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. Gregory’s original phrase provides book II
(ch. 31) of his Libri Historiarum: Mitis depone
colla, Sigamber...
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The
Baptism of King Clovis.
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A partial
view of the altarpiece by the Master of Saint Gilles (abt 1500).
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The
Seal Ring
of Childeric I, son of Meroveus and father of Clovis.
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The Sicambri, a powerful tribe
migrating formerly along the Danube and the Rhine, were dwelling along
the eastern banks
on the Lower Rhine in the time of Caesar. In Migration Period, however,
these people also were dispersed to such an extent that
Gregory of Tours might have remembered merely a 'migratory legend'
somewhat 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, forwarded as
grandfather of
Clovis, is believed to have been recorded in 417 for rendering heroic
service
to the Romans. At that time, possibly as merited high-ranked mercenary,
he appears 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. However, we have no further
creditable
historical information that Meroveus was of Sicambrian descent.
Karl Müllenhoff (Zeitschrift
für deutsches
Altertum, 6, p. 433) follows Heinrich Leo (Lehrbuch
der Universalgeschichte 2, 28) who connects Merovingian
location
with the Dutch watercourse Merwe (Merwede). Franz Joseph Mone
(Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der teuschen
Heldensage,
1836, p. 47) recounts some authors who have already combined
likewise.
Emil Rückert (Oberon von Mons und die Pipine
von Nivella, 1836, p. 39) argues
accordingly: |
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|
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.
|
| |
[Transl.: 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 Merovings or Morovingians received their name from which
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’.]
[Translation
by Rolf
Badenhausen]
|
| |
Eugen Ewig regards the earliest
region of the Salian Franks originated in the region of Overyssel (the
former Sal-land),
as roughly marked today by the Dutch towns Deventer, Kampen and the
German Nordhorn. Likely with or as Batavian people, they afterwards
migrated to Toxandria which
encompassed the
current Dutch province of North Brabant and, finally in 1st
half of 5th century, the region mainly west
of the woodland called Silva Carbonaria.
According to conclusions mainly based on archaeological
explorations of Frisian and Low Saxon lands, Franks were
settling previously, until c. 365/370, between Mid and Northern German
lands up to the
middle course of Weser river; cf. for instance
E. Ewig, Die
Merowinger und das Frankenreich, p. 9. Following further
archaeological and historical estimation, Saxon
tribes had forced them to move south- and southwestwards in the second
half
of 4th century. Thereafter, at the
beginning of 5th century, the Franks withdrew
to regions mainly on the left side of the Lower Rhine.
The Cosmographer of Ravenna describes the geography of the Francia
Rinensis between c. 480 and 490. He reckons the Germania inferior,
almost the whole Belgica superior
(presumably without Verdun) and a
northern part of the Germania
superior to the Rhenish Franks, cf. RGA 9 (1995) p. 369.
|
| |
| 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.
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 |
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| 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. |
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 |
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|
The Thidrek saga contributes
a (con-)temporarily appearing ruler called King Nidung to the
Salian-Toxandrian
region whom the author has regarded to substantiate Fredegar’s
version
of the Merovingian genesis in his publication quoted and linked above.
Since the medieval scribes of the Old Norse manuscripts have apparently
situated this mighty
ruler in Frankish Hesbaye as well as 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 the first Meroveus. At
present, there
are at least two locations of interest whose former spelling and
tradition
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 Fredegar’s dissimilarly interpreted 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
spelled Salland or Salia seem to remember?
Reinhard Wenskus remarks that Bishop Freculf of Lisieux,
formerly a pupil at
the scriptorium of Charlemagne’s Aachen residence, claims Scandinavian
origin of the Franks, cf. J.
P. Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus, Seria I, latina, CVI, col.
967: |
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Francos ...
de Scanza insula ... exordium habuisse; de qua Gothi et ceterae
nationes Theotiscae exierunt, quod et idioma lingua eorum testantur.
(Quot. by Reinhard Wenskus, Sachsen – Angelsachsen –
Thüringer, in: Walther Lammers (Ed.), Entstehung und
Verfassung des Sachsenstammes,
Darmstadt 1967, see pgs 514–515.)
|
| |
 |
An
excerpt
from the
Ortelius Map of Jutland outlined by M. Jordano.
We may wonder if
Freculf could connect the tip of Jutland with a Scandinavian
environment.
Otherwise, these locations could have been the temporary seat of the
migrating Merovingian eponym of the Franks. |
The RGA vol. 22 (2003) pgs 189–191, see translation
below, states on the 'Origo
gentis' of the Franks: |
| |
§ 4. Franken. a.
Herkunft
des
Volkes, Tradition des
Volksnamens, Kg.smythos. Einige für
die Genese des frk.
Kgt.s und
der frk. gens wesentliche
Qu.zeugnisse enthalten implizite
Herkunftstraditionen. Gewisse Elemente in der Tradition scheinen
auf ö. und n. Züge bei merow. Kgt. (→ Merowinger) und
Volksbildung hinzudeuten. Bisweilen begegnet eine Identifizierung
des merow. Geschlechts mit den bei → Ptolemaeus (48, II, 11,11)
erwähnten Marvingi. Diese sind zu den bei dem → Geographen von
Ravenna (I, 11) genannten Maurungani (→ Mauringa/Maurungani)
gestellt worden, die dort einerseits zu Elbe und Franken in Bezug
gesetzt sind, andererseits Grenznachbarn der beiden Pannonien (IV, 19)
sein können (81, 26–28. 72; 171, 527). Einige Namen lassen
später (58, I, 9; 5, 31; 7, 2502. 2914. 2912) Angehörige des
Kg.sgeschlechts (→ Chlodwig , → Theuderich I.) bzw. die Franken
schlechthin als Hugonen und damit in Verbindung mit den → Chauken
erscheinen (171, 527 f.; 170, 190. 196). Hatte schon Claudian ([XXI,
222. 226]; X, 279) die Sugambrer mit dem Rhein bzw. der Elbe
zusammengebracht, so führt Ermoldus Nigellus (Vita Ludwigs des
Frommen IV, 13–18) eine fama an, nach der die Franken aus der
Nachbarschaft der → Dänen stammten, und kennt Frechulf von Lisieux
neben der Herleitung der Franken aus Troja ihre Herkunft aus
Skand. (PL 106, 967C/D). – Im Fall der Sigambrer/Sugambrer ist zu
beachten, daß die zeitlich frühesten Belege
(Claudian XXIV, 18; XXVI, 419; XV, 373; XVIII, 383; Apoll. Sidon.,
Ep. IV, 1,4; VIII, 9,5, 28; Carm. VII, 42. 114; XIII, 31; XXIII, 246)
sich auf die Franken insgesamt, die späteren, → Venantius
Fortunatus (Carm. VI, 2,97) und → Gregor von Tours (21, I, 31), sich
mit Charibert und Chlodwig auf Angehörige der merow. Dynastie
beziehen. Offenbar werden hier Interdependenzen zw. frk. Volk und
Kgt. faßbar, die über die faktische Dimension
hinausführen.
Herkunft von der See und Verbindung mit den
Sugambrern
gehören in
den Zusammenhang der Herkunft des Volkes. Außer in den
vorgestellten Reflektierungen ist das Thema mit verschiedenen
faktischen und mythischen Komponenten in einer Wanderungssage
ausgeführt, die bei Gregor (21, II, 9) zuerst, dann bei → Fredegar
und im → Liber historiae Francorum in charakteristischen
Ausgestaltungen in der Trojasage, faßbar ist. Assoziationen, die
auf eine Verbindung der Sigambrer mit der frk. Ethnogenese
verweisen, begegnen zuerst bei dem Byzantiner Johannes Lydus (um 560).
Er berichtet, die
Sigambroi würden von den Gall. an Rhein und
Rhône nach einem hegemon
Phraggoi genannt (De mag. III, 56; I,
50). Zur gleichen Zeit erfolgen die Sigamber-Apostrophierungen
merow. Herrscher. Möglicherweise handelt es sich um die
Übertragung gentiler, auf die Franken insgesamt bezogener
Elemente. Indem Venantius Fortunatus den Kg. als
progenitus de clare gente Sigamber apostrophiert und Gregor den
Sigambrerbezug bei
Chlodwigs Taufe in vergleichbarem Kontext verwertet sein
läßt, werden die für das Kgt. wichtigen ideologischen
Komponenten deutlich (62, 14 f. 27).
Gens Sigambrorum begegnet häufig in der frk. Historiographie
des 7. Jh.s, bes. in bezug zum
hohen Adel. Später erscheint Sigambria als wichtige Station
der frk. Wanderung im Trojazyklus, im Liber hist. Franc. in Pann., bei
Aethicus Ister in Germania lokalisiert.
Isidor von Sevilla (26, IX, 2,101) führt zwei
geläufige, alternative Erklärungen des Namens ,Franken’ an:
die Benennung
a quodam duce eorum und die nach
feritas morum. Ein versifizierter
kosmographischer Traktat, wohl spätes 7. Jh., präzisiert
Isidor mit dem Namen
Franco (MGH Poet. Lat. 4, 2, 554).
Gregor nennt in einer als breit gestreut
gekennzeichneten Version (21, II, 9:
Tradunt ... multi) als Stadien der Wanderung Pann. – Rhein
– Thoringa. Im Blick auf eine mögliche Verbindung der Franken mit
der See und einer Herkunft des Traditionskerns der → Salier von
der Nordsee ist gefragt worden, ob Gregor nicht das bei → Plinius
(44, IV,94) begegnende Nordsee-Küstengebiet Baunonia (→ Burcana)
in Pann. umbenannt habe (189, 4). Mit Blick auf die
Hugen/Hugonen-Tradition ist als Erklärung vorgeschlagen worden,
Gregor könne die mit Pann. assoziierten → Hunnen zu Hugen
mißverstanden haben (160). Diese Erklärungen können
für die Real-gesch. kein überzeugendes Resultat liefern. Doch
steht die Bedeutung von Pann. für die Herkunftssage außer
Frage. Im Liber hist. Franc. (32, c. 1) ist Pann. wichtige Station der
Franken, lange bewohnter Siedlungsraum und neues Ausgangsland (62,
24 f. 12 f. 27–30). Sein Stellenwert als ‚Erinnerungsort’ der
Franken wird dadurch unterstrichen, daß das Kgt. neben der
monopolisierten Sigambrertradition auch das Pann.-motiv für
sich reklamiert. Ein Brief Kg. Theudeberts I. kann wohl in diesem Sinn
interpretiert werden (Epp. Austr. 20: MGH EE 3, 132 f.; 62, 27 f.).
Z.T. weiter zurückreichende Zeugnisse (Avitus
von Vienne, Remigius
von Reims, Aurelianus von Arles) überliefern mit
felicitas und
stimma sidereum der
stirps genuine Momente des merow. Kg.smythos. Zu
nautischer Praxis und Tradition der Franken wie auch zu ihrem
Kg.smythos gehört die Herleitung der Merowinger von einer
bistea
Neptuni Quinotauri similis. Fredegar (17, III, 9) referiert die
von
Gregor (21, II, 9. 10) anscheinend unterdrückte Version mit
christl. motivierter Abwehr und macht in Kontamination mit dem
mythischen Ahnen Mero irrigerweise die hist. Figur → Merowechs zum
→ Heros eponymos der Dynastie. Die archaische Verknüpfung von
Götter- und Kg.sreihen scheint hier wider, vielleicht
vermittelt durch eines jener aus → Tacitus (53, c. 2) erschlossenen
carmina antiqua (112, 31). In weitreichender Deutung
ist die Stelle in ein Syndrom mythol. und hist. Bezüge (Neptun;
Minotaurus) gefügt worden (170, 182–204. 240;
Korrekturen, doch übersteigerte Gegenkonstruktion: 134).
Als für die frk. Ethnogenese und die
Herkunftssage relevante
Momente, die unabhängig vom Trojamotiv erscheinen, sind zu nennen:
Sigambrer, Wanderung, Pann., Rhein, Namensherleitung von einem → dux
(Franco) oder von
feritas morum. (Zu hypothetische
Verknüpfung: 153, 169–173). Man könnte erwägen, ob nicht
die Reminizenz an eine unter Ks. → Tiberius an der unteren Donau
stationierte
cohors Sugambra (Tac. ann. IV,47) die Verknüpfung
Sigambrer – Franken – Pann. vermittelt hat.
(...)
[Transl.: § 4.
Franks. a. Origin of the people, tradition of the people’s name,
kingship’s myth. Some
of the
essential sources
about the genesis of the Frankish kingship
and the gens contain implicit traditions of origin. Certain
elements
in the tradition seem to indicate eastern and northern features of the
Merovingian kingship (→ Merowinger) [Merovings/Merovingians]
and the ethnic formation into a national identity.
See → Ptolemaeus [Ptolemy]
(48, II, 11,11) for an occasional
identification of the Merovingian gens with the Marvingi. They
have
been collocated with the Maurungani (→ Mauringa/ Maurungani) provided
by
the Cosmographer of Ravenna, who reckons and situates them to the
Franks on
Elbe river on the one hand (IV, 19). On the other, the former could
have been
bordering neighbours of the two Pannonias (81, 26–28, 72; 171, 527).
Some names appear later (58, I, 9; 5, 31; 7, 2502. 2914. 2912) as
descendants of the royal ancestry (→ Clodwig [Clovis], →
Theuderich I. [Theuderic I]), or
the Franks as Hugonen ('Hugas') per se,
and in so far in connection with the →
Chauken [Chauci] (171, 527f.,
170, 190. 196). Since Claudian had
already situated the Sicambrians on the Rhine or the Elbe
([XXI, 222. 226]; X, 279), Ermoldus Nigellus
(Vita of Louis the Pious IV, 13–18) introduced a fama claiming
that the Franks originally came from the neighbourhood of the →
Dänen [Danes], and Freculf of
Lisieux knows of their origin from Scandinavia besides their
derivation from Troy (PL 106, 967C/D). – As regards the
Sicambrians/Sugambrians, it should be noted that the attested sources
(Claudian XXIV, 18; XXVI, 419; XV, 373; XVIII, 383; Apoll. Sidon., Ep.
IV, 1,4; VIII, 9,5, 28; Carm. VII, 42. 114; XIII, 31; XXIII, 246)
refer to the Franks as a whole, while the later accounts by →
Venantius Fortunatus (Carm. VI, 2,97) and → Gregor von Tours [Gregory
of Tours] (21, I, 31) refer to the Merovingian dynasty with
Charibert and
Clovis. Interdependencies between the Frankish people and kingship,
which go beyond the factual dimension, now appear evident.
The origin from the sea and the
connection
with the Sigambrians belong to the context of ethnic origin. Except
in the above-mentioned reflections, the subject matter is carried out
with various factual and mythical components in a migration legend
which is cognizable at first at Gregory (21, II, 9), then at →
Fredegar and the → Liber historiae Francorum in characteristic
configurations of the Trojan legend. The earliest associations which
point to a connection between the Sigambrians and Frankish ethnogenesis
can be found at the Byzantine scribe John Lydus (c. 560). He
reports that the people of Gaul on the Rhine and Rhône had named
the Sigambroi after a hegemon Phraggoi (De mag. III,
56; I, 50). At the same time the Merovingian rulers received the
Sigambrian
apostrophies. This could be the transfer of gentile elements being
related to the Franks as a whole. Since Venantius Fortunatus
apostrophizes the king as a progenitus de clare gente Sigamber
and Gregory has left the use of the Sigambrian reference in a
comparable
context at the baptism of Clovis, the important ideological components
for kingship become clear (62, 14f. 27). Gens Sigambrorum meets
frequently the Frankish historiography of 7th
century, esp. regarding high nobility. Sigambria appears later as an
important stage of
Frankish migration in the Trojan cycle, as being located in Pannonia in
the Liber historiae Francorum, in Germania by Aethicus Ister.
Isidore of Seville (26, IX, 2,101)
offers two common and alternative explanations onto the naming of the
'Franks': the designations a quodam duce eorum and feritas
morum. A
versified cosmographic treatise, probably of late 7th
century, specifies Isidore’s version with the name Franco (MGH
Poet. Lat. 4, 2, 554).
In a broadly characterized version
Gregory recounts the stages of migration with Pannonia – Rhine –
Thoringa (21, II, 9: Tradunt ... multi). In view of a possible
connection of the Franks with the sea and an origin of the traditional
core of the → Salier [Salians] from the North Sea, it has been queried
whether Gregory had renamed the North Sea coastal area Baunonia (→
Burcana; see → Plinius [44, IV,94]) as Pannonia (189, 4). With regard
to the Hugen/Hugonen tradition, there is proposed explanation
that Gregory could have misunderstood the Huns, associated with
Pannonia, as Hugen (160). Although this kind of explanation can not
provide a
convincing solution for real history, the significance of Pannonia for
the origin is beyond question. In the Liber historiae Francorum (32, c.
1) Pannonia is an important stage of the Franks, a long inhabited
settlement area and a new starting country (62, 24f. 12f. 27–30). Its
importance as a 'place of remembrance' of the Franks is underlined by
the fact that the kingship, besides the monopolized Sigambrian
tradition, also claims the Pannonian motive for itself. A letter of
Theudebert I may be interpreted in this sense (Epp. Aust. 20: MGH EE 3,
132f.; 62, 27f.).
Some testimonies, partially far-reaching
(cf. Avitus of Vienne, Remigius of Reims, Aurelianus of Arles)
provide with felicitas and stimma sidereum of the stirps
genuine moments of the Merovingian kingship’s myth. The derivation of
the Merovingians from a bistea Neptuni Quinotauri similes
belongs to the
nautical practice and tradition of the Franks as well as to their
kingship’s myth. Fredegar (17, III, 9) refers to the version seemingly
suppressed by Gregory (21, II, 9. 10) with a Christian motivated
defense and, in contamination with the mythical ancestor Mero, he
erroneously makes the historical figure of → Merowech [Merovech]
the →
Heros eponymos of the dynasty. Here appears the archaic link between
the series of gods and kings, perhaps imparted from one of the carmina
antiqua (112, 31) receptively encountered at → Tacitus (53, c.2).
In a broad interpretation, this site of tradition was embedded into a
syndrome of mythological and historical references (Neptune;
Minotaurus) (170,
182–204. 240; corrections but exceeding counterconstruction: 134).
The relevant characteristic moments –
which are not depending on the Trojan Legend – of the ethnogenesis of
the Franks and their origin appear as: Sicambrians, migration,
Pannonia, Rhine, name deriving from a → dux (Franco) or feritas
morum. (For hypothetical connection: 153, 169–173). One might
contemplate whether the reminiscence of the cohors Sugambra
(Tac. Ann. IV,47), stationed under emperor → Tiberius on the Lower
Danube, could have imparted the chain Sicambrians – Franks –
Pannonia(ns).
(...) ]
Sources
(17) Fredegar, Chronicarum libri IV cum
continuationibus, hrsg. von B.
Krusch, MGH SS rer. Mer. 2, 1888, Nachdr. 1984, 1–193; oder: hrsg. von
A. Kusternig, Ausgewählte Qu. zur dt. Gesch. des MAs (Frhr. vom
Stein Gedächtnisausg. 4a), 21994, 3–271.
(21) Gregor von Tours, Decem Libri Historiarum, hrsg. von B. Krusch, W.
Levinson, MGH SS rer. Mer. 1, 1, 21951,
Nachdr. 1992; oder hrsg. von R. Buchner, Ausgewählte Qu. zur dt.
Gesch. des MAs 2 und 3, 1959.
(26) Isodor von Sevilla, Etymologiarum sive originum libri XX, hrsg.
von W. M. Lindsay 1–2,
1911.
(32) Liber hist. Franc., hrsg. von B.Krusch, MGH SS rer. Mer. 2, 1988,
Nachdr. 1984,
238–328.
(44) Plinius der Ältere, Historia naturalis libri XXXVII, hrsg.
von H. Rackham, 9 Bde.,
1949–1952, oder; hrsg. von G. Winkler, R. König, 1988.
(48) Ptol., Geographia, hrsg. von C. Müller, 1883, oder: hrsg. von
C. F. A. Nobbe,
1843–45, Nachdr. 1966.
(53) Tac. Germ., hrsg. von M. Winterbottom, 1975.
(62) H.H. Anton, Troja-Herkunft, o.g. und frühe
Verfaßtheit der Franken in der gall.-frk. Tradition des 5. bis
8. Jh.s, MIÖGF 108, 2000, 1–30.
(81) W. J. de Boone, De Franken, 1954.
(112) K. Hauck, Carmina antiqua. Abstammungsglaube und
Stammesbewußtsein, Zeitschr. für bayer. Landesgesch. 27,
1964, 1–33.
(134) A. C. Murray, Post vocantur Merohingii: Fredegar, Merovech
and 'Sacral Kingship', in: After Rome's Fall (Festschr. W. Goffart),
1998, 121–152.
(153) G. Schnürer, Die Verf. der sog. Fredegar-Chronik, 1900.
(160) N. Wagner, Zur Herkunft der Franken aus Pann., Frühma. Stud.
11, 1977, 218–228.
(170) R. Wenskus, Relig. abâtardie. Materialien zum Synkretismus
in der vorchristl. polit. Theol. der Franken, in: Iconologia sacra
(Festschr. K. Hauck), 1994, 179–248.
(171) Wenskus, Stammesbildung.
(189) E. Zöllner, Gesch. der Franken bis zur Mitte des 6. Jh.s,
1970.
[Translation
by Rolf
Badenhausen]
|
| |
| Another etymological explanation seems to come out
intriguingly by the translators of the Old English Beowulf
at its lines 2920–2921: |
| |
|
...
ús
wæs á syððan
merewíoingas
milts
ungyfeðe.
Karl Simrock equated the term on the left with the Merovings (Ger.
'Merowinge(r)',
cf. Beowulf, Stuttgart & Augsburg
1859, p. 147). Francis B. Gummere correspondingly translated
this very passage |
| |
|
And ever since
the Merovings' favor
has failed us wholly...,
|
| |
| whereas other reputable philologists (e.g. Levin
Ludwig Schücking, Martin Lehnert, Gisbert Haefs) have emended the
term in
question to the compound |
| |
|
mere-wícingas
=
sea-pirates.
The Chronicle of Fredegar provides the following passage in book III,
9, as already quoted at an endnote of the superior
article Merovingians
by the Svava: |
| |
|
Fertur, super
litore
maris aestatis tempore Chlodeo cum uxore resedens, meridiae uxor ad
mare labandum1 vadens,
bistea Neptuni Quinotauri similis eam adpetisset.
Cumque in continuo aut a bistea aut a viro fuisset concepta, peperit
filium nomen Meroveum, per co regis Francorum post vocantur Merohingii.
|
| |
|
[It is said that in
the summertime at noon
Chlodeo sat with his wife on the seashore, and she went to (take a bath
in) the Labadian Sea1
where a beast of Neptune,
which resembled a Quinotaur, took possession of her. From this
beast, as well as from her husband, she bore a son named Merovech, of whom the
Frankish kings are called Merovings.]
Does this 'Greek version' allow to transfer this location to a shore of
Clodeo's domain somewhere on the North Sea? And we further may ask for
a
compromise to all translators mentioned above: Is there
generally reason enough to contradict the
derivative-based identification mere-wícingas →
Merovings?
_______________
1 Fredegar most
likely means Labadus or Lebedus
(Lebedos), one of
the twelve cities of the Ionian League located on the
Aegean Sea as the
urbs Ioniæ in Asia
minori, maritima in parte Australi Isthmi
peninsulæ Ioniæ; quæ etiam Labadus
dicta est...,
as explained by the author of the Annales
Veteris et Novi Testamenti...,
Jacobi Usserii Annales, Genevæ MDCCXXII, Index
Geographicus 'L'.
[Translations
by Rolf
Badenhausen]
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