418
THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book I.
therefore inclined to think that in this instance, as
in so many others, an accidental resemblance has
been too much relied upon : it is in fact quite as
likely (or even more likely) that the historian should
have been indebted to the legend, than that the
poet should have derived his matter from history.
It does seem probable that IIygelac enjoyed a my-
thical character among the Germans: in the “Alt-
deutsche Blatter ” of Moriz Haupt1, we find the fol-
lowing statement, taken from a MS. of the tenth
century. “ De Getarum rege IIuiglauco mirae
magnitudinis.—Et sunt mirae magnitudinis, ut rex
Huiglaucus, qui imperavit Gctis et a Francis oc-
cisus est, quern equus a duodecimo anno portare
non potuit, cuius ossa in Bheni fluminis insula, ubi
in oceanum prorumpit, rcseπata sunt et de Iongin-
quo Venientibus pro miraculo ostenduntur.”
But Hygelac is not known in Germany only :
even in England we have traces of him in local
names : thus Hygelaces geat2, which, as the name
was never borne by an Anglosaxon,—so far at
least as we know,—speaks strongly for his mythi-
cal character. That the fortunes, under similar
circumstances, of a historical prince, of the same
name or not of the same name, should have become
mixed up with an earlier legend, is by no means
unusual or surprising.
Another hero of the Beowulf cycle is Hnæf the
Hoeing, whose fate is described in a fine episode3,
and is connected with the poem called “ The battle
1 Book v. part i. p. 10. 2 Cod. Dipl. No. 666.
s Beow. 1. 2130 seq.
ch. XII.] HEATHENDOM. WADA. WELAND. 419
of Finnesburh ɪ." Of him too England has some-
thing to tell: I find a place was called Hnæfes scylf2,
and further that there was a Hoces byrgels3, obviously
not a Christian burial-place, a Hoces ham4, and a
Hocing mæd5. But unless resemblances greatly
deceive us, we must admit that this hero was not
entirely unknown to the Franks also ; Charle-
magne’s wife Hiltikart, a lady of most noble
blood among the Swæfas or Sueves (“ nobilɪssimi
generis Suavorum puella ”) was a near relation of
Kotofrit, duke of the Alamanni0 : in her genealogy
occur the names Huocingus and Nebi in imme-
diate succession, and it seems difficult not to see in
these IIocing and Hnæf. If, as has been suggested,
the IIocings were Chauci or Frisians, their con-
nexion with the Sueves must be of an antiquity
almost transcending the limits of history, and
date from those periods when the Frisians were
neighbours of the Swæfas upon the Elbe, and long
before these occupied the highlands of Germany,
long in fact before the appearance of the Franks in
Gaul, under Chlodio.
Among the heroes of heathen tradition are Wada,
Weland and EigiL All three, so celebrated in the
mythus and epos of Scandinavia and Germany, have
left traces in England. Of Wada the Traveller’s
1 Printed in the first volume of the author’s edition of Beowulf,
p. 238.
2 Cod. Dipl. No. 695. a Ibid. No. 1267.
1 Ibid. No. 1142. s Ibid. No. 1091.
s Thegan. vit. IIludov. Pertz, Monum. ii. 590,591. Eginhart, § 18.
Pertz, Mon. ii. 452, 453.