#widsith

[haljathefangirlcat]

Also I flubbed a little bit on the Widsith trivia. Wyrmhere/Orm wasn't the one who asked Dietrich to help avenge his father. That was Wulfhere, known as Ulf van Jern (Wolf von Jern). In the Danish and Faroese ballads, King Dietrich sends his knights Wudga, Heime, and in Danish another Dietrich, theorized to be Dietrich the Greek from the Rosengarten zu Worms, to aid young Wulf in killing King Blikiman in revenge. Orm in contrast fights either a giant from Bjarmaland, or Dietrich himself imagined as a pagan giant, to defend the Danish king's daughter (the giant is called Bermrisi, which seems to be a mix of "giant from Bern" and "giant from Bjamaland"). He wins his duel against the giant by striking at his enemy's leg, and when he's accused of hitting below the bet, replies that this is the only way he can fight, because he's so short and the giant is so tall. He then goes to Iceland, kills the giants who killed his father, and then comes home to marry the Danish princess.

Wulhere and Wyrmhere are unique in that they're attested as Dietrich's champions in ancient sources, but their legends only survived in Scandinavian balladry (or their names were well-known and new legends were made up to suit them after the old ones were forgotten). Unless, of course, you take Wulfhere to also be Wolfhart, which would give him an independent Continental corpus of stories.

And while Dietrich gets less focus in Scandinavia, the ballads still give him a circle of knights. In fact, Dietrich is the de facto king figure of the ballad's version of the old sagas, so Gunther, Gernot, Volker, and Hagen are all his vassal knights, and as we all know, there's ballads that cut out Gunther altogether and make the love triangle between Hagen, Sivard Speedy-Swain, and Brunhild. There's alos Wudga and Heime, and Ulf and Orm, and besides that a little dwarf/goblin Tom Thumb character named Mimering who might or might not be the spirit of Wudga's sword, and a (possibly illegitimate) son of Volker's, called Sonne Folkerson. Though there was apparently a historical outlaw called Sonne Folkerson, and folklorist don't know if this is an authentic legendary character or an attempt to bring in a historical cameo. And then you get knights who are appended to his circle from independent sources like Ogier the Dane, Raavengaard, Count Genselin, and Svend Vovend.

"[...] or Dietrich himself imagined as a pagan giant [...]"

... I'd forgotten about that. Even if I think I did have it in mind while writing tha "call out for Dietrich" shitpost. X AAnd, oh, the memories of first learning about the Hagen/Brunhild/Siegfried love triangle... and my initial "????" reaction at it, too!

I didn't know about Sonne Folkerson! Or about Mimering. Who, at at glance, kinda makes me think of Miming, the "satyr" in Gesta Danorum that Hotherus has to catch to get a magic sword able to pierce Balderus' steel-proof skin... it's probably just the name and the association with a sword, tho, lol.

Thank for the write-up/deep dive! Much appreciated.

[anglosaxonpersonalnames]

Widsith

Widsith is an Anglo-Saxon masculine name composed of wid (wide) and sith (journey).

Variants:

Uidsith [Joseph Stevenson 1841 Liber Vitæ Ecclesiæ Dunelmensis, page 21].

Uīdsīth [Henry Sweet 1886 The Oldest English Texts, page 624].

Uidsīth [Henry Sweet 1886 The Oldest English Texts, page 632].

Vîdsiđ [Ludwig Ettmüller 1851 Vorda vealhstôd Engla and Seaxna, page 133].

Vidsið [Ernst Förstemann 1856 Altdeutsches Namenbuch, volume 1, 1st edition, column 1288].

Ƿídsíþ [Oswin Kinsey 2016 English Compound Names, 2nd edition, page 103].

Widsith [William Searle 1897 Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum, page 486].

Prototheme:

Wid = Wide [William Smith 1873 A Complete Etymology of the English Language, page 185].

Deuterotheme:

sīð = journey, time [Henry Sweet 1886 The Oldest English Texts, page 624].

Occurrence:

The form Uidsith appears in a list of clerics [Joseph Stevenson 1841 Liber Vitæ Ecclesiæ Dunelmensis, page 21].

[lyss-sketchbox]

Preemptive copium doodles of kagura wrio if i dont get his weapon in the future

[deedis]

RAWRRRRRRRRR

[snowshinobi]

slowly building Neuvillette. this guy is alright ...

[fukounaboy]

Need to do genshin exploring for mualani but now im thinking abt happy sugar life and putting songs on spotify. :(

[irminsuls]

once i get wriothesley on his rerun it's over for y'all

[ipcearn]

I am finally done with the damn beetles

[somairle-a]

{guaranteed c1 scara sooooooon... and hopefully more. but i'm guaranteed my next 5* T^T bb boi is the only one outside of aether that is triple crowned lol}

[cangrellesteponme]

me: i'm not a nerd i swear

also me: *points at numbers next to a little pixelated man in my computer* ayo check out that monsieur neuvillette crit ratio- [insert ten minutes of intense rambling about game mechanics that only nerds would understand]

[haljathefangirlcat]

On the subject of Widsith, I'm not sure if this is the author's opinions, or if he was considering the situation of the narrator, but Widsith describes Emanaric as an ideal king, alongside the glories of the historical Alboin and the quasi-legendary Nibelungs. He also mentions Theuderic the Frankish king, but not Theodoric/Dietrich the Maering/Ostrogothic king. Unless he was equating the Frankish king with Dietrich, it almost feels like he subtly resents Dietrich for overthrowing Ermanaric.

Which would be a funny in-universe dynamic to have. Dietrich von Bern? No, Widsith isn't gonna sing anything about that bastard. Shame on you for asking about him. Don't you know he was dragged into a volcano by the Devil's own horse for his sins? Have some nice stories about Ermanaric's glory instead.

On the subject of crossovers, now I want Widsith (or whatever German equivalent to his name) to be some sort of baby poet or poet apprentice at Ermanaric's court, all excited to meet his idol Volker on his trip to Burgundy. And then for maybe the two of them to run into Vainamoinen or something.

Oh, I love this!! Baby poet Widsith being all about his kind benefactor Ermanaric and fanboying over Volker (I mean, who wouldn't XD) sounds all kinds of adorable, and then an older, more jaded version of him going against the grain by resenting Dietrich and refusing to sing about him sounds both really funny ("yeah, down in Mount Etna, I'm telling you!") and really angsty at the same time. So bittersweet!

Honestly, running into Vainamoinen is just a recipe for bad luck and misadventures... which is I'd feel really bad for Widwith but at the same time I'd also love to see it. XD Also, I feel Volker might get pretty into the idea of songs of power to use to fight against one's enemies... hmm...

[dreamytrashdoe]

Kind of want to pull for c1 Arlecchino or maybe her spear.... 🤔

[fr0stbearer]

getting a bit pissed off looking at a dps b.aizhu guide and ppl keep saying to get BP for a weapon like shut the fuck up!!! i'm not spending money on this game!!!

[snowshinobi]

y'know what. yeah

[vampireimiko]

GUESS WHO CAME HOMEEEDSHEHEB

[irminsuls]

slapped the artifacts i got from this domain onto barbara as a placeholder and jesus fucking christ,,,,,,, im 100% going for neuvillette now LMAOOO