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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. Regarding the Migration Period,
however, these people also were dispersed to such an extent that Gregory
of Tours might have remembered merely a 'migratory legend' somehow related
to that part of land which was called Salia some hundred years later:
'Franks originally came from Pannonia and
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| 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, 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. However, there is 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) connecting the Merovingian location with the Dutch watercourse Merwe (Merwede). Franz Joseph Mone (Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der teuschen Heldensage, 1836, p. 47) recounts some authors who already combined likewise. Emil Rückert (Oberon von Mons und die Pipine von Nivella, 1836, p. 39) sums up accordingly: |
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| Eugen Ewig, eminent researcher in Frankish history, considers the earliest region of the Salians rolling out to the region of Overyssel (the former Sal-land), as marked today by Dutch towns Deventer and Kampen. Regarding archaeological exploration of Frisian and Lower Saxon lands, as Ewig remarks (Die Merowinger und das Frankenreich), the Franks holding Salland were also settling in the northern German lands up to the middle course of Weser river until 365/370. At that time martial Saxon tribes began to extend their territory from the north-east to the upper Lippe river, where to find nowadays German towns Minden and Lippstadt. A few decades later, at the beginning of 5th century by archaeological indication, the Franks had to withdraw from the so-called Münsterland region, moving then to lands on the left side of the lower 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. |
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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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| The Thidrek saga and the Old Swedish 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 and linked above. Since the medieval scribes of these manuscripts have localized that 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 Meroveus I. 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 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 spelled Salland or Salia seem to remember? |
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Extract from the Ortelius Map of Jutland by M. Jordano. |
