TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

134 WODAN.
should mean Saxones ? He, it is true, may have meant those
acquainted with Roman mythology.
Especially does the remarkable legend preserved by Paulus
Diaconus 1, 8 show that it is Wodan who dispenses victory, to whom
therefore, above all other gods, that antique name sihora (p. 27)
rightfully belongs, as well as in the Eddas the epithets Sigttjr (god
of victory), Ssem. 248 a , Sn. 94, Sigfoffr (father of victory), Saem. 68a ;
AS. vigsigor (victor in battle), Beow. 3107, sigmetod (creator of
victory), Beow. 3554 (see Suppl.) : Refert hoc loco antiquitas ridiculam
fabulam, quod accedentes Wandali ad Wodan, mctoriam de
Winilis postulaverint, illeque respondent, se illis mctoriam daturum,
quos primum oriente sole conspexisset. Tune accessisse Gambaram
ad Fream, uxorem Wodan, et Winilis mctoriam postulasse, Fream-
que consilium dedisse, Winilorum mulieres solutos crines erga
faciem ad barbae similitudinem componerent wtmeque primo cum
viris adessent, seseque a Wodan videndas pariter e regione, qua
ille per fenestram orientem versus erat solitus adspicere, colloca-
rent ; atque ita factum fuisse. Quas cum Wodan conspiceret oriente
sole, dixisse : qui sunt isti Langobardi ? tune Fream subjunxisse,
ut quibus nomen tribuerat, mctoriam condonaret, sicque Winilis
Wodan victoriam concessisse. Here deacon Paul, as a good Chris
tian, drops the remark : Haec risu digna sunt, et pro nihilo habenda :
victoria enim non potestati est adtributa hominum, sed e coelo
potius ministratur ; and then adds a more exact interpretation of
the name Longobard : Certum tamen est Longobardos ab intactae
ferro barbae longitudine, cum primitus Winili dicti fuerint, ita
postmodum appellatos. Nam juxta illorum linguam lang longam,
bart barbam significat. Wodan sane, quern adjecta litera Givodan
dixerunt, et ab universis Germaniae gentibus ut deus adoratur, qui
non circa haec tempora, sed longe anterius, nee in Germania, sed in
Graecia fuisse perhibetur. 1
The whole fable bears the stamp of high antiquity ;
it has even
been related by others before Paul, and with variations, as in the
Hist. Francor. epitomata, which has for its author, though not Fre-
degar, yet some writer of the seventh century. Here Chuni
1
Godfrey of Viterbo (in Pistorius, ed. Struve 2, 305) has the legend out of
Paul Diac. with the names Godam for
corrupted, Wodan, Feria for Frea.
Godam or Votam sets him thinking of the Germ, word got (deus). The
unheard-of ( 3
Toclacus historiographus has evidently sprung out of *
hoc loco
in Paul.