Chapter CCXIII: Section I: Nobility

The names connected with any great cycle of interest have been nearly exhausted, and only those remain that seem to have been chosen more for sense than connection, though afterwards continued for the sake of their owners. Several of our own truly English or Anglo-Saxon names are among these, and in especial those with the prefix meaning noble, Æthel, Athel, Adel, Edel, or in High German, Adal. It is thought to come from the universal word _atta_, a father, and thus to convey that the owner has forefathers, the essence of nobility, as with the _pater_ and patrician of Rome, and the _hidalgo_, the son of something, of Spain. Adel, or Æthel, is a favourite prefix in all the Teutonic branches except the Scandinavian, where it does not occur at all. It is essentially Gothic,—witness Athalaric, the formidable but gentle conqueror of Rome, who well deserved his name of Noble-King. He is generally, however, called Alaric, and his name has been deduced from _al_, all; but the right reading seems to be that which identifies his appellation with our own English Æthelric, and the Uadalrich of Germany.

Udalrich, archbishop of Augsburg till the year 973, is notable as the first person canonized by the pope according to the present forms, which could not, however, have included the half-century of posthumous probation, as he was placed in the calendar only twenty years after his death. Contracting his name to Ulrich, Germany made him a favourite national saint; and we find him and his feminine spread throughout the countries influenced by the empire, and the feminine particularly prevalent in Denmark, whither it was carried by German queens. Though the ensuing table places all the forms of Athalaric together, it should be kept in mind that the forms beginning with _A_ are the modern namesakes of the great Goth, those with _U_ and _O_ the votaries of that saint, and Adelrich is considered as a different name from Ulrich.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ German. │
│Æthelric │Alaric │Alarico │Adelrich │
│Alaric │Ulric │Ulrico │Alarich │
│Ulrick │Olery │ │Uadalrich │
│ │ │ │Ulrich │
│ │ │ │Alerk │
│ │ │ │Oelric │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Bavarian. │ Swedish. │ Frisian. │ Swiss. │
│Rickel │Alarik │Ulrik │Uoli │
│ │Ulrik │Olrick │Ueli │
│ │ │Ulerk │Uerech │
│ │ │Ulk │ │
│ │ │Ucko │ │
│ │ │Ocko │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Polish. │ Bohemian. │ Slovak. │ Lettish. │
│Ulryk │Ulric │Ureh │Uldriks │
│ │Oldrich │Ulrih │ │
├───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┤
│ FEMININE. │
├───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┤
│ German. │ French. │ Roman. │ Polish. │
│Ulrike │Ulrique │Ulrica │Ulryka │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

The successor of Alaric, who laid him in his river-grave, is known to us as Ataulfus. In his own time he was Athaulf, the Noble-Wolf, and his likeness stands in our own roll of English kings as the father of Alfred, namely, Æthelwulf; but this good old name was dropped in England, while its German cousin, in honour of a sainted bishop of Metz, of the ninth century, became very common in the principalities of the empire, and was imported with the house of Hanover in the barbarous Latin form of Adolphus. Its feminine, coined in Germany, is Adolfine, usually called Dofine, and now extremely common. This may possibly be the source of the Dolphine given as the name of one of the daughters of Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria, as the habit of making barbarous feminines was just beginning in her time.

┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ German │ Finn. │
│Ethelwolf │Adolphe │Adolfo │Adolf │Ato │
│Adolphus │ │Udolfo │Odulf │Atu │
│Dolph │ │ │ │ │
└────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘

Athanagild, or Athalagild, Noble Pledge, was another of these early Goths, and afterwards we meet the same meaning in Adelgis, or Adelchis, the brave son of the last Lombardic king, whose noble spirit, under his misfortunes, is the subject of a fine tragedy of Manzoni. The duke of Beneventum, who made Louis le Debonnaire prisoner, was Adelgis; but it is curious to find the soldiers in the dog-latin poem above alluded to, terming him Adalfieri. Odelgis was old High German.

Æthel was so much used by the royal families of Kent and Wessex, that the diminutive, Ætheling, was latterly applied to designate the heir to the crown, and was thus continued even after the Conquest to the son of Henry I., who perished in the white ship.

Æthelbryht, or Noble Splendour, named our first Christian king of Kent, also a brother of King Alfred’s, and a missionary of the royal blood of Northumbria, who preached in southern Germany, and died about the year 700, at Egmond, where, as St. Adelbrecht, he became patron. His name was taken at baptism by one who became archbishop of Magdeburg, who, in his turn, bestowed it on his pupil, the Bohemian Woyteich, Army-Help. This convert was afterwards bishop of Prague, and was martyred near Dantzic while preaching to the heathen Prussians in 997. Adelbrecht could not fail to become national wherever the saint had set his foot; and when shortened to Albrecht, was adopted by Italy, and thence sent to Jerusalem with a Latin patriarch, who, being beatified, rendered Alberto freshly popular in the South. Albrecht, and the feminines Alberta and Albertine, were, however, almost entirely German, until the late Prince Consort brought the name to England, where it bids fair to become one of the most frequent of national names. Some fancy it comes from Allbright; but the German saints, whence it was taken, are evidently direct from our English Æthelbryht, though in Germany Adelbert and Albrecht are now treated as two separate names. Bela, which belonged to an excellent blind king of Hungary, is believed to be the Magyar form of the name.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Provençal. │ Italian. │
│Ethelbert │Albert │Azalbert │Albert │
│Albert │Aubert │ │Albertino │
│ │Albret │ │ │
│ │Aubertin │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ German. │ Wallachian. │ Finn. │ Danish. │
│Adalbert │Averkie │ │Albert │
│Albrecht │ ————————— │Alpu │Bertel │
│Ulbricht │ Polish. │ │ │
│ │Albert │ │ │
│ │Olbracht │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

Æthelred, Noble-speech or counsel, the brother of Alfred, was almost canonized by his subjects, and is sometimes called Ethered, whence the Scottish Ethert. The nickname of our last Ethelred was a play on his name “onreade,” not meaning so much tardy as without counsel—Noble-rede the Un-reedy. Ethelred must not be confused with Etheldred, the feminine name, properly Æthelthryth, meaning in Anglo-Saxon the Noble-threatener, connected with the German Ediltrud, or noble maiden. Most likely names ending in _trut_ had been brought to England, and as the Valkyr sense was forgotten, the native meaning of _threat_ was attached to the word, and the spelling adapted to it. St. Æthelthryth was a queen who must have been a very uncomfortable wife, and who, finally, retired into a monastery, getting canonized as St. Etheldreda, and revered as St. Audry. From the gewgaws sold at her fairs some derive the term tawdry; and, at any rate, Awdry has never been extinct as a name among the peasantry, and has of late been revived, though with less popularity than the other more modern contraction, Ethel, which is sometimes in modern times set to stand alone as an independent name. Addy is the common Devonian short for Audrey.

Germans do, however, seem to have used the word without another syllable, for Adilo, or Odilo, was an old name, and Ado and Addo are still current in Friesland, no doubt, the same as the Ade of the Cambrian registers. Adela and Adèle, too, occur very early; indeed, there is reason to think that just as in England the son was the Ætheling, in Frankland the daughter was the Adalheit, or the Adelchen. This word _heit_ is translated as the root of the present German _heiter_, cheerful, and thus would mean noble cheer; but I suspect it is rather _heid_, condition, answering to the _hood_ or _head_ at the end of our abstract nouns, _e. g._ hardihood, and that the princess royal of each little Frankish duchy or county was thus the ‘Nobleness’ thereof.

All the feudal princes of the tenth and eleventh centuries seem to have had an Adelheid to offer in marriage, and to have Latinized her in all manner of ways, while practically they called her Alix (or Alisa in Lombardy), a name that was naturalized in England, when _Alix la Belle_ married Henry I. Alice is our true English form, though it has been twisted into Alicia, and then referred for derivation to the Greek Alexios, so as often to appear in Latin documents of the later middle ages in the form of Alexia; whereas in earlier times, before its origin was forgotten, it is translated by Adelicia, Adelisa, or Adelidis.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Provençal. │ Italian. │
│Adelaide │Adelaide │Azalaïs │Adelaïda │
│Adeline │Adeline │ │Alisa │
│Adeliza │Adelais │ │ │
│Adela │Adèle │ │ │
│Alice │Alix │ │ │
│Alicia │Aline │ │ │
│Elsie │ │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ German. │ Netherlands. │ Slovak. │ Lettish. │
│Adelheid │Adelheid │Adelajda │Audule │
│Adeline │Adelais │ │Addala │
│Adele │ │ │ │
│Else │ │ │ │
│Ilse │ │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

The French made great use of all the forms of the name; the Germans, in honour, perhaps, of the Italian Queen Adelaide—whose adventures before her marriage with the Emperor Otho were so curious—preferred that variety, and from them we received it again with our good Queen Adelaide, from whom it is becoming frequent amongst us. The German Alice is Else, a favourite old peasant word. This same contraction is common in northern England, but gets confused with Elizabeth, as in Scotland, with Alison; and in Ireland, the prevalent Alicia is, perhaps, meant for Aileen, or Helen.

The Adeleve of early Norman times is probably meant for Æthelgifu, Noble-gift, a frequent Saxon lady’s name, which we generally call Ethelgiva.

Æthelwold, the Saxon historian of royal blood, is Noble-power. Æthelheard, or noble resolution, answers to Adelhard, a cousin of Charlemagne, and abbot of Corbie, whom his contemporaries glorified as at once the Augustin, the Antony, and the Jeremiah of his day, and who, being canonized, left Alard and Alert to Friesland, and Aleardo, Alearda to Provence.

Æthelstan, the Noble-stone or jewel, was second only to Alfred in ability and glory, and his name lived on to the Conquest, when it is set down as Adestan and Adstan.

Adelhelm, the Noble-helmet, named the excellent and poetical Aldhelm, bishop of Sherborn, from whom the headland on the Dorset coast was once called St. Aldhelm’s head, but is now corrupted into St. Alban’s head.

Adelgar, or Noble-spear, was chiefly continental, first figuring in the beautiful Scottish ballad of _Sir Aldingar_, but better known in Lombardy, where Allighero sprang from it, and gave his patronymic to Dante Alighieri. Algarotti was another Italian derivative; and in France, Augier and Augereau; in Germany, Oehlkar, show that it once must have been much in use. It is not always easy, however, to separate between the words from Adel and from Hilda. The remaining varieties are—

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Ger. Adelar—Noble eagle │
│ Ger. Adelbar, Alpero—Noble bear │
│ Ger. Adelbold; Eng. Æthelbald—Noble prince │
│ │
│ Ger. Odelburga } │
│ Eng. Æthelburg } Noble defence │
│ │
│ Eng. Æthelburh—Noble pledge │
│ │
│ German. │
│ Adelfrid } │
│ Adalfrid } │
│ Ulfrid } Noble peace │
│ Ulfert } │
│ Olfert } │
│ │
│ Eng. Æthelfledh—Noble increase │
│ Ger. Adelgard—Noble protection │
│ Ger. Adelgund; Fr. Adelgonde—Noble war │

│ │
│ Ger. Adelhild—Noble heroine │
│ Ger. Udalland, Uland—Noble land │
│ Ger. Adelinde, Odelind; Eng. Ethelind (_mod._)—Noble snake │
│ Ger. Adelmann, Ullman—Noble man │
│ Ger. Adelmund; Eng. Edelmund (_Domes._)—Noble protection │
│ Ger. Adelmar; Eng. Ethelmar; Fr. Ademar, Adhemar—Noble │
│ greatness │
│ Ger. Adelschalk—Noble servant │
│ │
│ Ger. Adelswind—Noble strength │
│ Ger. Adeltac—Noble day[145] │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Footnote 145:

Pott; Michaelis; Lappenburg; Butler; Palgrave; Turner.