Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/69

 us. viz. JAN. 25, ma]: NOTES AND QUERIES.

The southern scribe did not understand " Walarices," otherwise he would have made it true to his own dialect. I shall now show who Widsith's Casere really was.

In the ' Chronicse ' of Fredegar* (cap. 51), at the twenty-fourth year of Theodoshts ( = A.D. 448), \ve may read that the Count Csesarius was slain at Seville by a Gothic nobleman named Agyulf. But in Hydatius's riim.'f at the same regnal year, we are told that " Censorius " was slain by " Agiulf " at Seville, and no title is given him. Hyda- tiits, however, mentions Censorius five times, namely, capp. 98 and 121 as cornea and legatus (Aetii) ; capp. 100 and 139 by name only; and cap. Ill as legatus (Aetii). Consequently we cannot find fault with Fredegar for adding comes to the name of the murdered man. On the other hand, Hydatius knew Count Censorius very well, as I shall show presently ; hence we cannot presume to correct him as to the spelling of the Count's name. It is indisputable that both Hydatius and Fredegar referred to the same official, and it should seem that Fredegar's report was not dependent upon Hydatius.
 * Coiitinuatio Chronicorum Hieronymiano-

Now in 417/18 the Wisigothic king Waila, the Wala of Widsith, drove the Suevi into the mountains of Galicia. Their depreda- tions were serious and persistent, and in 431 Bishop Hydatius undertook a mission on behalf of the provincials to the Duke Ae'tius. While he was away from his see a Wisigoth named Weto visited Galicia, but had to go back to his own people without effecting his object. What that was Hyda- tius does not explain. In the following year Ae'tius sent Count Censorius as his legate to the Suevi, and Hydatius journeyed back to Galicia in the legate's company. In 433, after Censorius had returned to the palace, the peace made between Hermeric, King of the Suevi, and the Galicians is mentioned. In 437 Censorius and Fretimundus are sent as ambassadors to the Suevi, and peace is renewed. In 440 Censorius, who had been sent a third time to the Suevi, was blockaded

The 'Chronicae' and Epitome were edited by Dr. Bruno Krusch in 1888, in ' Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum,'!!. (in 'Mon. Germ. Hist.'), from, inter al., Codex Parisinus, No. 10,910. Fredegar flourished c. 650, and the Paris MS. was transcribed about fifty years later.

I The ' Continuatio ' was edited by Theodore Mommsen in his ' Chroniea Minora,' II. p. 22, from, inter aL, Codex Phillipps., No. 1829, of the ninth century. Hydatius (Lemicensis), Bishop of Chaves, flourished c. 450,

on his way back to Gaul by Rechila, King Hermeric's son, in time of peace, and corn- palled to surrender. In 448 Count Censorius was murdered among the Wisigoths by one of their nobles.

The correctness of Hydatius's spelling,. as I have remarked already, cannot be impugned. Censorius is as truly Latin as Ccesarius is. Moreover, Hydatius was a Spaniard, and could not have had any dia- lectal reason for altering the form of the Count's name. On the other hand, Fredegar was a Frank, and, as some of the Franks were Old Low Franconian, the question of dialect becomes insistent. It was possible, for instance, for the Welshman, Geoffrey of Monmouth. to write " Mustensar," King of the Africans (X. i.); and the Norman Wace could write " Mustansar." But the Englishman Layamon gives us " Mustesar " (the MSS. have ofustesar, I believe). Now es for tns is in exact conformity with the tendency of all northern Teutonic dialects to reject the contact -ns-, found in Gothic and Alemanic (which include Suevic), and to let n drop out, with compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel. Cf.. O.E. est <*osti, O.H.G. dnst, stem ansti-, "favour"; O.E. us, O.H.G. tins, "us";: O.E. hos, O.H.G. hdnsa, " band," " escort " ; G&nsimundus > Gesimundus (v. ' Cassiodori, Variarum,' VIII. ix., ed. Mommsen,. ' M.G.H.,' xii. p. 239). Consequently in Low German dialects, which include Old Low Franconian, we expect Censori- to become origin of the name. We nead be in no doubt,, therefore, as to the significance of the diverg- ence between the names Censorius and Ccesarius. The first is a metaphony of some Gothic, Alemanic, or Suevic proper name with -ns- ; the second is a metaphony of the Low German representative of that name, without -n-, and with compensatory lengthening of the vowel.
 * Cesori-, and that, too, irrespective of the-

Now what Teutonic personal name would yield these resultants ? As far as its stem is concerned I find it in Kens- in " Kensing- ton." In Domesday Book we get " Chensi- tun," which stands for Chensintun, with Alemanic gen. sing. Cf. "Croucin-go" of Ravennas. This means the " Gou of Crouc." Old High German Crouc- = O.E. Creac-. Cf.. also *Croginden> Croinden) Croydon, in Surrey. Crouc- represents an earlier Croug-, i.e., Crogo, the name- of the Alemanic king who was so helpful to the young Constan- tin^ in Britain, in 306, on the death of Const antius Chlorus ; v. the ' Epitome ' of Sextus Aurelius Victor, ' Constantine.'