Wade (Old English:Ƿada[ˈwɑdɑ]) is the English name for a common Germanic mythological character who, depending on location, is also known asVadi (Norse) andWate (Middle High German).
The earliest mention occurs in the Old English poemWidsith.[1] According to theÞiðrekssaga, he was born between king Wilkinus and a serpent-legged mermaid named Wachilt, a goddess of the sea and sometimes referred to as a "sea witch". His famous son isWayland, and his grandsonWudga. Though not explicitly stated as such,Egil and Slagfin may be Wade's sons, since they are Wayland's brothers according to thePoetic Edda.[2]
A medieval English romance about Wade once existed, forChaucer alluded to the "Tale of Wade" in one of his works,Troilus and Criseyde,[a] and used the phrase "Wade's boat" (Middle English:Wades boot), meaning some sort of trickery, inThe Merchant's Tale.[3] At the end of the 16th century, the tale and the boat were apparently familiar to an editor of Chaucer's worksThomas Speght, who remarked that Wade's boat bore the nameGuingelot. A c. 1330 manuscript version ofBevis of Hampton also may have alluded to an episode in the lost romance, in naming Wade as an early example of a knight who slayed afire-breathing dragon.[4] To theAngles, Wade was the Keeper of the Ford, and acted as both ferryman and protector.
Wade has always had a strong association with the sea or water. In the saga about Wade's family, theVilkina saga (also known as the (Þiðrekssaga), it is said that Wade (Vadi;Old Norse:Vaði) was born between King Vilkinus and a mermaid (normalized spelling,Old Norse:sjókona; text: gen.siokononar, lit. "sea woman").[5][6][7]
Wade first apprenticed his sonWayland (Old Norse:Völundr) toMimir, from the age 9 to 12, and later to two dwarves living in Mount Kallava. He went from his home in Sjoland (=Sjælland,[8] i.e.,Zealand[6]) toGrœnasund sound (in Denmark),[9] and finding no ship sailing out, he waded across the sound in waters nine ells deep while carrying his young son Wayland on his shoulder.[6][10][b] After the boy studied for two stretches of 12 months, Wade came to fetch his son from the reluctant dwarves, and was killed in a landslide caused by an earthquake.[6]
In the aftermath, the son (Wayland) slays the dwarves and sets off in a boat he crafts, windowed with glass, reaching the land of King Nidung.[1][6]
In Chaucer'sMerchant's Tale, the following reference to Wade's boat occurs:
- And bet than old boef is the tendre veel...
- And eek thise old wydwes, God it woot,
- They konne so muchel craft onWades boot,
- So muchel broken harm, whan that hem leste,
- That with hem sholde I nevere lyve in reste...
—1.209-14
- And better than old beef is tender veal...
- and also these old widows, God knows it,
- They can play so much craft onWade's boat,
- So much harm, when they like it,
- That with them should I never live in rest....
It is clear that, in this context, Wade's boat is being used as a sexual euphemism. However, it is debatable whether this single indirect reference can be taken to demonstrate fertility aspects are a part of his character.[citation needed]
Thomas Speght, an editor of Chaucer's works from the end of 16th century, made a passing remark that "Concerning Wade and his bote called Guingelot, and also his strange exploits in the same, because the matter is long and fabulous, I pass it over"[11] There may have been widespread knowledge of Wade's adventure in his time, but it has not been transmitted to the present day, and subsequent commentators have deplored Speght's omission.[12] "Wingelock" isSkeat's reconstructed Anglicized form of the boat's name.[13][c]
The boat's name closely resemblesGringolet, the name ofSir Gawaine's horse. Gollancz tries to make a reconstruction on the Germanic origins of the name. Still, it is based on a lot of assumptions: that Wade's boat was a winged boat, whose Germanic name was Wingalet or Wingalock, confused with Wade's son Wayland's feathered flying contraption. And while he concedes that the better form of the horse's name is "Guingelot" without the "r", he was dismissive of the view the name was of Celtic in origin, as expressed byGaston Paris.[15]
In the 19th century, three lines from the lostOld EnglishTale of Wade were found, quoted in a Latinhomily in MS. 255 in the Library ofPeterhouse, Cambridge:[16]
Ita quod dicere possunt cum Wade:
- Summe sende ylves & summe sende nadderes,
- sumne sende nikeres the biden watez wunien.
- Nister man nenne bute ildebrand onne.
"The homilist cites some comments made by Wade in theTale:
- Some are elves, some areadders,
- and some arenixies that (dwell near water?).
- There is no man except Hildebrand alone."
—Wentersdorf tr.[17]
On the same passage, Gollancz gave the following alternate translation: "We may say withWade that [all creatures who fell] became elves or adders or nickors who live in pools; not one became a man except Hildebrand"[18][d]
The context of the quote has been variously conjectured.Rickert speculated that the situation resembled the scene in theWaldere fragment, "in whichWidia, Wate's grandson, andHildebrand rescueTheodoric from a den of monsters".[19] Karl P. Wentersdorf stated that "Wade is here boasting of his victorious adventures with many kinds of creatures".[17]Alaric Hall ventures that some antagonistic force has magically "sent" monstrous beings to beset Wade, though he cautions that the fragment is too short for certainty.[20][e]
In 2025 it was suggested by James Wade and Seb Falk that the quote was misquoted and reads as follows:
Some are wolves and some are adders; some are sea snakes that dwell by the water. There is no man at all but Hildebrand.
“Here were three lines apparently talking about elves and sea monsters which exactly puts you in this world of Beowulf and other Teutonic legends,” said Dr. Wade. “What we realized is that there are no elves in this passage, there are no sea monsters and, in the study of the handwriting, everyone has gotten it wrong until now.”[21]
Stones atMulgrave nearWhitby were said to be the grave of the dead sea-giant (they were known as"Waddes grave").[22] A tale was told ofSleights Moor inEskdale, North Yorkshire. During the building ofMulgrave Castle andPickering Castle, Wade and his wife Bell would throw a hammer to and fro over the hills. (A possibleRoman road, called "Wade's Causeway" or "Wade's Wife's Causey" locally, was also said to have been built in this manner.[23]) One day Wade's son grew impatient for his milk and hurled a stone that weighed a few tonnes across Eskdale to where his mother was milking her cow at Swarthow on Egton Low Moor. The stone hit Bell with such force that a part of it broke off and could be seen for many years until it was broken up to mend the highways.[23][24]
In local folklore, theHole of Horcum in North Yorkshire was formed where Wade scooped up earth to throw at his wife.[25]
TheMiddle-earth characterEärendil sails the sky in a ship named Vingilot or Wingelot, which scholars note is close to the name of Wade's boat Guingelot. In one of his linguistic writings,Parma Eldalamberon 15, the creator of Middle-earth,J. R. R. Tolkien, explicitly noted "Wade = Earendel".[26] Tolkien's biographerHumphrey Carpenter remarked that Eärendil "was in fact the beginning of Tolkien's own mythology".[27]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Gollancz, Israel (1906)."Gringolet, Gawain's horse".Saga Book of the Viking Society for Northern Research.5. London:104–109.
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