Chapter CCII: 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.