Chapter CXCI: Section XII: Thought

Mind or thought amounts to a mythical character in northern fancy. The word is _hugr_, the same with _hu_, still the Scandinavian word for thought, as _heuge_ is in Holland, all coming from old verbs represented by the Mæso-Gothic _gahugan_, and Anglo-Saxon _gehygan_.

The two ravens who sat on Odin’s shoulders, and revealed to him all that passed in the world, were Huginn and Munninn, thought and memory; and when Thor made his famous visit to Utgard, it was Hugi, or thought, alone that was swift enough to outstrip him in the race. At Tours, the Northern Lights are _le carrosse du roi Hugues_, perhaps originally from some connection with speed of thought, though latterly mixed up with Hugues Capet.

The name has been much used by all the Teutons, and it was not inappropriately chosen by Fouqué, as that of the old knight in the _Magic ring_, whose character he has sacrificed for the sake of making him the representative parent of all the chivalry of Europe, except the English, which he considers as independently typified by Richard Cœur de Lion. This roving knight appears at home as Hugo; Hugur in the North; Hugues, in France; Uguccione, in Italy; and even as Hygies, in Greece, which last is, however, only a resemblance, not a translation.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ Scottish. │ Gaelic. │ French. │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│Hugh │Hugh │Uisdean. │Hugues │
│Hugo │Hughie │ │Hues │
│Hutchin │Hutcheon │ │Huon │
│ │ │ │Huet │
│ │ │ │Hugolin │
│ │ │ │Huguenin │
│ │ │ │Ugues │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Provençal. │ Italian. │ German. │ Norwegian. │
│Oc │Ugo │Hugo │Hugr │
│ │Ugolino │ │Hugi │
│ │Ugone │ │ │
│ │Ugotto │ │ │
│ │Uguccione │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

Part of the popularity of the name was, no doubt, owing to the Cymric countries having adopted it as the nearest resemblance to the mighty Hu Gadarn, from whom the national Hugh of Wales almost certainly sprung. A Frank saint, Archbishop of Rouen, and one of the many canonized cousins of Pepin, first made Hugo current among his own race; but the only person who wore it on the throne was the Gallican Count of Paris, who may have had it as a compromise between the Cymric Hu and Frank Hugr; at any rate, it was long spelt without the _g_ in France, and declined as Hues, Huon. The old Cambrai form was Huet, with the feminine Huette.

Hugo is very frequent in Domesday Book, and the name was much more common in earlier times than at present. In Scotland and Ireland it has been pressed into the service of Anglicizing the native Aodh, or fire; but the Gaelic name Uisdean, pronounced something like ocean, is most likely intended as a rendering of Hutcheon, the form in which the Scots caught the Hugon of their Anglo-Norman neighbours, who revered the name doubly for the sake of the good bishop of Lincoln, and for another St. Hugh of Lincoln, _i.e._ the child murdered by the Jews, as in the _Prioress’s Tale_ in Chaucer. St. Hugh of Lincoln is revered in the north of Italy as well as at home; and Ugo is common there in all manner of varieties, the most memorable, perhaps, being that of the terrible Genoese, Ugolino de Gherardesca, whose fearful fate has been rendered famous by Dante. In Dutch, it is Huig. Huig Groot was the home name of the author whom the world hailed as Hugo Grotius, and the Walloons use the contraction Hosch.

Hyge was the Low German form, and Hygelac is the sea-king of the Geats, the friend and lord in the poem of _Beowulf_. The latter syllable _lac_ is the northern _leik_, and Gothic _laiks_, signifying both reward and sport, the same word that in some parts of England has become _lake_, meaning to play or to be idle, and in slang, to _lark_. It is rather a favourite termination, but only a commencement in the Norse feminine Leikny, fresh sport.

Hygelac is thus the sport of thought, or it may be, the reward of thought. Hugoleik was thus not an inappropriate name for an old Frank chronicler, who has had the misfortune to descend to the world by the horrible Latinism of Chochilaicus. Hugleik was current in Norway, was transformed by the Danes into Hauleik and Hovleik, and in Ireland seems to have turned into Ulic, a favourite name, but latterly transmogrified into Ulysses.

Hugibert, or bright mind, belonged to the bishop of Liege, to whom attached the Teutonic story of the hunter’s conversion by the cross-bearing stag, making him the patron of hunters, and his name very popular in France, Flanders, northern Italy, and probably once in England, since it has left us the two surnames of Hubbard and Hobart.

┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Italian. │Portuguese. │ German. │
│Hubert │Hubert │Uberto │Huberto │Hucpraht │
│ │ │ │ │Hugibert │
│ │ │ │ │Hubert │
└────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘

It used to be wrongly translated bright of hue.

Hugibald became the German Hugbold and the Italian Ubaldo, the prince of thought; Hugihard, or firm in mind, is the French Huard.