is an early Germanic name, from a

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic bran ...

''gautaz'', which represents a mythical ancestor or

national god A national god is a guardian divinity whose special concern is the safety and well-being of an ethnic group (''nation''), and of that group's leaders. This is contrasted with other guardian figures such as family gods responsible for the well-be ...

in the

origin myth An origin myth is a myth that describes the origin of some feature of the natural or social world. One type of origin myth is the creation or cosmogonic myth, a story that describes the creation of the world. However, many cultures have st ...

of the Geats.

Etymology

''Gautaz'' may be connected to the name of the Swedish river

Göta älv The Göta älv (; "River of (the) Geats") is a river that drains lake Vänern into the Kattegat, at the city of Gothenburg, on the western coast of Sweden. It was formed at the end of the last glaciation, as an outflow channel from the Baltic Ic ...

at the city of Gothenburg. The Geatish ethnonym *gautaz is related to the ethnonym of the

Goths The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe ...

and of the

Gutes The Gutes (old west norse ''Gotar'', old gutnish ''Gutar'') were a North Germanic tribe inhabiting the island of Gotland. The ethnonym is related to that of the ''Goths'' (''Gutans''), and both names were originally Proto-Germanic *''Gutaniz'' ...

(inhabitants of the island of Gotland), deriving from Proto-Germanic *gutô (cf. Gothic ''Gut-þiuda'', Old Norse ''gotar'' or ''gutar'').

Tribal name

Early inhabitants of present-day

Götaland Götaland (; also '' Geatland'', '' Gothia'', ''Gothland'', ''Gothenland'' or ''Gautland'') is one of three lands of Sweden and comprises ten provinces. Geographically it is located in the south of Sweden, bounded to the north by Svealand, wit ...

called themselves Geats (in

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

''Götar''), derived from *''Gautaz'' (plural *''Gautôz''), "to pour".

Accounts

The German chronicler

Johannes Aventinus Johann Georg Turmair (or Thurmayr) (4 July 1477 – 9 January 1534), known by the pen name Johannes Aventinus (Latin for "John of Abensberg") or Aventin, was a Bavarian Renaissance humanist historian and philologist. He authored the 1523 ...

(ca. 1525) reported Gothus as one of 20 dukes who accompanied

Tuisto According to Tacitus's '' Germania'' (AD 98), Tuisto (or Tuisco) is the legendary divine ancestor of the Germanic peoples. The figure remains the subject of some scholarly discussion, largely focused upon etymological connections and comparisons ...

into Europe, settling Gothaland as his personal fief, during the reign of

Nimrod Nimrod (; ; arc, ܢܡܪܘܕ; ar, نُمْرُود, Numrūd) is a biblical figure mentioned in the Book of Genesis and Books of Chronicles. The son of Cush and therefore a great-grandson of Noah, Nimrod was described as a king in the land of ...

at Babel. The Swede

Johannes Magnus Johannes Magnus (a modified form of Ioannes Magnus, a Latin translation of his birth name Johan Månsson; 19 March 1488 – 22 March 1544) was the last functioning Catholic Archbishop in Sweden, and also a theologian, genealogist, and histori ...

around the same time as Aventinus, wrote that Gothus or Gethar, also known as Gogus or Gog, was one of Magog's sons, who became first king of the Goths (Geats) in Gothaland. Magnus separately listed Gaptus as son and successor of

Berig Berig is a legendary king of the Goths appearing in the ''Getica'' by Jordanes. According to Jordanes, Berig led his people on three ships from Scandza (Scandinavia) to Gothiscandza (the Vistula Basin). They settled and then attacked the Rugians wh ...

, first king of the Goths south of the Baltic.

Theonym

''Gautr'' is also one of the Eddaic

names of Odin Odin (Old Norse Óðinn) is a widely attested god in Germanic mythology. The god is referred to by numerous names and kenningar, particularly in the Old Norse record. List In Old English, Odin was known as ; in Old Saxon, as ; and in Old High ...

in Norse mythology, but also as an alternative form of the name , who was one of Odin's sons, and the founder of the kingdom of the Geats, Götaland ('/''Geatland''), in '' Bósa saga ok Herrauðs'' (c. 1300). This Gautr/Gauti also appears as the father of the recurrent and undatable

Geatish king Geatish kings ( la, Rex Getarum/Gothorum; sv, Götakungar), ruling over the provinces of Götaland (Gautland/Geatland), appear in several sources for early Swedish history. Today, most of them are not considered historical. This list follows t ...

Gautrekr {{Unreferenced, date=December 2009 Gautrekr was a legendary Geatish king who appears in several sources, such as '' Gautreks saga'', ''Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar'', '' Bósa saga ok Herrauðs'', ''Ynglinga saga'', ''Nafnaþulur'' (part of the ''Pro ...

in that saga, and several other sagas produced between 1225 and 1310.

Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies

Some versions of the English royal line of Wessex add names above that of Woden, purportedly giving Woden's ancestry, but the names are now usually thought be from another royal lineage erroneously added to the standard genealogy. Some of the genealogies end in Geat (or Geata) who is identified as an ancestor of Woden, and father of Godwulf. Geat, it is reasonable to think, might be Gaut. Others continue with Geat's father, Tatwa (Tetuua), and even further, stretching back to Adam.Asser's life of King Alfred by Asser, John, d. 909; Cook, Albert S. (Albert Stanburrough), 1853-1927, https://archive.org/details/asserslifeofking00asseiala/page/2/mode/1up In the ''Life of Alfred'' (893),

Asser Asser (; ; died 909) was a Welsh monk from St David's, Dyfed, who became Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s. About 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great to leave St David's and join the circle of learned men whom Alfred was recruiting for his ...

states that the pagans worshipped Geat himself, for a long time, as a god. He quotes a disdainful verse attributed to

Coelius Sedulius Sedulius (sometimes with the nomen Coelius or Caelius, both of doubtful authenticity) was a Christian poet of the first half of the 5th century. Biography Extremely little is known about his life. Sedulius is the Latin form of the Irish name Sia ...

(5th century). The 10th-century poem of

Deor "Deor" (or "The Lament of Deor") is an Old English poem found on folio 100r–100v of the late-10th-century collection the Exeter Book. The poem consists of a reflection on misfortune by a poet whom the poem is usually thought to name Deor. The po ...

briefly mentions Geat and his wife, Maethehilde. The account in the ''

Historia Britonum ''The History of the Britons'' ( la, Historia Brittonum) is a purported history of the indigenous British ( Brittonic) people that was written around 828 and survives in numerous recensions that date from after the 11th century. The ''Historia Br ...

'' (c. 835; generally attributed to Nennius) says that Geat was considered the son of a god by the heathens of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Elsewhere, it names Gothus, a son of Armenon, as the Goths' ancestor.

References