Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/147

 ii s. x. AUO. 22, 1914. j NOTES AND QUERIES.

LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 191L

CONTENTS. No. 243.

NOTES :Sir Launcelob du Lake in 'Widsith,' 141 Sir John Gilbert, J. F. Smith, and 'The London Journal,' 144 Illustrations of Casanova, 145 The National Flag at Sea Scioppius's ' Scaliger Hyperbolimoeus ' Twisaday Spoon Folk-lore-" The Case is Altered," 146 Guildhall Library : Subject Index, 147.

iJUERIES : Henderson's ' Life of Major AndreaLowell's ' Fireside Travels ' ' Almanach de Gotha,' 147 Old Etonians Earls of Derwentwater : Descendants Seven- teenth-Century Corn Laws The Four Ancient Highways of England Hogarth's Portrait of T. Morell ' Humours of Heraldry 'Authors Wanted, 148 Hats Chains and Posts in the City, 1648 Stockwell Ghost Gate Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields Pedigrees of Knights, 149 Saying of Bede's Burial- Place of Eleanor of Provence" Hurley- hacket "Famous Ulstermen Epigram on Frederick the Great Henry IV. 's Supper of Hens First Philosopher- Johannes Renadicus Duchess of Marlborough's Striped Gown " Queen Elinor in the ballad," 150.

REPLIES: Pauline Tarn, 151 St. Katherine's by the -

Family Schubert Queries Burning of the Houses of Parliament, 154 G. Quinton " Master " and " Gentle- man "Anthony Munday Wills at St. Paul's Sir W. Temple on Huniades Scott's ' Antiquary ' Saffron Walden, 155 Justification of King John Joshua Webster, M.D. Shakespeare and Warwickshire Dialect Maimonides and Evolution, 156" Beau-pere "Throw- ing a Hat into a House The Candle" Sparrowbills," 157 Mary, Queen of ScT>ts "Left his corps "Language and Physiognomy Byron's "Lay" Again "Wait and see " Culpeper of Kent Oriental Names mentioned by Gray-St. Christopher, 158 Snuff-boxes, 159.

NOTES ON BOOKS : ' A Description of Brasses in the Chapel of Magdalen College ' ' Notes on South African Place-Names' 'The Remaking of China.'

Notices to Correspondents.

SIR

LAUNCELOT DU IN 'WIDSITH.'

LAKE

THE historian Ammianus Marcellinus men- tions two military tribunes, contemporaries of his in 355, who were named Bainobaudes. This name presents the Gothic diphthongs AT and AU. The former occurs in such Gothic words as stains and hdims : the O.E. stem and ham, our " stone " and " home." Con- sequently a Gothic " Bain- " postulates O.E. Ban-, and that we find in ' Widsith,' 1. 19 ; sc.,

Becca [weold] Baningum Burgendum Qifica, Becca ruled the Baningas, Gifica the Bur- gundians.

The stem of the patronymic, however, should undergo palatal umlaut, and we ought to get Baening-. In ' Widsith ' the stem-vowel is uninfected. This is not ex- plained, and perhaps it has not been noticed by commentators who have sought for evidence of antiquity in the poem itself.

Palatal umlaut, of course, does occur in ' Widsith,' and we get Hcelsing-, Myrging-, Thyring-, Sercing-, and Sering-. On the other hand, in addition to Baning-, Hunding-, Boding-, Branding-, and Folcwalding-, we find, among uninfected forms, Hoeing-, Wulfing-, Prating-, and Amothing-. Con- sequently, out of fourteen patronymics in ' Widsith,' nine have escaped palatal um- laut. All these tribes, it is true, were not English ; but at the same tim<$ there was no reluctance in the O.E. dialect with regard to admitting vocalic infection, and we may assume from its absence from " Baning- " that the dialect from which Widsith took over this tribal name either had not adopted i-umlaut by A.D. 450, or else that the theme that dialect employed in forming patronymics did not commence with the palatal vowel *'. The Gothic dialect responds to both these requirements : it did not admit palatal umlaut, and it formed tribal names with -ung, not -ing ; cp. Grutung-, Amalung-, and so *Bainung-. For these reasons I assume that Bain-, the O.E. Ban-, was the pro to theme in the name of either an Ostro-Goth or a Wisi-Goth.

The name of the Baningas has been dubbed " fictitious " by commentators, and fantastic meanings such as " the sons of the slayers," " the righteous ones," " the hos- pitable ones," have been ascribed to it. These are incoherent and uncritical. To an Angle or a Saxon the word Baningas would have suggested only one meaning, namely, the sons (with their allies) of some chief the head-word or prototheme of whose name was Ban. The real problem before us is, not What does ban mean ? but Who was Ban ?

Now in Chretien de Troyes (fllOl) we are told that the elder brothers of Sir Percival ( = Perciwald) were sent to the Court of King Ban," le bon roi de Gomeret," to be educated. This King Ban is well known in the unexplained melange of Cymric and Germanic hero -tales which make up " la matiere de Bretagne." In Index I. (p. 267) of the late Alfred Nutt's ' Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail,' at ' Bans ' (the s here indicates the Old- French nominative), three references are given to the ' Queste del Saint Graal ' and the ' Grand Saint Graal.' Of these the ' Queste ' was composed by Walter Mapes (f 1210) "pour lamor del roy Henri mon seignor " therefore before liOO; and the ' Grand Saint Graal ' was received by Robert de Borron from " mon seignor Gautier lou preu conte de Mobeliart," who went to