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Help[Facts] Galswinthe, Fredegund and Brunhaut
What do the female Frankish names Galswinthe, Fredegund and Brunehaut mean? They probably ceased to be used after the Middle Ages.
Claire
Claire
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GALSWINTHE: The forst element GAL is not clear. Most probably it's a romanised form of Germanic GAIL* ("frisky, randy"). SWINTH is Middle High German "swinde" or "swint" ("strong, fast").
FREDEGUND: Old High German "fridu" ("peace", roughly) + "gund" ("fight, combat")
BRUNEHAUT: OHG "brun" ("brown", usually meaning the bear, which the Teutons didn't dare call by its "real" name for fear it might turn up) + "hadu" (?**) (same as "gund")
* This is taken from H.Kaufmann, Ergänzungsband zu E.Förstemann, Personennamen, 1967
** The hadu part is just an educated guess
FREDEGUND: Old High German "fridu" ("peace", roughly) + "gund" ("fight, combat")
BRUNEHAUT: OHG "brun" ("brown", usually meaning the bear, which the Teutons didn't dare call by its "real" name for fear it might turn up) + "hadu" (?**) (same as "gund")
* This is taken from H.Kaufmann, Ergänzungsband zu E.Förstemann, Personennamen, 1967
** The hadu part is just an educated guess
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Brunhaut as Brunhilde/French...
... e.g. in Britannica:
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9016782
... e.g. in Britannica:
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9016782
This message was edited 2/3/2005, 12:02 PM
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