Hludana (or Dea Hludana) is a Germanic goddess attested in five ancient Latin inscriptions from the Rhineland and

Frisia Frisia () is a Cross-border region, cross-border Cultural area, cultural region in Northwestern Europe. Stretching along the Wadden Sea, it encompasses the north of the Netherlands and parts of northwestern Germany. Wider definitions of "Frisia" ...

, all dating from 197–235 AD. Based on the prevalence of *hlud- as an element of Frankish war-leader names, she is believed to have been the goddess of the initial organization of the Franks, which would have been at first a clandestine organization of officers in the Frankish auxiliaries of the Roman border guards; hence the secrecy enshrouding the formation of the

Franks file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...

. Etymologically the word means "Fame," a suitable name for the meaning of "bold" for Franks. The Franks first appear as rebels in the Roman army. Subsequently they were a substantial part of it. Three of these inscriptions come from the lower Rhine (; ; ), one from Münstereifel () and one from Beetgum, Frisia (). The name appears as ''Hluθena'' on the Iversheim inscription from Münstereifel, and as ''Hlucena'' on that from Monterberg in the lower Rhine. The name is abbreviated in an inscription from Nijmegen on the lower Rhine ('' ud.''); it appears as ''Hludana'' in the inscriptions from

Xanten Xanten (, Low Rhenish: ''Santen'') is a town in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the district of Wesel. Xanten is known for the Archaeological Park, one of the largest archaeological open air museums in the ...

(lower Rhine) and Beetgum. The Beetgum inscription, dedicated by a group of fishermen, originally accompanied a carving of a seated goddess, of which only the bottom can now be seen. On etymological grounds, the name Hludana is closely related to Old Greek κλυδων and κλυδωνα (''kludoon(a)'' 'high waves, rough water') and the Ancient Greek-derived Euroclydon, meaning a violent north-eastern wind. The

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

Walther Kuhn suggested that it might be derived from Poseidon's spouse Kleito, as mentioned in

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

's dialogues. The name of Poseidon is etymologically connected to the Frisian-Norse god Forseti. There is no proven connection between Hludana and Holda.

Jacob Grimm Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863), also known as Ludwig Karl, was a German author, linguist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist. He formulated Grimm's law of linguistics, and was the co-author of the ''Deutsch ...

suggested in ''Deutsche Mythologie'' that Hludana was to be identified with the Norse earth-goddess Hlóðyn.

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{{commonscat-inline, Hludana Germanic goddesses Germanic deities