Notes and Queries, Number 20, March 16, 1850 by Various
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page 4 of 62 (06%)
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has rightly explained _Apdrede_ and _Wylte_ in his Glossary, but does
not mention _Æfeldan_; and Dr. Leo, in his _Sprachproben_, has given a small portion from Rask, with a few geographical notes. Dr. Ingram says: "I hope on some future occasion to publish the whole of 'Alfred's Geography,' accompanied with accurate maps." Rask has anticipated Mr. Hampson's correction respecting the _Wilti_, and thus translates the passage: "men norden for Oldsakserne er Obotriternes Land, og i Nordost Vilterne, som man kalder Æfelder." The mistake of Barrington and Dr. Ingram is the more extraordinary when it is recollected that no people are so frequently mentioned in the chronicles of the Middle Ages as this Sclavonic tribe: citations might be given out of number, in which their contests with their neighbours the Obotriti, _Abodriti_, or _Apdrede_ of Alfred are noticed. Why the Wilti were sometimes called _Æfeldi_ or _Heveldi_, will appear from their location, as pointed out by Ubbo Emmius: "_Wilsos_, Henetorum gentem, ad _Havelam_ trans Albim sedes habentem." (Rer. Fris. Hist. l. iv. p. 67.) Schaffarik remarks, "Die Stoderaner und _Havelaner_ waren ein und derselbe, nur durch zwei namen interscheiden zweige des _Weleten_ stammes;" and Albinus says: "Es sein aber die riehten _Wilzen_ Wender sonderlich an der _Havel_ wonhaft." They were frequently designated by the name of _Lutici_, {314} as appears from Adam of Bremen, Helmond, and others, and the Sclavonic word _liuti_ signified _wild, fierce_, &c. Being a _wild_ and contentious people, not easily brought under the gentle yoke of Christianity, they figure in some of the old Russian sagas, much as the Jutes do in those of Scandinavia; and it is remarkable that the names of both should have signified giants or monsters. Notker, in his Teutonic paraphrase of Martianus Capella, speaking of other Anthropophagi, relates that the _Wilti_ were not ashamed to say that they had more right to eat their parents than the |
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