Chapter CXCV: Section IV: Gunther

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Footnote 132:

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