TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL. IV

ANGLO-SAXON GENEALOGIES. 1733
no tloubt uu Ans, is ho that arrests our attention. Gapt seeins to
me a corrup. of Gavt, Gaut} This granted, Gaut is no other than
our AS. Gedt, on whose brow the chroniclers are so eager to
press the crown of godhood. Now the Edda (Sasin. 47'') makes
Gautr a mere by-name of OSinn, who may therefore
be reckoned
a later re-incarnation of the same divine being. Thus Gdnts,
Gedt, Gautr, OHG. Goz stands at the head of the AmalniKj family
so famed in song and story.
The Langobardic genealogy of the Gunings or
Gugings, preserved
in the Prologue to the Laws and in Paul Uiaconus, I
leave on one side, as contributing little towards clearing up the
story of the gods. It is one more witness, among so many, to
the propensity of German nations to draw up and hand down
lists of their forefathers' lineage.
On that point, who would not remember, first and foremost,
the oldest word on the origin of the Germani, as preserved, though
but in faint outlines, by Tacitus, and expressly grounded on their
'
ancient songs, which are all the history they have ' ? (p. 344).
'
Celebrant carminibus antiquis, quod unum apud illos memoriae
et auualium genus est, Tiiisconcm, deum terra editum, et filium
Mannum, origiuem gentis conditoresque. Manno tres filios
assignant, e quorum norainibus proximi oceano Ingaevones, medii
Herminones, ceteri Istaevones voceutur. Quidam, ut in liceutia
vetustatis, plures deoortos pluresque gentis appellationes, Marsos,
Gamhrivios, Suevos, Vandalos affirmant.' As the Anglo-
Saxons allowed their Woden, now three - sons, now seven, the
same thing happens here to the offspring of Mannus. There is no
further connexion between the two genealogies ; but it is curious to
find that in the first century a.d., various versions of the
people's
pedigree are already in vogue, and have reached the lloman's ear.
He does not tell us the names of the sons, and in guessing them
from those of the tribes they founded, we cannot feel sure of
their exact form. Pliny 4, 4 supposes five principal tribes :
Vindeli, Ingaevones, Istaevones, Hermiones, Pevcini ; the first are
*
The Gothic u might easily be miscopied as a v (S/), and thus mistaken for a p,
just as the AS. i>
is made p in ' I'ubba, Godpulf.'
- This number three is always turniuf,' up in myths. Noah's 3 sous : Shem,
Ham, Japheth. Saturn's : Zeus, I'oseidou, Pluton. The Scyth. Targitaus's :
Leipoxais, Arpoxais, Kolaxais. The Norse Bor's : O^iuu, ViU, Ve. Fornjot's:
Hlerr, Logi, Kari. Amelunc's : Diether, Eruirich, Dietmar.