Merovingian Origin Location (s)
 
by Rolf Badenhausen
 
Date: 2005-07-01
This document is appendix of Merovingians by the Svava?
 
When King Clovis came to be baptized after his conversion to Christianity, Bishop Remigius said to him, 'Meekly bend thy neck, Sicamber ...', as remarked by Gregory of Tours who certainly gave on this occasion an example of his more or less comprehensive knowledge of Roman-Germanic history. This is the original speech of Remigius in Gregory's Frankish History, Historiae Francorum, Book II ch 31: »Mitis depone colla, Sigamber... « 
 
The Baptism of King Clovis.
A partial view of the altarpiece by the Master of Saint Gilles (abt 1500).
King Clovis by Saint Gilles

 
The Seal Ring of Childeric I
The Seal Ring of Childeric I, son of Meroveus and father of Clovis.
The Sicambri, a powerful tribe that formerly was migrating along the Danube and the Rhine, was dwelling along the eastern banks on the Lower Rhine in the time of Caesar. They afterwards dispersed to such an extent that Gregory of Tours might have remembered only the great ethnological history related to that part of land which was called Salia some hundred years later: 

'Franks originally came from Pannonia and
first colonized the banks of the Rhine. Then, 
they crossed the river, marched through 
Thongeria, and set up in each country
district and each city long-haired kings 
chosen from the foremost and most noble
family of their race ...'.
 
A Germanic chief called Meroveus, supposed ancestor of Clovis, is believed to have been recorded in 417 for rendering heroic service to the Romans, and – as merited high-ranking mercenary – he was obviously rewarded with the leadership of Salia (nowadays pertaining to Dutch and Belgian territory) with that Gaulish region Toxandria we are calling now North and South Brabant. There is however no creditable historical information that Meroveus was of Sicambrian descent.

Emil Rückert, PhD, historian and literary scholar, gave this statement about name giving to the Merovingians: 

 
Das herrschende Geschlecht der Franken wohnte an der Merwe oder Merowe, d. h. der unterhalb Löwenstein mit der Maas vereinigten Waal und hiervon empfing es den Namen Merowinger, Morowinger, welchen auch ein König aus diesem Hause, Meroväus oder Moroväus, Merwig, trug. Der Mervengau ist jenes Maurungania ad Albim (wohl Vahalim), welches der Geograph von Ravenna als früheren Aufenthalt der prima linea Francorum angibt.
 
Translation:
 
The ruling Frankish dynasty was dwelling on the Merwe or Merowe (today the Dutch Merwede), where the Meuse meets the Waal below Lionstone Castle (the ‘Lovensteyn’ or ‘Loevestein’); and the Merovingians or Morovingians received their name from that watercourse, and also one of their kings, Meroveus, Moroveus, or Mervig, was named likewise. This district called ‘Mervengau’ is that ‘Maurungania ad Albim’ (obviously the ‘Vahalim’) (Vahal, Waal) which the Geographer ('Cosmographer') of Ravenna notes as the early location of the ‘prima linea Francorum’.
 
Eugen Ewig, Prof of Medieval History (emeritus), has considered the very first region of the Salians rolling out to the region of Overyssel (the former Sal-land), that is marked today by Dutch towns Deventer and Kampen. Regarding archaeological exploration of Frisian and Lower Saxon lands, as the historian remarks in his book Die Merowinger und das Frankenreich (published by Kohlhammer/Urban, Germany), the Franks holding Salland maintained also the northern German lands up to the middle course of Weser river until 365...370. At that time martial Saxons began to extend their territory from the north-east to the upper Lippe river, where to find nowadays German town districts of Minden and Lippstadt. A few decades later, at the beginning of 5th century, the Franks had to give up also the so-called Münsterland region to settle thereafter on the left side lands of the Rhine.
 
Lovensteyn of 1630, painted by C.J.Visscher.

The castle was (re-?)built between 1357 and 1368 by Lord Diederick van Horne who was (nick-)named Loef (Lion). In 1385 Albrecht van Beieren took over possession of the castle and appointed his trustee Brunstijn van Herwijnen as the castle's keeper.

Lovensteyn Castle of 1630
This colourized old photo of Loevestein Castle was made on the eastern bank of the Waal, approximately 2 miles (3 km) from the Merwede's mouth.
Lovensteyn Castle in 20th Century
 
The Thidrek Saga and the Didriks Chronicle will contribute a (con-)temporarily appearing ruler called King Nidung to the Salian-Toxandrian region whom the author has regarded to substantiate Fredegaire's version of the Merovingian genesis in his publication quoted above. Since it is literary fact that the Norse-Nordic narrators have localized that mighty ruler also in Jutland – mentioning him there as sovereign of Thy –, the lands around the Limfjord, on the ancient 'Amber Route' of considerable strategic importance, might be worth the effort to scrutinise there the roots of Meroveus I. 

At present, there are at least two locations of interest whose former spelling and tradition (under research) seem to indicate themselves as name spending godfather: The isle of Mors with known word forms of 'Morø...' and, close to the east, Cap Salling. Thus, referring to Fredegaire's insinuation, we may wonder about Emil Rückert's successive order of Merovingian onomastics and question furthermore: Was there already any recurrently related Nordic homeland of the invading Salian founder, the name spending godfather of that dynasty which the Dutch Merwede and its contemporarily surrounding region Salland or Salia seem to remember?
Jordano's Map of Jutlandic Thy, Mors, Salling
Extract from the Ortelius Map of Jutland by M. Jordano.