Godwulf

Godwulf is a name appearing in the Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies as ancestor of Woden. Godwulf is attested in genealogies in the Old English Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Anglian collection and subsequently appears in a euhemerized genealogy in the Old Norse Langfeðgatal and the Prose Edda, where he is a son of Thor and Sif.

Attestations

In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Godwulf appears as Godulf in the 547 annal entry that gives the pedigree of Ida of Bernicia, and likewise in the 855 annal giving the pedigree of Æthelwulf. This matches the pedigree that appears in the Anglian collection, a set of genealogical stemma that trace the kings of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to Odin, while the pedigree for the kings of Lindsey traces Wōden to Geat. Godwulf appears in both the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Anglian Collection pedigrees as son of this Geat and as father of Finn.[1] The 9th-century Historia Brittonum, on the other hand, seemingly identifies the latter with the Frisian king Finn and thus when giving the pedigree of Hengest and Horsa removes Godwulf, replacing him with Folcwald, the father of that legendary Finn.[1][2] Some published editions of the Historia Brittonum 'correct' this, giving Godwulf as Finn's father, like in the other Anglo-Saxon pedigree sources.[3]

The Old Norse Langfeðgatal borrows the pedigree of the Anglo-Saxon kings from the T manuscript of the Anglian collection in order to provide ancestry for the Scandinavian royal dynasties, representing Godwulf as Godvlfi, and making him a descendant of Thor and an ancestor of Odin.[4][5] The 13th-century Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson expands the account of Langfeðgatal for the euhemerizing purposes of the book's Prologue, adding, for example, the goddess Sif to his ancestry.[6]

Reception

19th century Philologist and folklorist Jacob Grimm observed that the figure may be mythical in origin, stemming from Germanic paganism.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 Sisam, Kenneth "Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies", Proceedings of the British Academy, 39 (1953), pp. 287–348
  2. ↑ Theodore Mommsen, ed., Chronica Minora, Berlin: Weidman, 1898, vol. 3, p. 171
  3. ↑ See, for example, Six Old English Chronicles ed. J. A. Giles. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1848, p. 396
  4. ↑ Chambers, R. W., Beowulf, an Introduction to the Study of the Poem with a Discussion of the Stories of Offa and Finn, Cambridge: University Press, 1921, p. 313
  5. ↑ Bruce, Alexander M., Scyld and Scef: Expanding the Analogues, London: Routledge, 2002, p. 56-60
  6. ↑ Faulkes, Anthony. 1995. Edda, p. 3. Everyman.
  7. ↑ Grimm, Jacob (James Steven Stallybrass Trans.) (1888). Teutonic Mythology: Translated from the Fourth Edition with Notes and Appendix by James Stallybrass, p. 368. Volume I. London: George Bell and Sons.
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