hungarian. │ Greek. │
│Prancas │Ranssu │Ferencz │Φραγκίσκος │
│ │ │Ferko │ │
├───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┤
│ FEMININE. │
├───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┤
│ English. │ Breton. │ French. │Span. and Por. │
│Frances │Franseza │Françoise │Francisca │
│Fanny │Fantik │Francisque │ │
│ │ │Fanchette │ │
│ │ │Fanchon │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Italian. │ German. │ Dutch. │ Polish │
│Francesca │Franziske │Francyntje │Franciszka │
│Cecca │Franze │Francina │Franulka │
│Ceccina │Sprinzchen │Fransje │Franusia │
│Ceccarella │(Lower German.)│ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Bohemian. │ Slovak. │ Hungarian. │ Greek. │
│Frantiska │Franciska │Francziska │Φραγκίσκη[109] │
│ │Franika │ │ │
│ │Franja │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

Footnote 108:

‘We-we’ is the name now given by the South Sea Islanders to the
French.

Footnote 109:

Grimm; Munch; Munter; Michaelis; Alban Butler; Mrs. Rusk, _German
Empire_; Dugdale; Ellis, _Domesday_.