J.R.Tolkien’s ‘The Lost Road’ begins thus; “Alboin. Alboin!”
Alboin means ‘Elf-friend’. When I was eighteen I had Hippie elf-friends who I found in Tolkien’s Trilogy. One of them was Christine Wandel. One day she came into my small attic room with no window, lay down on the floor where I lie on a mattress reading by candlelight, and after resting her head on my stomach, she asked;
“Tell me a story!”
I beheld her flaxen hair lit by my candle, and in less then a minute, my story began.
“There once was a hermit that lived deep in the woods. His name was Tristan Tanopoli ‘The Keeper of the Forest.”
Tolkien died before The Lost Road was finished. His son, Christopher, picked up the thread and finished this tale that a page later, asks;
“Why didn’t you call me Thurisind, or Thurismod?”
“Well, really mother had meant to call you Rosamund, only you turned up a boy.”
Alboin would grow up and marry a woman name Rosamund whose treachery would result in his usurpation and death. How interesting! What is this fasciantion with the name Rosamund that carries on in the naming of Frodo’s aunt?
“As a token of her confidence, she told him he need no longer call
her, “Auntie.” The previous year, Bilbo had suggested that Frodo no
longer address him as, “Uncle,” if he wished. Plain, “Bilbo,” would
do. Frodo still called Bilbo, “Uncle,” now and then; it had become
too ingrained a habit. But, following suit, Rosamunda suggested Frodo
might call her, “Rosa,” or, “Rosamunda.” Frodo forgot, and called
her, “Auntie,” many times, but, within the space of an afternoon
tea, “Rosa,” she became.”
Thurismod is the father of Rosamund. It is also spelled Thurismund. This looks like Tharaldsen “son of Thor”. The name Hromund is a Norse baby name. In Norse the meaning of the name Hromund is: Son of Thori.
http://www.special-dictionary.com/names/h/hromund.htm. 1) Combination of HROD and MUND [1] 2) New combination of ROS (flower) and MUND [2]
Tolkien was extremely interested in the eptimology of Norse names. Hromundar may be a form of Rosemund meaning “famous protection”. Thor was compared to Jesus Christ, a who offered protection from evil, and death, thus the idea of immortality in ‘The Rose of the World’. The Draugers ad Ringwaiths lived forever, as a evil force that Thor combatted.
“Due to his inspiration from Hrómundar saga Gripssonar, during the writing of LOTR Tolkien at first foresaw a link between the Wights and the Ringwraiths, initially describing the Black Riders as horsed Wights, but the suggestion that they were the same kind of creatures was dropped in the published work. In the final work there remained a link between them: the wights were now spirits sent by the Witch King.”
Shortly after my grandson was born, I named him Sceaf who became King of the Danes who the ancestors of Chris Wandel, blessed, they also holding the title ‘King of Wends’.
What is amazing is my father could have taken the name Rosemond-Rosamond because he married a woman named rose.
“Royce
This most interesting surname derives from a number of possible origins. Firstly, it may be a topographical name for a person who lived at a place where wild roses grew. It may also have been given to a “dweller in a house bearing the sign of the rose i.e., “an Inn”. It is also found, especially in Europe, as a nickname for a man of “rosy” complexion. In each of these instances the surname derives from the Middle English and Old French “rose” or the Germanic female personal name “Rose”, “Royse”, which was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as “Rothais” and is composed of the elements “hrod”, renown plus “haid(is)”, king. Finally, the name may also have originated from the Yiddish female personal name “Royze”, derived from the word for the flower.
Read more: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Royce#ixzz35rcVeRCO
Argotta-Rosamonde was married to Pharamonde ‘King of the Franks’. She is of the Cimri, a tribe that fled to Jutland where to this day there is a struggle over the Land of the Danes and Royal Titles. I will include Wandel’s kindred in my Saga that includes Juaquin Miller and the Pre-Raphaelites. The Franks claim they descend from the Trojans, thus, the Troy-town built for Fair Rosamond by King Henry who claimed his ancestors came from Troy.
An hour ago, I found a video of Mary Ann unveiling her lost Art Work. I see he as Rosamund Took. She and her daughter, Britt, will be in my Saga, as will be the artist, Stefan Eins.
Pauline Diana Bayne illustrated ‘The Chronicles of Nardia’ and Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings. These Story Tellers were good friends, friends of the Elfs. The illustrator, Fanny Corey, encouraged my grandfather Royal Rosamond, to write. My niece, Drew Benton, renders Avatars for computer adventure games.
Jon Presco
Copyright 2014
Pauline Diana Baynes (9 September 1922 – 1 August 2008) was an English illustrator whose work encompassed more than 100 books, notably several by C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.
Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963), commonly called C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as “Jack”, was a novelist, poet, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian, and Christian apologist. Born in Belfast, Ireland, he held academic positions at both Oxford University (Magdalen College), 1925–1954, and Cambridge University (Magdalene College), 1954–1963. He is best known both for his fictional work, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.
Lewis and fellow novelist J. R. R. Tolkien were close friends. Both authors served on the English faculty at Oxford University, and both were active in the informal Oxford literary group known as the “Inklings”.
Older than these is the Old English poem Beowulf which applies the story of the boy in the boat instead to the Danish who is the eponym of the legendary Danish royal lineage known as the Scyldings or Skjöldings. In the opening lines of Beowulf, Scyld is called Scyld Scefing, which might mean Scyld descendant of Scef, Scyld son of Scef, or Scyld of the Sheaf.
My mother was named, Rosemary Rosamond, and my three aunts were born of Royal and Mary Magdalene Rosamond. My ex-wife was Mary Ann Thoraldsen, a descendant of Eric the Red, and thus, Woden. Mary Ann became enamored of me when she beheld the hundred drawings I did of Atlantis.
“Rosamond recalls that Jack Cory and his sister Fanny Y. Cory, cartoonist, started him on his writing career.”
In looking for traces of my Muse, Rena Easton, in Montana, I found what can be described as the Rosamond Holy Grail in Helena Montana. My grandfather lived in Helena and says he was inspired to write by Jack Cory, a political cartoonist and equestrian artist, and his sister Fanny Y. Cory, a famous illustrator who lived in a secluded ranch in Montana.
There was an art show of four generations of this family. This is the vision I had for my family when I became a Pre-Raphaelite. Christine Rosamond Benton did several Fairy paintings, as did Drew, who is employed rendering avatars for fantasy games.
Alas we have a true genealogy that traces the Rosamond Family Muse from the Cory family, to my grandfather, to me, to my sister, and to her daughter Drew Benton whose father was the famous muralist, Garth Benton, the cousin of the artist, Thomas Hart Benton. This is the convergence of three creative families – that is unheard of! The Great Muses are at work here. Consider our DNA!
If I had not been following my Muse wherever she leads me, then I would not have made this profound discovery that cast out the outsider from Rosamond Creative Legacy, those parasites who dare title themselves “caretakers” of Rosamond’s art and life story. If my grandfather came back from the dead, he would take a bullwhip to these usurpers – of his history! Fanny was a very famous woman artist – before Christine was born!
Thank you my dear grandfather, whom I never met, for laying down the true stepping stones of our family history.
Royal wrote a short story about a bullfight in Montana where his sister lived. It appears their father adopted these sibling out to W.S. Spaulding after his wife died.
The top two images were done by Drew Benton. The boy with dragon was done by Drew’s mother, Christine Rosamond Benton. The connections I just made – with no ones help – increase the value of all my families creative efforts. This is what real Art Books look like!
I’ve considered doing illustrations for most of my books. C’mon Rena. Show yourself. Do it for Montana! You were Rosamond’s Muse. This is your State History. You got some major bragging rights! Put this in your resame. At least send me copies of photos of you that I can work from to illustrate
‘Capturing Beauty’. I want your side of the story! I will got to the Governor and have you declared Montana’s State Treasure who brought the history of Royal Rosamond and Fanny Cory, together!
The fairy
The fateful slumber floats and flows
About the tangle of the rose.
But lo the fated hand and heart
To rend the slumberous curse apart.
The threat of war, the hope of peace
The Kingdom’s peril and increase.
Sleep on, and bide the latter day
When fate shall take her chains away.
The maiden pleasance of the land
Knoweth no stir of voice or hand,
No cup the sleeping waters fill,
The restless shuttle lieth still.
~William Morris
Here lies the hoarded love the key
To all the treasure that shall be.
Come, fated hand, the gift to take
And smite the sleeping world awake.
William Morris
Capturing Beauty
Part One
‘Capturing Beauties Rose’
Jon Presco
Copyright 2004
“Many men say that there is nothing in dreams but fables and lies,
but one may have dreams which are not decietful, whose import becomes
quite clear afterward.”
Thus begins the ‘Romaunt of the Rose’ by Chaucer, that ends thus…
“The ending of the tale you see
The Lover draws anigh the tree,
And takes the branch, and takes the rose,
That love and he so dearly chose.”
My daughter Heather was born on Rosemary’s Birthday, September 26,
1984. Eighteen months ago she was introduced to me by an angel, in a
dream. A month ater we would meet for the first time, she just
turning sweet sixteen. She never met her grandmother, Rosemary, or
her aunt,Christine, the world renouned artist, Rosamond, they passing
away before this rose, this branch of the family could be found.
When I was twenty three I let my hair grow long after the Nazarite
Artists of Germany a group who would inspire Dante Gabriel Rossetti
to form the Pre-Raphaelite Artists of Great Britain. Fair Rosamond
and the Romaunt of the Rose was an inspriration to the Pre-
Raphaelites, who like the Nazarite Artists, were bringing back a
religious theme to Art. Both groups drew upon Arthurian and Grail
legends that have been recently been linked to the Knight Templars
who are said to have been Nazarites, and who worshipped John the
Baptist, a Nazarite for life.
Rossetti did a painting of Rosamond, and Edward Burne-Jones did two,
not counting his ‘Briar Rose’ series who was named Rosamond by Grimm
in his tale of ‘Sleeping Beauty’, who I identify as the sleeping
goddess, Ariadne. King Henry built a bower and Labyrinth for Fair
Rosamond, that might have been used to initiate the Templars into an
ancient Hermetic teaching. Lord Tennyson includes her in his poem ‘A
Dream of Fair Women’, and Swinburne wrote an epic poem titled ‘The
Queen Mother and Rosamond’.
Gautheir de Coste Calprenede makes Rosamonde the paramour of
Pharamond King of the Long-haired Franks. Swinburne wrote a similar
work about another paramour of the Merovinians titled ‘Chronicle of
Fredegond,Rosamond’. Pharamond descends from Fromond, a name that
appears twice in a branch of the Rougemont/Rosemont genealogy, and
are the Lords of Neufchatel who become the De La Roche family, also
known as De La Rosa, a name born of the Rock and the Rose. Our Dreams
have come true.
Christine Rosamond Presco, a ‘Rose of the World’ was born October 24,
1947 in Vallejo California. Christina was the third child of Victor
and Rosemary, our mother one of four beautiful daughters born to the
writer and poet, Royal Rosamond, and Mary Magdalene Wieneke. Royal
and Mary met in Los Angeles where Mary went to live after leaving her
father’s farm in Iowa. Seeking her independance, as a young woman
Mary worked as a seamtress in Downtown L.A. The Wienekes were said to
have owned castles in Germany. Mary was a frequent guest at
Krishnamurti’s retreat in the Ojai Valley where her brother had a
farm and may have delved in the philosophy of the Theosophic Society.
Royal wrote stories for ‘Out West’ the ‘Arcadian’ and several Romance
magazines, he sailing to the Anacapa Islands with is friend, Dashiel
Hammet, the author of the ‘Maltese Falcon’, a mystery novel that was
made into a movie about the search for a golden falcon once belonging
to the Knights Templars. Royal taught Earl Stanley Gardner the
rudiments of writing. Royal’s poem ‘Your Name’ could well acompany
Rossetti’s painting of the young man writing his lover’s name in the
sand.
Living by the sea in Ventura California, Rosemary, and her sister,
Lillian, were courted by the famous actor, Errol Flyn, thus, there
was a powerful sense of the Romantic in our household that would
influence both Christine’s and my work. All the Rosamond women were
beautiful, they the arhetypes for the rosy women that began to peer
gracefully from their canvases in the early seventies at a changing
world, their beauty and strength heralding in the Woman’s Movement,
the very idea women could now own their own Creation and Creations.
In the words of Swineburne’s Fair Rosamond;
“But that I am
Part of the perfect witness for the world.”
My dear sister drowned off the Coast of Carmel on March 26,1994. The
legacy this complex person left behind is an important one as we were
both influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite artists who are at the core of
Grail Mysteries that have surfaced once again in the Quest for
Religious and Spiritual pertinence. The name Rosamond means ‘Rose of
the World’ and is one of the names applied to the Shekinah which is
the ‘Light of the World’ that I believe is found at the center of the
Labyrinth, like the one King Henry the second built for the love of
his life, Fair Rosamond. He also built a Well and Arcadia for her
after the story of Tristan and Isolde. A Grail Cup entwined in a vine
was engraved on her tomb. She has been compared to Mary Magdalene by
some authors, and a Catholic Bishop upon seeing how she was being
worshipped by Knights about to go on Crusade, had her remains removed
from the Nunnery at Glascow, and scattered to the wind; he calling
her a whore.
Christine gave me credit for being her teacher, my art touring the
world in a Red Cross show when I was twelve, and then again when I
was sixteen. In 1970 I discovered Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Pre-
Raphaelite Brotherhood, they modeling their movement after the
Nazarene artists of Germany, a guild dedicated to bringing back a
spritual base to Germany’s fine art. The Rossetti family were all
gifted. Christina Rossetti was an extraordinary poet and was
considered a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Her father
translated ‘Dante’s Inferno’ and owned a Publishing firm that her
brother Michael opperated. Dante was a close friend of the famous
poet, Algernon Swineburne, whose poem ‘The Queen Mother and Fair
Rosamond’ became a model and inspiration for all the Pre-Raphaelites
who resurected themes from the Grail Romances, breathing new life
into the Knights and Fair Maidens of our Ancient Dawn, raising a new
light in the search for the Truth.
On the other hand, there is a striking similarity between what we read in the Lombardic legend itself – the part about KingSheave and his deeds for the people of the Longobards and what we read in “Beowulf” :
LO, praise of the prowess of people-kings of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped, we have heard, and what honor the athelings won! Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes, from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore, awing the earls. Since erst he lay friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him: for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve, till before him the folk, both far and near, who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate, gave him gifts: a good king he!
Therefore, could it be that those Winilli were in fact the Danes!
The Danes were residents of Denmark. Hroðgar’s Heorot is likely to have been located on the island of Sjaelland near the present day city of Roskilde.
Even the episode of Alboin and Rosamunde, which Tolkien only alludes to, and of which Christopher provides us with Paul the Deacon’s account, can – IMO not be considered a hard historical “fact”. “Fact” is, that Paul wrote some 200 years later about events that were subject of much folk-tale and folk-song, and drinking from a skull – jewelled or no – was not altogether rare, since the Huns had “introduced” this habit a few centuries earlier. People back then – as the hypothesis is amongst scholars – thought they would “inherit” the strength of the slain, if they drank from their skulls. But whether or not this “habit” was widespread among Germanic tribes is debated.
One of the possible reasons for Tolkien’s interest in the Lombards was the fact, that the tribe of the Lombards from the middle of the 5th century on began to merge with that of the Saxons at the lower Elbe. Tolkien himself had Saxon ancestors, which was probably one of the reasons for his attempt to create an Anglo-Saxon mythology for England.
http://www.thetolkienwiki.org/wiki.cgi?Lombardic__Legend__in__The__Lost__Road
Rosamunda Bolger (née Took) was the mother of Fredegar “Fatty”
Bolger and Estella Brandybuck. She was married to Odovacar Bolger
and was known as Rosamunda Took prior to the marriage. They lived in
Budgeford in Bridgefields in the Eastfarthing of the Shire.
Rosamunda and Odovacar both attended the Bilbo’s Farewell Party in
3001 along with their children.
Fredegar “Fatty” Bolger
Norman Cates as Fatty Bolger from a Decipher Card designed by Weta
Friend of Frodo Baggins. Fredegar Bolger, called Fatty, was born in
2980 to Odovacar Bolger and Rosamunda Took Bolger. He had a sister
Estella who married Merry Brandybuck. Fatty’s great-great-
grandfather on his mother’s side was Gerontius, the Old Took, who
was also the great-great-grandfather of Merry and of Pippin Took.
Fatty’s family was from Budgeford in Bridgefields in the
Eastfarthing.
Click to access TolkienTheLostRoad.pdf
Soon after Tyler Hunt was born I nicknamed him Sceaf because it was very upsetting to me and Heather than Ryan Hunt apparently abandoned his son. Thank God that turned out not to be the case.
I tried to be a father figure to this beautiful boy so he would not grow up without a father. I now feel the same way about my niece, Drew Benton, who wants to learn about her ancestors. What I have to offer is a wealth of knowlege and information for the Children of the Rose Tree to draw upon for rendering Art, and authoring Books.
Sceafa (Old English: scēafa), also spelled Sceaf (scēaf) or Scef (scēf), was an ancient Lombardic king in English legend. According to his story, Sceafa appeared mysteriously as a child, coming out of the sea in an empty boat. The name also appears in the corrupt forms Seskef, Stefius, Strephius, and Stresaeus. Though the name has historically been modernized Shava (and Latinized Scefius), J. R. R. Tolkien used the modern spelling Sheave.
Older than these is the Old English poem Beowulf which applies the story of the boy in the boat instead to the Danish who is the eponym of the legendary Danish royal lineage known as the Scyldings or Skjöldings. In the opening lines of Beowulf, Scyld is called Scyld Scefing, which might mean Scyld descendant of Scef, Scyld son of Scef, or Scyld of the Sheaf. The Beowulf poet does not explain. But after relating in general terms the glories of Scyld’s reign, the poet describes Scyld’s funeral, how his body was laid in a ship surrounded by treasures, the poet explains:
They decked his body no less bountifully
with offerings than those first ones did
who cast him away when he was a child
and launched him alone out over the waves.
Geoffrey’s composite Merlin is based primarily on Myrddin Wyllt, also called Merlinus Caledonensis, and Aurelius Ambrosius, a mostly fictionalised version of the historical war leader Ambrosius Aurelianus.[8] The former had nothing to do with Arthur: in British poetry he was a bard driven mad after witnessing the horrors of war, who fled civilization to become a wild man of the wood in the 6th century.[9] Geoffrey had this individual in mind when he wrote his earliest surviving work, the Prophetiae Merlini (Prophecies of Merlin), which he claimed were the actual words of the legendary madman.
According to Nennius, Ambrosius was discovered when the British king Vortigern was trying to erect a tower. The tower always collapsed before completion, and his wise men told him the only solution was to sprinkle the foundation with the blood of a child born without a father. Ambrosius was rumoured to be such a child, but when brought before the king, he revealed the real reason for the tower’s collapse: below the foundation was a lake containing two dragons who destroyed the tower by fighting. Geoffrey retells this story in Historia Regum Britanniæ with some embellishments, and gives the fatherless child the name of the prophetic bard, Merlin. He keeps this new figure separate from Aurelius Ambrosius, and to disguise his changing of Nennius, he simply states that Ambrosius was another name for Merlin. He goes on to add new episodes that tie Merlin into the story of King Arthur and his predecessors.
THE BOWER OF “FAIR ROSAMOND”
THE story of “Fair Rosamond” and her mazy Bower, though it cannot lay claim to that standard of authenticity which is generally required of historical data, has for so long occupied an honoured position in the realm of popular romance that, in a book professing to treat of mazes from a broad point of view, we cannot dismiss it quite as briefly as we might perhaps do in a book on English history.
Most of the subsequent chroniclers seem to have followed Higden in their relation of the story. By Tudor times the romantic and tragic episode had become a favourite theme in popular lore; it was enshrined by the Elizabethan poet Drayton in his “Epistle to Rosamond,” the bower being therein described as an arrangement of subterranean vaults. It achieved its greatest popularity, however, in the ballad form, and was printed, with several other “Strange Histories or Songs and Sonnets of Kinges, Princes, Dukes, Lords, Ladyes, Knights and Gentlemen, etc.,”
An interesting point mentioned by Croxall is that in his time “a delightful Bower” was still in existence at Woodstock and was shown as the original of the story. Another reliable writer of the same period (Thomas Hearne, 1718) makes a similar observation, but in this case it is made clear that the remains are those of a large building, not, as we might have inferred, those of a hedge maze or arbour. These remains, whatever they may have been, have disappeared long since.
Woodstock Park, according to the historian Rouse of Warwick, was the first park to be made in England. Henry the First had a palace here, but the present great building, the masterpiece of Sir John Vanbrugh, was built for the first Duke of Marlborough and was named after the scene of his famous victory, Blenheim.
The traditional story of Fair Rosamond, in which she is made to figure as a cruelly wronged and guileless damsel of impregnable virtue and the victim of an unreasoning jealousy, formed the basis of many novels,
p. 169
e.g., “Fair Rosamond,” by T. Miller (“The Parlour Library”), 1847, and as late as 1911 it was cast into the form of a one-act tragedy by Mr. Oliver W. F. Lodge, under the name of “The Labyrinth,” and was first performed by the Pilgrim Players on October 14 in that year. A little-known opera by Addison deals with the same theme; it is entitled “Rosamond” and is inscribed to the Duchess of Marlborough. The most poignant and beautiful version of the tragedy is that given by Swinburne in his “Rosamond” (not, of course, to be confused with his “Rosamund”).
Tennyson, in his “Becket,” makes that prelate rescue Rosamond from the Queen at the crucial moment and take her to Godstowe nunnery, whence she later escapes to intercede—ineffectually—with his murderers in Canterbury Cathedral.
No authentic portrait of Rosamond is known to exist, but in Hampton Court Palace, just outside Cardinal Wolsey’s Room, there hangs a half-length female portrait by an unknown painter (No. 961 [937]), which is labelled Rosamond Clifford. The lady depicted, however, is attired in a fashion which did not obtain until considerably later than the time of Rosamond; in fact, there seems to be no justification whatever for assuming that the picture represents the fair Rosamond at all, except perhaps in the imagination of the artist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Town
The name “Troy” has been associated with labyrinths from ancient times.
There is little information about him in the later histories of the Franks. Gregory of Tours only names him once as the father of Childeric I while putting doubt on his descent from Clodio.[2] Many admit today that this formulation finds its explanation in a legend reported by Fredegar.[3] The Chronicle of Fredegar interpolated on this reference by Gregory by adding Merovech was the son of the queen, Clodio’s wife; but his father was a sea-god, bistea Neptuni.[4] No other historical evidence exists that Merovech ever lived. Some researchers have noted that Merovech, the Frankish chieftain, may have been the namesake of a certain god or demigod honored by the Franks prior to their conversion to Christianity. It has been suggested Merovech refers to or is reminiscent to the Dutch river Merwede,[5] nowadays part of the Rhine-Meus-Scheldt delta but historically a main subsidiary of the Rhine, in the neighborhood of which the Salian Franks once dwelled according to Roman historians. Another theory[6] considers this legend to be the creation of a mythological past needed to back up the fast-rising Frankish rule in Western Europe.
According to another legend, Merovech was conceived when Pharamond’s wife encountered a Quinotaur, a sea monster which could change shapes while swimming. Though never stated, it is implied that she was impregnated by it. This legend was related by Fredegar in the seventh century, and may have been known earlier. The legend is probably a back-formation or folk etymology used to explain the Salian Franks’ origin as a sea coast dwelling people, and based on the name itself. The “Mero-” or “Mer-” element in the name suggests a sea or ocean (see Old English “mere,” Latin “mare,” or even the Modern English word “mermaid,” etc.). The “Salian” in “Salian Franks” may be a reference to salt, a reminder of their pre-migration home on the shores of the North Sea (alternatively, it may refer to the Isala or IJssel river behind which their homeland, the Salland, may have been located). The legend could also be explained in a much easier way. The sea monster could have been a foreign conqueror, coming from the sea, taking the dead king’s(Chlodio or Pharamonds) wife to legitimise his rule.
The first Frankish royal dynasty called themselves Merovingians in his honor.Merovech may have been the father of Childeric I who may have succeeded him.
Reference in popular culture
The legend about Merovech’s conception was adapted in 1982 by authors Henry Lincoln and Richard Leigh in their book Holy Blood Holy Grail, as the seed of a new idea. They hypothesized that this “descended from a fish” legend was actually referring to the concept that the Merovingian line had married into the bloodline of Jesus Christ, since the symbol for early Christians had also been a fish. This theory, with no other basis than Lincoln and Leigh’s concoction, was further popularized in 2003 via Dan Brown’s bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code.[7][8]
There is also a fictional character called The Merovingian in the movies The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions (portrayed by Lambert Wilson). The character is modeled as an ancient and powerful leader of exiles. He also has extensive knowledge of the inner workings of the universe and uses this knowledge to support his decadent lifestyle. The Merovingian is very much a mystical king type character.
http://www.geni.com/people/M%C3%A9rovech-I-King-of-the-Salian-Franks/6000000002143186115
The Frankish mythology that has survived in primary sources is comparable to that of the Aeneas and Romulus myths take in Roman mythology, but altered to suit Germanic tastes. Like many Germanic peoples, the Franks told a founding myth story to explain their connection with peoples of classical history. In the case of the Franks, these peoples were the Sicambri and the Trojans. An anonymous work of 727 called Liber Historiae Francorum states that following the fall of Troy, 12,000 Trojans led by chiefs Priam and Antenor moved to the Tanais (Don) river, settled in Pannonia near the Sea of Azov and founded a city called “Sicambria”. In just two generations (Priam and his son Marcomer) from the fall of Troy (by modern scholars dated in the late Bronze Age) they arrive in the late 4th century AD at the Rhine
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery has a world-renowned collection of works by Burne-Jones and the Pre-Raphaelites that, some claim, strongly influenced the young J.R.R. Tolkien,[10] who would later go on to write his novels, such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, with their influence taken from the same mythological scenes portrayed by the Pre-Raphaelites.
The Briar Rose: The Briar Wood
In the original study for The Briar Wood some of the knights appear to be more feminine than masculine. Burne-Jones modelled the knights from women: Jane Morris, Georgiana (his wife), and Maria Zambaco, the Greek beauty who later became his paramour.
Morris and Co. designs often were created for one medium and then adapted and modified for another. Edward Burne-Jones designed a set of nine two-tile Sleeping Beauty panels for a bedroom fireplace at ‘The Hill’, the home of painter Myles Birket Foster in the 1860s.
Ten years later, he developed a series of three small paintings, and then four larger works that he worked on intermittently from 1870 to 1890. The series was displayed with verses by William Morris. Unlike the fairy tale tales painted for ‘The Hill’, the Briar Rose series does not tell a sequential story but shows the sleepers as seen by the prince as he makes his way through the castle to The Rose Bower.
The Danish part of Jutland. Brown: Southern Schleswig, historically a part of Jutland Region, although now in Germany. Yellow: Holstein, not part of Jutland Region, also Germany.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jutland_Peninsula
The Jutland Peninsula (Danish: Den Jyske Halvø German: Jütische Halbinsel) or more historically the Cimbrian Peninsula (Danish: Den Kimbriske Halvø German: Kimbrische Halbinsel) is a peninsula in Europe, divided between Denmark and Germany. The names are derived from the Jutes and the Cimbri.
and Oswin told his son the tale of Alboin son of Audoin, the Lombard king; and of the great battle of the Lombards and the Gepids, remembered as terrible even in the grim sixth century; and of the kings Thurisind and Cunimund, and of Rosamunda. ‘Not a good story for near bed-time,’ he said, ending suddenly with Alboin’s drinking from the jewelled skull of Cunimund…
Queen Princess Argotta Sicambrian (Argotta) “Rosamunde” Franken formerly Franks aka av Friesland, de Thuringia
Born about 0369 in Sicambria, , Western Europe, Francemap
Daughter of Genebald Franks II and Amalagerge (d’ Ostrogothe) Ostrogoths
[sibling(s) unknown]
Wife of Pharamond (Franks) Franken — married [date unknown] in , , Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germanymap
Wife of Adulphus Ostrogoths — married [date unknown] [location unknown]
Mother of Adelbertus Franks, Afranius Syagrius Franks, Afranius Syagrius Franks, Fredemundus Franks, Fredemundus (Franks) Franken, Adelbertus Moselle, Weldelphus (Of Thuringia) Thüringen, Basina Thuringia, Unknown (UNKNOWN) Unknown, Unknown UNKNOWN, Wedelplus King of (Von Thuringia) Thüringen, UNKNOWN Fredemundus, Erelicia (di Verona) Ostrogoths, Adelbertus (Moselle) de Moselle and Weldelphus (von Thuringia) Thüringen
German tribes were heavily influenced by the neighbouring Celts (Gauls), some of whom live on the Cimbric Peninsula (Jutland), and possibly in Sweden. A number of German gods and goddesses were borrowed from or shared with the Celts; for example Taran/Thor. Edward Dawson theorises that the Dene are likely named after a leader (a woman?), who in turn bore the name of the Goddess Danu or Dana. Either that or they were followers of Dana as a tribe and named such. Such a distinction between gods and earthly leaders is probably irrelevant due to ancient European deification customs wherein a strong leader was often elevated to deity status after death. Additionally, a name for the Danes was ‘Ingwine’. ‘Wine’ means friend, so the Danes were friends of Ingvi, part of the Germanic Ingaevones.
(Additional information by Edward Dawson, and from External Link: The Gutenburg Text of Beowulf, translation by Lesslie Hall, 1892.)
Skiold
First of the Scyldings, important both to Denmark and Angeln.
Skiold, or Scyld, first of the Scyldings, is the founding father of the Danes in southern Sweden, but is also a highly important figure in the list of kings of Angeln. Could there be an ancient connection between the Danes and the Angles which is remembered in this individual? He is sometimes called the king of Reidgotaland, whose location is disputed by scholars.
Fróði I / Frodhi I
Fridlief II
Havar
Fróði II / Frodhi II
Vermund the Sage
Vermund is probably the Vermundus of Saxo Grammaticus in his Danish History. He is said to be a Danish king, but he is a repetition from the list of kings of Angeln – Wærmund. His father and famous son, Wihtlæg and Offa respectively, are also copied, as Vigletus and Uffo. Typically, the famous rulers of a district which later comes to be ruled by Danes are called Danes themselves.
Olaf the Mild
Dan mikilláti / Dan the Magnificent
Son of Danp , who was the brother-in-law of Domar.
Dan is the legendary founder of the (ancient) Danish kingdom. He is mentioned in several medieval Scandinavian texts, which establish that he is either the son of Danp or one of the sons of King Ypper of Uppsala (the other two being Nori, who later rules Norway, and Østen, who later rules the Swedes (possibly the Östen of the late sixth century)). Whatever Dan’s reality in history, his coming suggests that a new dynasty is founded, or at least that a sideshoot of the same dynasty of ancient rulers of the Dene takes over.
Fróði mikilláti / Frodhi III
Son.
Halfdan I
Fridlief III
Fróði IV
Last of the ancient Scyldings?
Ingild / Ingeld / Ingjald
Of the Heaðobards. Survived the defeat against the Scyldings?
Fróði V / Froda
Of the Heaðobards. Killed.
Ingild and Fróði of the Heaðobards (Heathobards or Heathobeards) fight a war of dynastic rivalry (or inter-tribal conflict, if the Heathobards are accepted as the Langobards of western Poland) against the Scyldings. It is a war that apparently represents a shift in power from the traditional rulers of the Danes, signalling the end of the ancient ruling dynasty and allowing the beginning of a new one which is later genealogically attached to the Scyldings (alternatively, the ancient house, whose name is lost, is attached to the new rulers to give them an air of legitimacy).
The new order is represented by the Scyldings and the Healfdena, who win the war and who possibly lead the migration of Danes from Sweden into the Cimbric Peninsula. This puts pressure on the Jutes in the north of the peninsula, probably resulting in feuds and local power struggles (which impacts upon the Angles and minor groups such as the Germanic Rondings). The fifth century migration period is one in which no one Dane rules over all the Danish peoples, representing an interregnum of sorts. At least one probable sub-grouping can be identified under Hnæf Healfdene, and there probably exist other factions which have been lost to history.
fl c.390s?
Scyld Scaefson / Shield Scaefson
Son of Scaef. ‘The Great Ring Giver’. King of the Dene?
Scyld Scaefson is later added to the genealogies of the descendant kings of Angeln, probably due to his importance as an early Dane in the Cimbric Peninsula. He is known as the ‘Great Ring Giver’ signifying a powerful lord who is able to well reward his followers. The question is whether he is a king or perhaps a leader of his peoples as they migrate into the peninsula – or perhaps both. Could Scyld be the father of kings who himself does not rule but helps in establishing his people in their new territory?
fl c.420?
Beowulf
Son of Scyld, father of Healfdene, grandfather of Hrothgar.
fl c.420
Hoc Healfdene?
Born to mixed parentage (‘half-Dane’). King of the Dene?
While not a Scylding himself, Hoc seems to be allied to them by blood or marriage, perhaps explaining the Danish half of his parentage (or the parentage of an earlier generation of his family, although it cannot even be confirmed that Hoc is a name and not an eponym (as per Widsith)). The Danish side of his parentage is covered by the epic poem, Beowulf, which describes him as the son of Beowulf (the elder), while the other side is most likely to be Jutish or Anglian, given that the Danes are intruding into the territory of these peoples. The other likely explanation for ‘Healfdene’ is that he commands a mixed following of Danes and Jutes. The name of Scylding is later attached to the man who is probably his son, Hnæf.
Lombardic Legend in The Lost Road
“I am looking for something I can’t find” – J.R.R.Tolkien
In February 1968, in a Letter addressing an article, Tolkien wrote:
L. (C.S.Lewis) said to me one day: ‘Tollers, there is too little of what we really like in stories. I am afraid we shall have to try and write some ourselves.’ We agreed that he should try ‘space-travel’, and I should try ‘time-travel’.
Letter #294
And so was “The Lost Road” begun.
This exciting story had never been finished, yet it had a strong resonance within the whole scope of Tolkien’s Legendarium.
However, in the existing variants of The Lost Road, there are quite a few other intriguing elements – the strong reference to the history of the Lombards being certainly one of them.
In a letter of July 1964 (Letter # 257), Tolkien gives some account of his book:
When C. S. Lewis and I tossed up, and he was to write on space-travel and I on time-travel, I began an abortive book of time-travel of which the end was to be the presence of my hero in the drowning of Atlantis.
This was to be called Numenor, the Land in the West. … It started with a father-son affinity between Edwin and Elwin of the present, and was supposed to go back into legendary time by way of an Eadwine and AElfwine of circa A.D.918, and Audoin and Alboin of Lombardic legend, and so to the traditions of the North Sea concerning the coming of corn and culture heroes, ancestors of kingly lines, in boats (and their departure in funeral ships). … In my tale we were to come at last to Amandil and Elendil leaders of the loyal party in Numenor, when it fell under the domination of Sauron. Elendil ‘elf-friend’ was the founder of the Exiled kingdoms in Arnor and Gondor.
In a reverse mode, Tolkien named the central characters of his “The Lost Road” Alboin (being the father) and Audoin (being the son).
Lombardic Legend
In the main story, as far as the narrative of “The Lost Road” goes on, comes the Lombardic legend, told by Oswin Errol to his son Alboin.
…’I wondered why Alboin. Why am I called Alboin?…
…it is a real name, isn’t it?’ said Alboin eagerly. ‘I mean, it means something, and men have been called it? It isn’t just invented?
and Oswin told his son the tale of Alboin son of Audoin, the Lombard king; and of the great battle of the Lombards and the Gepids, remembered as terrible even in the grim sixth century; and of the kings Thurisind and Cunimund, and of Rosamunda. ‘Not a good story for near bed-time,’ he said, ending suddenly with Alboin’s drinking from the jewelled skull of Cunimund…
…
Oswin Errol ended thus the story and did not tell his son how Rosamunda exacted her revenge. The outcome of her machinations was that Alboin was murdered in his bed, and his body was buried ‘at the going up of the stairs which are near to the palace,’ amid great lamentation of the Lombards.
The reference Tolkien makes to the Lombardic legend does not, however, end here.
Further in the course of developing the story, or rather creating its new versions, we find more on the issue – namely, in the myth of KingSheave ([1] , [2] ).
The legend of KingSheave itself is an intriguing and thrilling story. But what connects it to the Lombardic Legend is that in the Poem version, the mysterious child comes to the shores of the land of the Longobards! And it is their people that the migthy foreign king brings high up in development, for he:
Their need he healed, and laws renewed long forsaken.
Words he taught them wise and lovely –
their tongue ripened in the time of Sheave
to song and music. Secrets he opened
runes revealing. Riches he gave them,
reward of labour, wealth and comfort
from the earth calling, acres ploughing,
sowing in season seed of plenty,
hoarding in garner golden harvest
for the help of men. The hoar forests
in his days drew back to the dark mountains;
the shadow receded, and shining corn,
white ears of wheat, whispered in the breezes
where waste had been. The woods trembled.
Halls and houses hewn of timber,
strong towers of stone steep and lofty,
golden-gabled, in his guarded city
they raised and roofed. In his royal dwelling
of wood well-carven the walls were wrought;
fair-hued figures filled with silver,
gold and scarlet, gleaming hung there,
stories boding of strange countries,
were one wise in wit the woven legends
to thread with thought. At his throne men found
counsel and comfort and care’s healing,
justice in judgement. Generous-handed
his gifts he gave. Glory was uplifted.
Far sprang his fame over fallow water,
through Northern lands the renown echoed
of the shining king, Sheave the mighty.
And it is so that the history of the people of the Longobards comes as a legend in “The Lost Road”.
Historia Langobardorum
In his notes and comments to The Lost Road (Volume V-th of the HoMe series), Christopher Tolkien himself pays special attention to the Lombardic legend, providing it in a longer variant, grounding it on the Historia Langobardorum by Paul the Deacon.
The Lombards (‘Long-beards’: Latin Langobardi, Old English Long- beardan) were a Germanic people renowned for their ferocity. From their ancient homes in Scandinavia they moved southwards, but very little is known of their history before the middle of the sixth century. At that time their king was Audoin …
“Historia Langobardorum” can be found in full details at [3].
Interrelations with other sources
It is interesting to find out why Tolkien had paid so much special attention to the tales and legends about the people of the Longobards, why he would make its main characters the prototypes of characters in his own myths and tales… Why the Longobards out of all other existing peoples?!
I would explain it by the fact that since the yearly years of his life Tolkien had been strongly fascinated by the ancient legends and tales of the Old Norse Mythlogy.
In fact, his peculiar interest in creating languages of his own had taken him along a road that lead him to studying the history of those peoples of the North who once, long before his own time, must’ve spoken the languages that appealed to him, peoples that must’ve spoken the language in The Land of Heroes – the “Kalevala”, the languages of those ancient peoples whose legendary heroes used to thrill the imagination of young Tolkien.
And as it is obvious from “Historia Langobardorum”, from the pure historical facts and from the myths themselves, the Longobards were once a people living far in the North. This people had a long and exciting history that must have impressed Tolkien very much. For their march from the far northern regions to the Southern parts of the continent did not last for a couple of years only, and during this migration the tribe would interact with most of the peoples then living in the lands of today’s Europe and left a memorable trace in the European history.
Can it be assumed which Northern people the Longobards were?
An answer to such a question is approached well in details in Book 1, Chapters 1, 2 and 3 in the “Historia Langobardorum”., the author calling them Winnili- coming from the Germanic tribes living in the far northern regions of Europe -in the what was then believed to be an island – Scandinavia. The name of the tribe is considered to mean eager for battle according to Bruckner (322); and according to Schmidt (37) it is related to the Gothic “vinja”, ” pasture.”
On the other hand, there is a striking similarity between what we read in the Lombardic legend itself – the part about KingSheave and his deeds for the people of the Longobards and what we read in “Beowulf” :
LO, praise of the prowess of people-kings of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped, we have heard, and what honor the athelings won! Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes, from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore, awing the earls. Since erst he lay friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him: for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve, till before him the folk, both far and near, who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate, gave him gifts: a good king he!
Therefore, could it be that those Winilli were in fact the Danes!
The Danes were residents of Denmark. Hroðgar’s Heorot is likely to have been located on the island of Sjaelland near the present day city of Roskilde.
The Scylding line is known through Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon sources; the Anglo-Saxon king Cnut (1016-1042, a period coincident with the composition of the Beowulf manuscript) is known to have descended from this line.
The Danes are referred to as the Dena, Beorht-Dena? (Bright-), Gar-Dena? (Spear-), Hring-Dena? (Ring-, Corselet-), East-Dena?, Norð-Dena? (North-), Suð-Dena? (South-), West-Dena?, Scyldings (Sons of Scyld), Ar-Scyldingas? (Honour-), Here-Scyldingas? (Army-), Sige-Scyldingas? (Victory-), Þeod-Scyldingas? (People-), and Ingwines (Ing’s Friends).
Above data taken from : [4]
If the Danes were Ingwines, let’s remember the Ingwaiwar [5]
So, if we trace these interrelations, it results that the Winilli could be the same Danes who were the friends of Ing who in thweir turn were Elf – friends and that the legendary KingSheave = Scyld the Scefing had once come to their lands out from the open sea.
Interesting detail – the scull cup
In the great battle between the Lombards and another Germanic people, the Gepids, Alboin son of Audoin slew Thurismod, son of the Gepid king Thurisind, in single combat; and when the Lombards returned home after their victory they asked Audoin to give his son the rank of a companion of his table, since it was by his valour that they had won the day. But this Audoin would not do, for, he said, ‘it is not the custom among us that the king’s son should sit down with his father before he has first received weapons from the king of some other people.’ When Alboin heard this he went with forty young men of the Lombards to king Thurisind to ask this honour from him. Thurisind welcomed him, invited him to the feast, and seated him at his right hand, where his dead son Thurismod used to sit.
But as the feast went on Thurisind began to think of his son’s death, and seeing Alboin his slayer in his very place his grief burst forth in words: ‘Very pleasant to me is the seat,’ he said, ‘but hard is it to look upon him who sits in it.’ Roused by these words the king’s second son Cunimund began to revile the Lombard guests; insults were uttered on both sides, and swords were grasped. But on the very brink Thurisind leapt up from the table, thrust himself between the Gepids and the Lombards, and threatened to punish the first man who began the fight.
Thus he allayed the quarrel; and taking the arms of his dead son he gave them to Alboin, and sent him back in safety to his father’s kingdom.
Audoin died some ten years after the battle, and Alboin became king of the Lombards in 565. A second battle was fought against the Gepids, in which Alboin slew their king Cunimund and took his daughter Rosamunda captive. At Easter 568 Alboin set out for the conquest of Italy; and in 572 he was murdered.
In the story told by Paul the Deacon, at a banquet in Verona Alboin gave his queen Rosamunda wine to drink in a cup made from the skull of king Cunimund, and invited her to drink merrily with her father (‘and if this should seem to anyone impossible,’ wrote Paul, ‘I declare that I speak the truth in Christ: I have seen (Radgisl) the prince holding the very cup in his hand on a feastday and showing it to those who sat at the table with him.’)
From “Historia Langobardorum”
Many battles had the people of the Longobardi fought throughtout their stormy history, but the battle between them and another ferrociuos tribe, at the time when they had already settled in the lands of present North Italy, seems to be one of the most renown in the history of whole Europe.
Paulus Diaconus speaks of the enemy of the Longobardi to be another Germanic tribe – the Gepids and describes well, as the legend itself, too, the corageous fight of the Longobards against them.
Here are, however, some facts, provided by a leading Bulgarian historian – Bojidar Dimitrov, PhD?.
Indeed, some West-European? authors mention the Bulgarians even during that epoch. These were mainly accounts of battles describing them or their participation. We could only guess as to why did the Pannonian and the Carpathian Bulgarians not come to terms with the Longobards but the frequent wars between them are a fact. It is thanks to them that we know of the battle in which the Bulgarians had cruelly defeated the Longobards, slayed their king Agelmundi and took his daughter captive. Then Lamissio, the new king of the Longobards, hit back and defeated the Bulgarians.
The Bulgarian tribes’ involvement in joint operations with other peoples would eventually disperse a great many of those who inhabited Central Europe. Thus in 568-569 AD, when the Longobardic king Alboin conquered three big areas in northern Italy – Liguria, Lombardy and Etruria, the population that the king sent there did not consist of Longobardic tribes only, but also of Bulgarian allied tribes from Pannonia.
Other Bulgarian tribes in the Avar khanate also took part in the Avar campaigns against Byzantium. In 631-632 AD they launched fierce battles to take over the supreme power in the khanate, but were defeated and 9000 of them left Pannonia and withdrew to Bavaria under the Frankish king Dagobert. It is not known why Dagobert welcomed them but later gave orders for them to be killed overnight. The survivinq 700 families succeeded in escaping in battle, crossing the Alps and arriving in Longobardy, where many of their compatriots had already been living. At long last they were well received and offered their first accommodation in the region of Venice but after the year 668 AD they had to move to the deserted coast of Ravena, an exarchate in present-day Italian region of Campobasso. Two hundred years later an ancient writer, Paulus Diaconus, visited them and heard them speak Latin and Bulgarian.
Details – in : [6]
Therefore, it becomes obvious that though enemies at first, later the Panonian Bulgarians seem to have become allies to the Longobards and together they fought for their new settlements in Northern Italy.
What speaks also of the presence and influence of the Bulgarians in the affairs and the style of life of the Lombards is the detail with the cup made out of the enemy’s scull, which we read about both – in the legend as it comes in “The Lost Road” and in Historia Langobardorum.
This “tradition” had been well often practiced in the war-affairs of the Bulgarians long before and after their interaction with the Longobards and the other European peoples. In 811 A.D., after one of his great victories over the Byzantine Emperors Nicephorus I, Khan Krum – ruler at that time of the already existing and strong state of Bulgaria ( the state was founded in 681), had the Emperor’s skull lined with silver and drank from it at his feasts.
I am not quite certain, whether this essay is meant as a general overview of Lombardic history or legend and Tolkien’s possible connections to that, or if this is just an account of Tolkien’s brief mentionings of the Lombards and an attempt to connect those with “real” legends and/or history. But I’ll add my thoughts anyway:
When Tolkien wrote in his letter (#257) … Audoin and Alboin of Lombardic legend,… he was certainly aware that Paul the Deacon, the main source of most what was known thitherto about the history of the Lombards was no reliable historian whose accounts – especially of the earlier “history” of the Lombards – could be taken for “historical facts”. Paul’s accounts, probably, had a similar “reliability” as, for example, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s accounts in his “Historia regum Britanniae”, written in the 12th century. I think this was the reason for Tolkien’s wording ‘Lombardic legend’ rather than ‘Lombardic history’.
First archeological evidence of the Lombards is from the 1st century BCE, in the region of the lower Elbe and whether or not the Lombards had their origin in Scandinavia is still subject of dispute among serious historians. It should be noted that the Lombards in their early times were passing down their “history” orally, hence only sparse written documentation exists from before their arrival in Italy. Thus it can be suspected, that Paul was relying on Jordanes’ writings – or maybe also on the Origo gentis Langobardorum from the middle of the 7th century – when he ascribed a Scandinavian origin to the Lombards in his Historia Langobardorum, written late in the 8th century. Generally, it seems, it was “fashionable” among early medieval “historians” to ascribe their ancestors a Biblical, Trojan or Scandinavian origin.
Even the episode of Alboin and Rosamunde, which Tolkien only alludes to, and of which Christopher provides us with Paul the Deacon’s account, can – IMO not be considered a hard historical “fact”. “Fact” is, that Paul wrote some 200 years later about events that were subject of much folk-tale and folk-song, and drinking from a skull – jewelled or no – was not altogether rare, since the Huns had “introduced” this habit a few centuries earlier. People back then – as the hypothesis is amongst scholars – thought they would “inherit” the strength of the slain, if they drank from their skulls. But whether or not this “habit” was widespread among Germanic tribes is debated.
One of the possible reasons for Tolkien’s interest in the Lombards was the fact, that the tribe of the Lombards from the middle of the 5th century on began to merge with that of the Saxons at the lower Elbe. Tolkien himself had Saxon ancestors, which was probably one of the reasons for his attempt to create an Anglo-Saxon mythology for England.
— ChW
This study was aimed at providing some historical background (as much as I could find) to the “Lombardic Legend”, for the history of the tribe of the Lombards comes as a legend in the events in “The Lost Road”.
I found intriguing two small elements in the tale told by Oswin to his son Alboin, namely the name of the boy – Alboin and the scull cup; the first one because it revealed in its own subtle way the interaction of Tolkien’s ideas in the process of creating his Legendarium, because this name leads back to the Book of Lost Tales – II and the character of Eriol, the Elf-friend; the second – because I recognized something from the history of my own people and that was a real temptation difficult to resist and not try to find out more about it from the p.o.v. of real history.
This study has also tried to track some interlacing between the “Lombardic legend” and some others tales and legends such as that of Beowulf and that of the misterious KingSheave. — LR
I see, thanks for explaining that, I wasn’t sure as what I should see it. Indeed, if there is one recurrent “motif” in Tolkien’s legendarium it is that of the “Elf-friends”. Eriol (‘one who dreams alone’) became Ælfwine (‘elf-friend’), the ThreeHouses, the Elendili, Bilbo, Frodo, even Gimli, all were – or became – Elf-friends. Even outside Tolkien’s mythology we can make it out, like in Smith (of Wootton Major). And in the Anglo-Saxon name Ælfwine Tolkien could actually make out a linguistic trace of his “Elf-friends”. Alboin (alb … Germanic for ‘elf’ is still existant in a few modern German words) was a Germanic ancestor of the name Ælfwine. Tolkien explains in his Notes on Nomenclature:
Elf-friend. Translate. It was suggested by Ælfwine, the English form of an old Germanic name (represented for instance in the Lombardic Alboin), though its analyzable meaning was probably not recognized or thought significant by the many recorded bearers of the name Aelfwine in Old English.
Thus, it seems only natural that Tolkien’s interest would be immediatly drawn, should he encounter a name like Alboin.
But I do not share your point of view that the Lombards can be considered “Norse-people” at any rate. They are a Germanic people, but definitely not Norse. Norse is primarily a linguistic term referring to Old Norwegian and Old Icelandic, the latter being the language in which the biggest pieces of the old – Germanic or Northern – myths – the Eddas – had survived, in Iceland. On the European continent and in England and Ireland these old pagan myths were either Christianized or extinguished.
Neither is it likely that the Lombards can be made out as “Danes”, according to recent historians the Lombards simply can not – with any certainty – be traced further back than the 1st century BCE and the region of the lower Elbe, neither archeologically nor linguistically. — ChW
I agree with your point about the Lombards not being a “Norse” people, for they seem to be neither Norwegens nor Finns. I only said that Tolkien was strongly interested in Norse mythology and that made him study the history of that part of the continent. Ans as far as I could gather form Historia Langobardorum, the Lombards are believed to have come from the Scandianvian peninsula.
The link I make between the Lombards and the Danes comes as based upon what I read in the Historia Langobardorum, as well as upon the interesting interpretations of the name of their people, given in a quote above, one of them being “sons of Scyld” and another – Ingwines (Ing’s Friends). If Scyld is (as far as I understand) the same KingSheave and if in tales the latter is said to have come to the lands of the Longobards (as in the poem of KingSheave) and to be a “good king” to the Danes (as in Beowulf), can’t such link be assumed?
Besides, you have provided some additional information about the Lombards having some “affairs” with the Anglo – Saxons, this on one hand, and on the other hand the fact that Tolkien named the Anglo – Saxons Ingwaiwar (as appears in my little research Of the Seven Invasions ), then yet taking into consideration the interpretation of the name “Danes” as being “Ingwines” = “Ing’s friends” ” , can’t such link be assumed?
However, ancient history is not an easy matter to deal with, for all we can use are the sources from those times and they sometimes are scarce, and sometimes not even very true. Therefore I would not claim for certain that the Lombards and the Danes are one and the same people. All I am providing are some facts from different sources and my interpretation of these facts. Such “theories” , of course, cannot be taken for granted! Moreover, I am not a history-scholar.–LR
Sorry, it seems then, that I was misreading your question: Can it be determined which of the Norse peoples the Longobards were?. This wording suggests – to me – that Lombards were Norse (speaking) people, maybe a different wording could make this a little more clear. Another statement that could be easily misread is that referring to the Kalevala. Not everyone knows – as you do – that the Kalevala is a Finnish epos and as such it belongs to the Finno-Ugric? language group. But since the reference comes in the paragraph following that mentioning Norse mythology – which belongs to the Indo-European? language group – it could easily be assumed that the Kalevala would belong to Norse mythology…
On the one hand we have a suggested link between Scyld/Sheaf/Ing and the Danes, but a link to the Winnili or Lombards I fail to recognize in the informations you give above. Only if we would consider Tolkien’s poem (In days of yore out of deep Ocean to the Longobards, in the land dwelling that of old they held amid the isles of the North…’) as factual, historical, information, such a connection could be drawn. But in those few texts I have browsed, I have not been able to make out anything which would be able to prove – or at least suggest – such a connection [3] [7] [8], unless we assume that everyone who had possible ancestors in Scandinavia belongs to one and the same people.
But some recent historians suggest that the Winnili were not a race as Paulus assumed, rather a community of several groups or tribes, probably with different ancestors. From archeological evidence it is also assumed that the Lombards were agricultural people before they began to merge with the Saxon shepherds and breeders, the former possibly representing – at least in part – remnants of Old-European? inhabitants, whereas the latter were – again at least in part – the heirs of the Proto-Indoeuropean? nomadic Kurgan people. This seems also supported by humangenetic researches. Karin Priester in Die Geschichte der Langobarden gives a good overview of the recent state of researches about the history of the Lombards. — ChW
I admit one should be very careful with wording.
I’ve changed this here and there above in order to possibly avoid any further misinterpretations. If however there’s still sth. dubious, I’m ready to try to dispel it.
As for the Winilli I don’t think that P.D. leaves the reader with the opinion of them being a “race”, but simply a part of a larger tribe.–LR
Thank you, the essay – to me – looks already much clearer now. What led me to the opinion that Paul assumes the Winnili to be a race, was his statement in book I chapter 1: In like manner also the race of Winnili, [5] that is, of Langobards,… — ChW
Well, I see. However in the content of the story as a whole, I did not get the impression of him considering them a “race”. Perhaps it’s another example of not carefully chosen wording. –LR
Above is a painting done by my late sister titled ‘Story Teller’. Christine was a good story teller, as was Rosemary and myself. This gift ran in the family. What is astounding, is, that the ghost writer Stacey Pierrot hired, claims there exist very few of Christine Rosamond’s words, and thus Tom snyder does not include but a handful. This contradicts what Pierrot said in 1997, that Christine was dictating her life story to Sanda Faulkner. If there exist words by the Rose of the World, then Pierrot can not now proudce them lest she be titled a ‘Story Teller’. I laugh!
Story Teller can be titled ‘Kundry and the Flower Maidens’. Kundry is depicted as a Mary Magdalene, who in turn is depicted as a Grail Lineage from Jesus that begat a royal and divine race. Kundry is called ‘The Rose of Hades’ a name that can be applied to Orpheus and his wife, Eurydice. The photograph of Rena Christiansen, that was used for a Oktoberfest poster at the University of Nebraska, would make a excellent Kundry. Indeed, Rena and her boyfriend engaged in the black arts, which I would push out of her being atop a mountain.
Rena is the Silent Muse of Christine Rosamond, daughter of Rosemary, granddaughter of Maryly Magdalene Rosamond. Yesterday I had lunch with Marilyn Reed who has agreed to help raise Rosamond’s Creative Legacy from hell. She will help sell Rosamond’s images of beautiful women for my two nieces, and act as my agent in seeking a publisher and a producer of a great story – that needs to be told!
Members of the Rosemond family in Holland were Swan Brethren. Lohengrin was a Knight of the Swan. His father, Parsifal, encounters Kundry and the Flower Maidens who hold the secret of the Grail that is needed to save King Arthur’s kingdom. Christine and I were Flower Children.
I have been on the bus!
Jon Presco
Copyright 2011
The historic region of Jutland, the area that was covered by Codex Holmiensis (Jyske Lov) covered the Jutland Peninsula area north of Eider River and included Funen, the North Jutlandic Island and other smaller islands. Much of the varying definitions of what Jutland consists of are due to differences between the Jutland peninsula considered as a geographic feature and Jutland considered as a historical political territory.
Its terrain is relatively flat, with open lands, plains and peat bogs in the west and a more elevated and slightly hilly terrain in the east.
The Cimbri were a Germanic tribe,[1] who together with the Teutones and the Ambrones fought the Roman Republic between 113 and 101 BC. The Cimbri were initially successful, particularly at the Battle of Arausio, in which up to 120,000 Roman soldiers were killed, after which they raided large areas in Gaul and Hispania. In 101 BC, during an attempted invasion of Italy, the Cimbri were decisively defeated by Gaius Marius, and their king, Boiorix, was killed. Some of the surviving captives are reported to have been among the rebelling Gladiators in the Third Servile War.[2] A contemporary Germanic community in Northern Italy who speak the Cimbrian language is also known as the Cimbri.
Archaeologists have not found any clear indications of a mass migration from Jutland in the early Iron Age. The Gundestrup Cauldron, which was deposited in a bog in Himmerland in the 2nd or 1st century BC, shows that there was some sort of contact with southeastern Europe, but it is uncertain if this contact can be associated with the Cimbrian expedition.[3]
Advocates for a northern homeland point to Greek and Roman sources that associate the Cimbri with the peninsula of Jutland, Denmark. According to the Res gestae (ch. 26) of Augustus, the Cimbri were still found in the area around the turn of the 1st century AD:
My fleet sailed from the mouth of the Rhine eastward as far as the lands of the Cimbri, to which, up to that time, no Roman had ever penetrated either by land or by sea, and the Cimbri and Charydes and Semnones and other peoples of the Germans of that same region through their envoys sought my friendship and that of the Roman people.
The contemporary Greek geographer Strabo testifies that the Cimbri still existed as a Germanic tribe, presumably in the “Cimbric peninsula” (since they are said to live by the North Sea and to have paid tribute to Augustus):
As for the Cimbri, some things that are told about them are incorrect and others are extremely improbable. For instance, one could not accept such a reason for their having become a wandering and piratical folk as this that while they were dwelling on a Peninsula they were driven out of their habitations by a great flood-tide; for in fact they still hold the country which they held in earlier times; and they sent as a present to Augustus the most sacred kettle in their country, with a plea for his friendship and for an amnesty of their earlier offences, and when their petition was granted they set sail for home; and it is ridiculous to suppose that they departed from their homes because they were incensed on account of a phenomenon that is natural and eternal, occurring twice every day. And the assertion that an excessive flood-tide once occurred looks like a fabrication, for when the ocean is affected in this way it is subject to increases and diminutions, but these are regulated and periodical.
—[4]
On the map of Ptolemy, the “Kimbroi” are placed on the northernmost part of the peninsula of Jutland.,[5] i.e. in the modern landscape of Himmerland south of Limfjorden (since Vendsyssel-Thy north of the fjord was at that time a group of islands). Himmerland (Old Danish Himbersysel) is generally thought to preserve their name,[6] in an older form without Grimm’s law (PIE k > Germ. h). Alternatively, Latin C- represents an attempt to render the unfamiliar Proto-Germanic h = [χ], perhaps due to Celtic-speaking interpreters (a Celtic intermediary would also explain why Germanic *Þeuðanōz became Latin Teutones).
The origin of the name Cimbri is unknown. One etymology[7] is PIE *tḱim-ro- “inhabitant”, from tḱoi-m- “home” (> Eng. home), itself a derivation from tḱei- “live” (> Greek κτίζω, Latin sinō); then, the Germanic *χimbra- finds an exact cognate in Slavic sębrъ “farmer” (> Croatian, Serbian sebar, Russ. sjabër).
Because of the similarity of the names, the Cimbri were at times associated with Cymry, the Welsh name for themselves.[8] However, this word is regularly derived from Celtic *Kombrogi, meaning “compatriots”.[9] Cumry is an evoluted form of the Old Welsh, with an assimilation of [b] to first [m], the second element brogi changed into bro “country” in Modern Welsh. It is hardly conceivable that the Romans would have recorded such a form as Cimbri[10][11] The name has also been related to the word kimme meaning “rim”, i.e. the people of the coast.[12] Finally, since Antiquity, the name has been related to that of the Cimmerians.[13]
Migration[edit]
Journey of Cimbri and Teutones
Cimbri and Teuton defeats
Cimbri and Teuton victories
Some time before 100 BC many of the Cimbri, as well as the Teutons and Ambrones migrated south-east. After several unsuccessful battles with the Boii and other Celtic tribes, they appeared ca 113 BC in Noricum, where they invaded the lands of one of Rome’s allies, the Taurisci.
On the request of the Roman consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, sent to defend the Taurisci, they retreated, only to find themselves deceived and attacked at the Battle of Noreia, where they defeated the Romans. Only a storm, which separated the combatants, saved the Roman forces from complete annihilation.
Invading Gaul[edit]
Now the road to Italy was open, but they turned west towards Gaul. They came into frequent conflict with the Romans, who usually came out the losers. In Commentarii de Bello Gallico the Aduaticii—Belgians of Cimbrian origin—repeatedly sided with Rome’s enemies. In 109 BC, they defeated a Roman army under the consul Marcus Junius Silanus, who was the commander of Gallia Narbonensis. In 107 BC they defeated another Roman army under the consul Gaius Cassius Longinus, who was killed at the Battle of Burdigala (modern day Bordeaux) against the Tigurini, who were allies of the Cimbri.
Attacking the Roman Republic[edit]
It was not until 105 BC that they planned an attack on the Roman Republic itself. At the Rhône, the Cimbri clashed with the Roman armies. Discord between the Roman commanders, the proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio and the consul Gnaeus Mallius Maximus, hindered Roman coordination and so the Cimbri succeeded in first defeating the legate Marcus Aurelius Scaurus and later inflicted a devastating defeat on Caepio and Maximus at the Battle of Arausio. The Romans lost as many as 80,000 men, excluding auxiliary cavalry and non-combatants who brought the total loss closer to 112,000.
Rome was in panic, and the terror cimbricus became proverbial. Everyone expected to soon see the new Gauls outside of the gates of Rome. Desperate measures were taken: contrary to the Roman constitution, Gaius Marius, who had defeated Jugurtha, was elected consul and supreme commander for five years in a row (104-100 BC).
Defeat[edit]
The Defeat of the Cimbri by Alexandre-Gabriel Décamps
In 103 BC, the Cimbri and their proto-Germanic allies, the Teutons, had turned to the Iberian Peninsula where they pillaged far and wide. During this time C. Marius had the time to prepare and, in 102 BC, he was ready to meet the Teutons and the Ambrones at the Rhône. These two tribes intended to pass into Italy through the western passes, while the Cimbri and the Tigurines were to take the northern route across the Rhine and later across the Tirolian Alps.
At the estuary of the Isère River, the Teutons and the Ambrones met Marius, whose well-defended camp they did not manage to overrun. Instead, they pursued their route, and Marius followed them. At Aquae Sextiae, the Romans won two battles and took the Teuton king Teutobod prisoner.
The Cimbri had penetrated through the Alps into northern Italy. The consul Quintus Lutatius Catulus had not dared to fortify the passes, but instead he had retreated behind the River Po, and so the land was open to the invaders. The Cimbri did not hurry, and the victors of Aquae Sextiae had the time to arrive with reinforcements. At the Battle of Vercellae, at the confluence of the Sesia River with the Po River, in 101 BC, the long voyage of the Cimbri also came to an end.
It was a devastating defeat, two chieftains, Lugius and Boiorix, died on the field, while the other chieftains Caesorix and Claodicus were captured.[14] The women killed both themselves and their children in order to avoid slavery. The Cimbri were annihilated, although some may have survived to return to the homeland where a population with this name was residing in northern Jutland in the 1st century AD, according to the sources quoted above. Some of the surviving captives are reported to have been among the rebelling Gladiators in the Third Servile War.[2]
However, Justin’s epitome of Trogus, 38.4, has Mithridates the Great state that the Cimbri are ravaging Italy while the Social War is going on, i.e. at some time in 90 – 88 BCE, thus more than a decade later,[15] after having sent ambassadors to the Cimbri to request military aid;[16] judging from the context they must then have been living in North Eastern Europe at the time.
Descendants[edit]
According to Julius Caesar, the Belgian tribe of the Atuatuci “was descended from the Cimbri and Teutoni, who, upon their march into our province and Italy, set down such of their stock and stuff as they could not drive or carry with them on the near (i.e. west) side of the Rhine, and left six thousand men of their company there with as guard and garrison” (Gall. 2.29, trans. Edwards). They founded the city of Atuatuca in the land of the Belgic Eburones, whom they dominated. Thus Ambiorix king of the Eburones paid tribute and gave his son and nephew as hostages to the Atuatuci (Gall. 6.27). In the first century AD, the Eburones were replaced or absorbed by the Germanic Tungri, and the city was known as Atuatuca Tungrorum, i.e. the modern city of Tongeren.
The population of modern-day Himmerland claims to be the heirs of the ancient Cimbri. The adventures of the Cimbri are described by the Danish nobel-prize-winning author Johannes V. Jensen, himself born in Himmerland, in the novel Cimbrernes Tog (1922), included in the epic cycle Den lange Rejse (English The Long Journey, 1923). The so-called Cimbrian bull (“Cimbrertyren”), a sculpture by Anders Bundgaard, was erected 14 April 1937 on a central town square in Aalborg, the capital of the region of North Jutland.
A German ethnic minority speaking the Cimbrian language have settled in the mountains between Vicenza, Verona and Trento in Italy (also known as Seven Communities) is also called the (Cimbri). For hundreds of years this isolated population consisting now of 4.400 inhabitants, has claimed to be the direct descendant of the Cimbri retreating in this area after the Roman aftermath. However it was more probably settlers from Bavaria in the Middle Ages. Most linguists remains committed to the hypothesis of medieval (11th to 12th century) immigration, to explain the presence of small German-speaking communities in the north of Italy.[17] Some genetic studies seem to prove a Celtic descendence of most inhabitants in the region, but not Germanic in fact,[18] that is reinforced by the Gaulish toponyms such as those ending with the suffix -ago < Celtic -*ako(n) (f.e. Asiago is clearly the same place-name as the numerous Azay, Aisy, Azé, Ezy in France, all from *Asiacum < Gaulish *Asiāko(n)). The Cimbrian origin is a myth that was popularized by the humanists in the 14th century.
On one occasion in 1709, for instance, Frederick IV of Denmark, also paid them a visit and he was greeted as their king. The population, which kept its independence during the Venice Republic, was later severely devastated by World War I. As a result, many Cimbri have left the mountainous region of Italy and are nowadays dispersed around the world.
By 112 B.C., Rome had its first encounter with migrating Germanic tribes, who five hundred years hence would overthrow their empire. Before this time, most of Western Europe was inhabited by Gauls, and the Germans were confined mostly to northern Germany and Scandinavia. The Cimbri, and Teutones, were two Germanic tribes who were thought to have left their homeland in Jutland, possibly due to flooding. They were several hundred thousand strong and were searching for a new homeland, with their wives, children, and belongings packed into wagons. To the Romans they appeared to be giants—most of the men being over six feet tall, and the women nearly as large.
The Romans first met both tribes when one of their allies in the region of Austria requested their help. The Roman army at first succeeded in driving them away, but later set them up for an ambush, which backfired. A large portion of the Roman army was annihilated and the remainder returned to Rome with stories of the fearsome barbarian hordes. But the worst disgrace was still to come. Seven years later, the Cimbri and Teutons were migrating around Gaul. Rome sent two legions to stop them from entering Roman territory. The leaders however, did not cooperate and as a result the legions were annihilated along with many camp followers. The resulting battle of Arausio was an unmitigated disaster, with more than 100,000 Romans killed, and several legions annhilated. The disaster emboldened the Cimbri to aggressively seek Roman territory, and horrified the Romans. It did, however, provide an opportunity for Marius, a long time veteran, to be elected Consul, and to make very important reforms of the army, before facing the Germans again.
Fortunately for Rome, the two migrating tribes split up and crossed the Alps at different passes, so Marius met them separately. He laid an ambush for the Teutones at Aquae Sextie, and then annihilated them. The entire tribe was slain or taken into slavery, and many of the women killed their children and then themselves. The following year, when the Cimbri passed over the Alps, they met the same fate at Vercellae.
One of the most celebrated Danish raids took place on the monastery on the Island of Lindesfarne off the northeast coast of Great Britain in 793. This raid became a model for Viking raids for the next 200 years and created the legend for the violence that came with them. It made them a feared group throughout the Medieval world. In 833 a fleet of 350 Viking ship were moored in the Thames river as they pillage London and Canterbury. In 865 the Danes raided English monasteries and periodic raids continued until most of northern England was conquered. York and its cathedral was sack and the village "reduce to destitution and ignorance" in 867. [Durant 4/483] Although they slaughtered many original inhabitants, over the next 200 years northern England was settled by the Danes almost to the city of London. They establish farms, villages, and trade. They established a rule of law known as Danelaw based very much on a jury system above the Thames River. The Danes had many successive kings that ruled the northern lands of the Isles and fought against Viking raiders from Norway. Unfortunately, they also fought against one another too often. The Vikings, including now Norwegians, invaded England, Ireland and Normandy. This included several invasions up the Seine River to Paris, one with two hundred ships. Some of the rulers of northern England were relatives of Svein Forkbeard Haraldsson also known as Sweyn of Denmark. In 1002 Ethelred "the Unready or counseless" conquered several areas of northern England and ordered the massacre of Danish settlers including Svein's relatives. Svein became the King of Denmark in 985 and in 1000 conquered Norway. He demanded and received payment to keep from invading Ethelred's England. Ethelred had to establish the first tax in England to pay the bribe. Finally Svein had just had enough and he drove Ethelred out to Normandy and Svein now became the King of England as well. The Saxons fought back and did recapture some land. When Svein dies Ethelred makes peace with Svein's son, Canute who fled to Denmark in fear of retribution to become King of Denmark. Ethelred died in 1016 and Canute fights with William Ironside, who lost, and Canute The Great wins the crown of England. Canute's empire came apart shortly after his death. England gains independence in 1042 and Norway in 1047. [Durant 4/483-485]
Christianity probably first came into the Jutland with the captured English monks who had been taken as slaves. It was a gradual assimilation and conversion. Charlemagne battled Godfred to the Eider river in Jutland but was not able to conquer them. His purpose was to convert the heathen north but also to punish them for their invasions of Franks. The several battles and the death of Charlemagne in 814 created a stalemate between the north and the Franks. Christianity made more conversions by diplomacy and concessions than by battles.[Jones]
According the story of Beowulf, The Skjoldungs (the Men of the Shield) were the legendary kings of Denmark and decended from Skjold, the son of Odinn, who according to Ynglinga Saga was the grandson son of Dan. [Jones 45] Odin is, of course, one of the great gods of Scandinavia. Little accuracy can be authenticated from these legends. Rather they show that the tribes existing in the north were constantly battling with one another.
The Catholic church officially came to the area of in the 10th century. Up to this point the people here were probably Norse pagans and held animistic beliefs based on the forces of nature. Harld Bluetooth came to power and under military and church pressure from Germany he imposed the church on his Danish realm with some resentment of his citizens.
In 1230s, the Southern Jutland became known as the Duchy of Slesvig. The division began with a feud among the rulers of Denmark, Canute's great-grandson, Abel Vlademarsen. Although it remained a Danish fief by marriage alliances it became closer connected to to the German Duchy of Holstein. Latin was introduced into the churches but by the mid to late 1600's the Reformation brought reform to the church and Danish churches. Northern Jutland churches started using Danish for services while the Schleswig churches adopted German. This created a cultural division between the two areas which remains today.
Map of Denmark in 1500's
The names of the towns have changed a good deal. The towns seem identified to each have a church. The name of one of the towns in the northern most province of Thy is listed as Harthals which I believe is the present town of Hartshal. Holm is probably present Hanstholm. These towns that may have been major trade centers in the 1500's have become less important due to changes in the geography such as silting of the harbors. Swertsborg is what I believe is present day Vestervig in the area known as the Crimea of Cimbria. Nicopen is the present Nykobing. The Cimbria were a tribe that fought successfully against the Romans in the 1c. The lack of accuracy of the map is typical of the time period.
During the Reformation of the 1600s the Convent of the Vestervig Kirke was torn down and the interior was white washed to cover all the images of saints that had been previously painted on the interior walls. Even the bricks and timbers from the church were quarried to build Aalborghus. The simplicity and self-reliant nature of the protestant faith undoubtedly appealed to these farmers sense of nature and propriety. [Vestervig Church]
During World War II the Nazis occupied Denmark from April 9, 1940. There is a story that King Christian X chose to wear a yellow star in support of the Danish Jews. Unfortunately the story is false. The Jews in Denmark were never required to wear the identifying yellow star but there is ample evidence that the King and most Danes were very supportive of the Jews. The Jews in Denmark were not persecuted until the Autumn of 1943. After being alerted to the imposition of "The Final Solution". A letter from Danish church leaders was read in every pulpit in the nation stating, " Where ever Jews are persecuted because of their religion or race it is the duty of the Christian Church to protest against such persecution, because it is in conflict with the sense of justice inherent in the Danish people and inseparable from our Danish Christian culture through centuries". Danish authorities and resistance leaders warned the Jewish people and organized the smuggling of more than 7000 Jews and 700 non-Jewish relatives into Sweden. Although 500 Jews were deported from Denmark to Czechoslovakia, they were allowed to receive letters, packages and most survived the Holocaust. When the Jews returned to their homes in Denmark they discovered that their homes, pets, gardens and personal belongings were cared for by their neighbors. This was certainly not the case in most of Europe. Even though King Christian didn't wear a star his support and the goodwill of many Danes obviously saved many lives.
http://www.next1000.com/family/EC/danish.hist.html
http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsEurope/ScandinaviaDenmark.htm
German tribes were heavily influenced by the neighbouring Celts (Gauls), some of whom live on the Cimbric Peninsula (Jutland), and possibly in Sweden. A number of German gods and goddesses were borrowed from or shared with the Celts; for example Taran/Thor. Edward Dawson theorises that the Dene are likely named after a leader (a woman?), who in turn bore the name of the Goddess Danu or Dana. Either that or they were followers of Dana as a tribe and named such. Such a distinction between gods and earthly leaders is probably irrelevant due to ancient European deification customs wherein a strong leader was often elevated to deity status after death. Additionally, a name for the Danes was 'Ingwine'. 'Wine' means friend, so the Danes were friends of Ingvi, part of the Germanic Ingaevones.
(Additional information by Edward Dawson, and from External Link: The Gutenburg Text of Beowulf, translation by Lesslie Hall, 1892.)
Skiold
First of the Scyldings, important both to Denmark and Angeln.
Skiold, or Scyld, first of the Scyldings, is the founding father of the Danes in southern Sweden, but is also a highly important figure in the list of kings of Angeln. Could there be an ancient connection between the Danes and the Angles which is remembered in this individual? He is sometimes called the king of Reidgotaland, whose location is disputed by scholars.
Fróði I / Frodhi I
Fridlief II
Havar
Fróði II / Frodhi II
Vermund the Sage
Vermund is probably the Vermundus of Saxo Grammaticus in his Danish History. He is said to be a Danish king, but he is a repetition from the list of kings of Angeln – Wærmund. His father and famous son, Wihtlæg and Offa respectively, are also copied, as Vigletus and Uffo. Typically, the famous rulers of a district which later comes to be ruled by Danes are called Danes themselves.
Olaf the Mild
Dan mikilláti / Dan the Magnificent
Son of Danp , who was the brother-in-law of Domar.
Dan is the legendary founder of the (ancient) Danish kingdom. He is mentioned in several medieval Scandinavian texts, which establish that he is either the son of Danp or one of the sons of King Ypper of Uppsala (the other two being Nori, who later rules Norway, and Østen, who later rules the Swedes (possibly the Östen of the late sixth century)). Whatever Dan's reality in history, his coming suggests that a new dynasty is founded, or at least that a sideshoot of the same dynasty of ancient rulers of the Dene takes over.
Fróði mikilláti / Frodhi III
Son.
Halfdan I
Fridlief III
Fróði IV
Last of the ancient Scyldings?
Ingild / Ingeld / Ingjald
Of the Heaðobards. Survived the defeat against the Scyldings?
Fróði V / Froda
Of the Heaðobards. Killed.
Ingild and Fróði of the Heaðobards (Heathobards or Heathobeards) fight a war of dynastic rivalry (or inter-tribal conflict, if the Heathobards are accepted as the Langobards of western Poland) against the Scyldings. It is a war that apparently represents a shift in power from the traditional rulers of the Danes, signalling the end of the ancient ruling dynasty and allowing the beginning of a new one which is later genealogically attached to the Scyldings (alternatively, the ancient house, whose name is lost, is attached to the new rulers to give them an air of legitimacy).
The new order is represented by the Scyldings and the Healfdena, who win the war and who possibly lead the migration of Danes from Sweden into the Cimbric Peninsula. This puts pressure on the Jutes in the north of the peninsula, probably resulting in feuds and local power struggles (which impacts upon the Angles and minor groups such as the Germanic Rondings). The fifth century migration period is one in which no one Dane rules over all the Danish peoples, representing an interregnum of sorts. At least one probable sub-grouping can be identified under Hnæf Healfdene, and there probably exist other factions which have been lost to history.
fl c.390s?
Scyld Scaefson / Shield Scaefson
Son of Scaef. 'The Great Ring Giver'. King of the Dene?
Scyld Scaefson is later added to the genealogies of the descendant kings of Angeln, probably due to his importance as an early Dane in the Cimbric Peninsula. He is known as the 'Great Ring Giver' signifying a powerful lord who is able to well reward his followers. The question is whether he is a king or perhaps a leader of his peoples as they migrate into the peninsula – or perhaps both. Could Scyld be the father of kings who himself does not rule but helps in establishing his people in their new territory?
fl c.420?
Beowulf
Son of Scyld, father of Healfdene, grandfather of Hrothgar.
fl c.420
Hoc Healfdene?
Born to mixed parentage ('half-Dane'). King of the Dene?
While not a Scylding himself, Hoc seems to be allied to them by blood or marriage, perhaps explaining the Danish half of his parentage (or the parentage of an earlier generation of his family, although it cannot even be confirmed that Hoc is a name and not an eponym (as per Widsith)). The Danish side of his parentage is covered by the epic poem, Beowulf, which describes him as the son of Beowulf (the elder), while the other side is most likely to be Jutish or Anglian, given that the Danes are intruding into the territory of these peoples. The other likely explanation for 'Healfdene' is that he commands a mixed following of Danes and Jutes. The name of Scylding is later attached to the man who is probably his son, Hnæf.
Sceaf; who, as some affirm, was driven on a certain island in Germany, called Scandza, (of which Jornandes, the historian of the Goths, speaks), a little boy in a skiff, without any attendant, asleep, with a handful of corn at his head, whence he was called Sceaf; and, on account of his singular appearance, being well received by the men of that country, and carefully educated, in his riper age he reigned in a town which was called Slaswic, but at present Haithebi; which country, called old Anglia, whence the Angles came into Britain, is situated between the Saxons and the Goths.
However the genealogy in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle year 855, versions B and C, explains instead that Scef was born in Noah's ark, interpreting Sceaf as a non-Biblical son of Noah, and then continuing with the ancestry of Noah up to Adam as found in Genesis.
Sceaf is unknown outside of English sources except for one mention in Snorri Sturluson's Prologue to the Prose Edda, which is informed by English sources.
In Beowulf[edit]
Older than these is the Old English poem Beowulf which applies the story of the boy in the boat instead to the Danish who is the eponym of the legendary Danish royal lineage known as the Scyldings or Skjöldings. In the opening lines of Beowulf, Scyld is called Scyld Scefing, which might mean Scyld descendant of Scef, Scyld son of Scef, or Scyld of the Sheaf. The Beowulf poet does not explain. But after relating in general terms the glories of Scyld's reign, the poet describes Scyld's funeral, how his body was laid in a ship surrounded by treasures, the poet explains:
They decked his body no less bountifully
with offerings than those first ones did
who cast him away when he was a child
and launched him alone out over the waves.
No other source relates anything similar about Scyld/Skjöld, so it cannot be known whether this is a case of similar stories being told about two different heroes or whether originally separate figures have been confused with one another.
http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Article/492164
King Sheave is a character in J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lost Road." He is mentioned in a scene where Ælfwine, a mariner, tells the story of King Sheave, who was found as a boy in an empty ship coming from the west. He became a king in the North and ruled for many years before sailing away at the end of his life.[1
To the shore the ship came and strode upon the sand, grinding upon the broken shingle. In the twilight as the sun sank men came down to it, and looked within.
A boy lay there, asleep. He was fair of face and limb, dark-haired, white-skinned, but clad in gold. The inner parts of the boat were gold-adorned, a vessel of gold filled with clear water was at his side, [added: at his right was a harp,] beneath his head was a sheaf of corn, the stalks and ears of which gleamed like gold in the dusk. Men knew not what it was.
In wonder they drew the boat high upon the beach, and lifted the boy and bore him up, and laid him sleeping in a wooden house in their burh. They set guards about the door.
*
In the morning the chamber was empty. But upon a high rock men saw the boy standing. The sheaf was in his arms.
As the risen sun shone down, he began to sing in a strange tongue, and they were filled with awe. For they had not yet heard singing, nor seen such beauty. And they had no king among them, for their kings had perished, and they were lordless and unguided.
Therefore they took the boy to be king, and they called him Sheaf; and so is his name remembered in song. For his true name was hidden and is forgotten. Yet he taught men many new words, and their speech was enriched.
Song and verse-craft he taught them, and rune-craft, and tillage and husbandry, and the making of many things; and in his time the dark forests receded and there was plenty, and corn grew in the land; and the carven houses of men were filled with gold and storied webs.
The glory of King Sheaf sprang far and wide in the isles of the North. His children were many and fair, and it is sung that of them are come the kings of men of the North Danes and the West Danes, the South Angles and the East Gothfolk. And in the time of the Sheaf-lords there was peace in the isles, and ships went unarmed from land to land bearing treasure and rich merchandise. And a man might cast a golden ring upon the highway and it would remain until he took it up again.
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