| Keywords |
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| ID |
5584 |
| Text |
Origo Gentis Langobardorum (640 - 680) Anonymous - Other |
| Quotation |
Tunc Frea dedit consilium, ut sol surgente venirent Winniles et mulieres eorum crines solutae circa faciem in similitudinem barbae et cum viris suis venirent Tunc luciscente sol dum surgeret, giravit Frea, uxor Godan, lectum ubi recumbebat vir eius, et fecit faciem eius contra orientem, et excitavit eum. Et ille aspiciens vidit Winniles et mulieres ipsorum habentes crines solutas circa faciiem; et ait: “Qui sunt isti longibarbae”? Et dixit Frea ad Godan: “Sicut dedisti nomen, da illis et vi victoriam”. Et dedit eis victoriam, ut ubi visum esset vindicarent se et victoriam haberent. Ab illo tempore Winillis Langobardi vocati sunt. |
| Translation |
Then Frea gave counsel that at sunrise the Winniles should come, and that their women, with their hair let down around the face in the likeness of a beard, should also come with their husbands. Then when it became bright, while the sun was rising, Frea, the wife of Godan, turned around the bed where he husband was laying and put his face toward the east and awakened him, and he looking at them, saw the Winniles and their women having their hair let down around the face. And he says, “Who are those Long-beards?” And Frea said to Godan, “As you have given them a name, give them also the victory.” And he gave them the victory, so that they should defend themselves according to his counsel and obtain the victory. From that time the Winniles were called Langobards.
(W.D. Foukes, trans., E. Peters, ed., Origo gentis langobardorum (1974), pp. 316-17) |
| Summary |
Here the Origo recounts a mythic origin for the naming of the Langobards, in which the god Godan has promised the Wandals that victory will be granted to the people he sees first on the day of their battle. Gambara, matriarch of the Winnili, however has spoken to his wife, the goddess Frea, and a plan has been concocted the women of the Winnili will wear their hair down and in front of their faces, to look like beards, and join the men on the battlefield. Frea turns Godan’s bed around in the morning before he wakes he looks out and sees them, then asks in surprise who these “long beards” are. Frea, then replies that as he has given them a name, he should therefore also give them the victory in the forthcoming battle. Which he does. |
| Quotation source |
MGH, Scriptores rer. Lang. et Ital., 1, 1878 (L. Bethmann & G. Waitz), pp. 2-3 |
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