Minor Germanic Deities and the Etymology of Beowulf’s Name

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Notes

1. See Harris (15); Fulk & Harris; Fulk, “Etymology and Significance of Beowulf’s Name”; and Neidorf & Zhu. The theophoric analysis is credited by Osborn (271, n. 2); Orchard (121, n. 117); and Tolley, Shamanism in Norse Myth and Magic (566–67). The text of Beowulf is cited throughout by line number from the edition of Fulk, Bjork, & Niles.

2. For an overview of Germanic theophoric names, see Andersson; Vikstrand; and Gunter Müller (§167).

3. See Gräslund; for an account of Gräslund’s ideas in English, see the review of Beowulfkvädet by Bjork.

4. Sayers (3).

5. Sayers (3); for discussion of bædling and related terms, see Fulk, “Male Homoeroticism in the Old English Canons of Theodore.”

6. Sayers (3).

7. See the relevant entries in the Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England database: www.pase.ac.uk (last accessed 18 April 2022).

8. See Insley et al. (90–91); Okasha (24); and Neidorf, “Beowulf before Beowulf” (571). For further discussion of the Northumbrian Liber Vitae, which comprises the original core of the Durham Liber Vitae, see Dumville; and Briggs. On the presence of names from Beowulf (including Biuuulf) in the Northumbrian Liber Vitae, see Shippey.

9. See Redin (157); and Rudolf Müller (46, 74, 117).

10. On the conversion of names from Old Norse into Old English, see Neidorf & Pascual (314–16).

11. Although the theonym Bēow is homophonous with bēow (“barley”), it would not be reasonable to think that bēow (“barley”) rather than the theonym Bēow constitutes the prototheme of Beowulf’s name, since early Germanic dithematic names were not customarily formed with words comparable to bēow (“barley”), whereas it was customary to form dithematic names with theonyms as their first element. Some have indeed analyzed Bēowulf as “barley-wolf” – e.g., Markey (343) and Grigsby (195) – but such analyses are not persuasive because they provide the protagonist with a dithematic name that is conceptually unparalleled in the early Germanic onomasticon.

12. Sayers (1).

13. For an overview of the evidence for Ing (or Ingui), see Pollington (213–16); North (26–77); and Krause.

14. For the Old English Ing- names, see Insley et al. (133); Redin (67, 127–28); and the relevant entries in PASE. For the continental Germanic names, see Förstemann (959–67). For Scandinavian names, see Krause (198–200). Opinion is divided on the etymology of the name Ingeld: many prefer to analyze the prototheme as the In intensifier, but see Björkman (77–80) for an argument that it is the Ing- theonym. Neither Óðinn nor any other reflex of *Wōðanaz appears to have been used in the formation of regular personal names. Þórr is attested exclusively in North Germanic names, as Gunter Müller observes: “Nur nordgermanisch war Þórr als Element gebräuchlich. Seine Häufigkeit im nordischen Namenschatz ist aber sicher das Ergebnis einer Entwicklung, welche nicht in die gemeingermanische Periode zurückreicht” (§167).

15. The text is cited by line number from Dobbie (29–30); the translation is cited from Bjork (131). Bjork’s translation of heardingas as “warriors” is probably mistaken, as this word is actually the Old English cognate of Old Norse Haddingjar; see Lindow, Norse Mythology (157–58, 200); Neidorf, “Etymology of Freawaru’s Name” (382); Tolley, “Beowulf’s Scyld Scefing Episode” (20); and Turville-Petre, “Fertility of Beast and Soil in Old Norse Literature” (258–59).

16. See Ellis Davidson (92–104); Halsall (146–7); Sundqvist (1228–29); Tolley, “Beowulf’s Scyld Scefing Episode” (16–21); and Turville-Petre, “Fertility of Beast and Soil in Old Norse Literature” (249–59).

17. On the connections between Ing, Freyr, and Yngvi-Freyr, see de Vries (§ 461); Ellis Davidson (104); Turville-Petre, Myth and Religion of the North (165–75); North (26–43); and Lindow, Norse Mythology (200–201).

18. The text is cited from Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson (24); the translation is from Finlay & Faulkes (14).

19. The first quotation is from Adam of Bremen’s History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen: its text is cited from Schmeidler (258); the translation is from Tschan (207). The second is from Tacitus’s Germania: its text is cited from Önnerfors (27); the translation is from Rives (93). For an overview of the evidence for Freyr, see Sundqvist; on Njǫrðr and his connection to Nerthus, see Lindow, “Njǫrðr.”

20. Simek queries the reality of the Vanir as a group of deities in pre-Christian Germanic religion, but see Tolley, “In Defence of the Vanir,” for a compelling defense of their existence. The distinction is likewise defended in Lindow, “Vanir and Æsir” (1047–50).

21. See Tolley, “Beowulf’s Scyld Scefing Episode” (16–21); Ellis Davidson (103–7); and Fulk, Bjork, & Niles (111).

22. For discussion of the Beowulf passages and the genealogical evidence, see Neidorf & Zhu (119–22), with further references therein.

23. See Fulk, “An Eddic Analogue to the Scyld Scefing Story,” who writes: “The story originally cannot have belonged either to Sceaf or to Scyld, but to Beow: this is what the Karelian analogue suggests, and it is corroborated by the eddic version. Moreover, the Karelian and eddic material make etymological sense, as the flour-bin, even when set adrift, is a natural place for milled barley, but not for a shield or a sheaf” (319). See also Tolley, “Beowulf’s Scyld Scefing Episode” (12–13).

24. Eddic poetry is cited by stanza from Neckel-Kuhn. Lokasenna exhibits linguistic archaisms that suggest relatively early composition; see Haukur Þorgeirsson.

25. See Insley et al. (116–17).

26. For discussion of these names and continental Germanic names that possibly contain a cognate theonym, see Shaw (60); and Sermon (334). For further discussion of Eostre, see Cusack; and Pollington (190–91).

27. The text is cited from Jones (330–31); the translation is cited from Wallis (54).

28. See Insley et al. (82–85); and Hall (55–62).

29. For overviews of the Eddic evidence for the álfar, see Gunnell (1572–73); Hall (34–47); Lindow, “Vanir and Æsir” (1047); and Nygaard. It is worth noting that there is also evidence for a distinction between the álfar and the Vanir in certain passages of Eddic poetry (e.g., Sigrdrífumál st. 18, Skírnismál sts. 17–18).

30. See Insley et al. (130–41, 153).

31. See Neidorf, “Etymology of Freawaru’s Name”; and Tolkien (179).