ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2745
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2745
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8 Jun 2003
From: "Brian M. Scott" 


Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel!

You asked whether there was any evidence of the use of names
from Germanic mythology by real people, especially women in
the period from 500 to 1150 CE.  You asked specifically
about <Flosshilde>, <Woglinde>, and <Wellgunde>, the names
of the Rhinemaidens in Wagner's Ring Cycle.

We'll deal with the more specific question first: so far as
we can tell, Wagner invented the names <Flosshilde>,
<Woglinde>, and <Wellgunde> for his Ring Cycle.  Although
the elements <-hilde>, <-linde>, and <-gunde> are modern
German versions of <-hilt>, <-lint>, and <-gunt>, which are
attested second elements of old feminine Germanic names, we
have found no evidence that <Floss->, <Wog->, or <Well-> was
used at all in Germanic naming. [1, 2]  In fact it's clear
that Wagner chose them specifically for their meanings:
<Flosse> is 'a fin', and <Woge> and <Welle> are both 'a
wave'.  These meanings are quite different in kind from
those of attested Germanic name elements. [3, 4, 5]

To answer the more general question, names occurring in the
early heroic sagas were indeed used by real people in your
period, though of course we have no way to know how often a
reference to the sagas was actually intended.  To judge by
surviving records, such names were moderately frequent in 
the 8th and 9th centuries, less frequent in the 10th
century, very rare in the 11th century except in Bavaria,
and moderately frequent again in the 12th and 13th
centuries.  Actual examples of such names include: [6]

  Brunihilda*  774
  Brunnihilt  855
  Prunhilt  ca.1140
  Cremhildis*  796
  Chrimhilt  806
  Chriemhilt  881, ca.1140
  Chutrun  9th century
  Gudrun  ca.1100
  Swanahilt  803, 807
  Swanehilda*  10th/11th century

  * These versions are Latinized and are therefore suitable
    for use only in Latin documents.

These names may be more familiar in their modern forms:
Brunhild or Brunhilde, Kriemhild, Gudrun, and Svanhild or
Svanhilde.

We did not find any water-nymphs associated with the Rhine
in the heroic literature.  We did, however, find two
water-nymphs associated with the Danube, sisters named
Sigelint and Hadeburc.  Both names were used by real people;
we know of an 8th century citation for <Sigelint> and a 9th
century citation for <Hadeburc>, though our source does not
give the exact spellings of these citations. [7]  The
spellings <Sigelint> and <Hadeburc> themselves are the
standardized Old High German spellings commonly used by
scholars; they are based on typical examples of careful Old
High German usage, though actual practice was of course
quite variable.  We would not be surprised to see either
<Sigelint> or <Hadeburc> in an 8th or 9th century Old High
German record. [8]


Arval Benicoeur, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, and Adelaide de
Beaumont also contributed to this letter.  We hope that it
is helpful and that you'll not hesitate to write again if
you have any further questions.

For the Academy,

Brian M. Scott
7 June 2003

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References and Notes:

[1] Morlet, Marie-The/re\se.  Les Noms de Personne sur le
Territoire de l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Sie\cle.
Three vols. (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique, 1968, 1972, 1985); III:484-5. (The slash and
backslash stand respectively for acute and grave accents
over the preceding letter.) 

[2] Ibid., vol. I passim.  Morlet's data show a majority of
the attested first elements of Germanic names.

[3] <Floss-> also suggests <floss>, a past tense form of the
verb <fliessen> 'to flow'.

[4] Sonderegger, Stefan.  'Prinzipien germanischer
Personennmengebung'.  In _Nomen et Gens_, Dieter Geuenich,
Wolfgang Haubrichs, & Joerg Jarnut, eds. (New York: Walter
de Gruyter, 1997); Section 2.3.

[5] <Broomhilda>, the name of a witch in a comic strip, is a
modern example of the same kind of creation.

[6] Socin, Adolf.  Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch nach
Oberrheinischen Quellen des Zwoelften und Dreizehnten
Jahrhunderts (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung,
1966); p. 571ff.

[7] Gillespie, George T.  A Catalogue of Persons Names in
German Heroic Literature (700-1600) (Oxford: At the
Clarendon Press, 1973); s.nn. <Sigelint>, <Hadeburc>.

[8] Although these nymphs appear in the Nibelungenlied and
interact with Hagen, one of the major characters, they are
themselves minor characters, and we doubt that people named
<Sigelint> and <Hadeburc> were actually named after them.
If any instances of the name <Sigelint> were inspired by the
Germanic heroic sagas, for instance, the reference is much
likelier to be to Siegfried's mother, who appears in several
of them. [7]  This of course does not make their names any
less suitable for historical re-creation.