Who was Widukind?

Apr 11, 2009 22:28

Setting: Frankia and Saxony, circa 772 to 804 ( Read more... )

700s, history (misc), ~middle ages, germany: history, 800s

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Comments 6

koulagirl666 April 12 2009, 21:02:48 UTC
Given that a couple of pages I turned up give him religious significance (e.g. The Catholic Encyclopedia) have you tried looking at him from that angle? Visions aside, perhaps you could find turn up a few other sources from surviving religious texts, or try looking for Vatican records from when he was beatified (which is generally what calling someone 'blessed' signifies).

You could also try looking up 'Wittekind', if you haven't already.

Wish I could be of more help.

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murstein April 15 2009, 21:45:49 UTC
I wish I'd known about the more modern spelling before posting; I'm seeing a couple of orders of magnitude more information than I knew about before. Thank you for that.

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estepheia April 12 2009, 21:11:17 UTC
I come from Osnabrück, a medium sized town in Germany, in Lower Saxony, and I vaguely remember that we were taught about Wittekind/Widukind at school. Some landmarks are still named after him. I mostly remember anecdotes, like that once he had horseshoes nailed to the horses of his men the wrong way round, to fool trackers ( ... )

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murstein April 15 2009, 21:57:59 UTC
There is a lot of secondary literature available on Widukind, since he's one of few German mythic heroes, but that literature is mostly in German.

I'd missed a lot of that literature, because I somehow missed the modern spelling of the man's name. I've got some of what's in English on order now.

As far as I remember, the Saxons had no real kings.

I had the impression that they didn't, too. Except for those who moved to Britain and wound up founding several kingdoms; I've been wondering why they changed their minds at that point.

I think what you need is a book on basic Saxon law, and tribal law and warfare.

What I've found so far has been based on England, which leaves me wondering how much is applicable, and how much was adaptation to the new environment.

Also, if you are going to write about this period, you should look at the Men-at-Arms series of Osprey publishing.

Heh. I've picked up several of them.

If you need a bibliography, you should check out the German language Wikipedia entry.
I might do that, and see how much I ( ... )

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dandelion April 13 2009, 00:19:37 UTC
I'm going to call him Wittekind because that's the spelling as used in street names, memorials, etc at the moment, but Wittekind and Widukind are one and the same (though make sure that where you're reading about a Widukind, it's the legendary figure of the 8th-ish century and not the 11th century historian named after him). Wittekind or Widukind itself comes from Wald and Kind, or essentially "child of the forest".

Can you read German? The German Wikipedia entry on Wittekind is fairly good (the English one is linked at the side if you can't, but it's a lot shorter). The Wittekinddenkmal (a memorial statue) in Herford is apparently the only major monument to Wittekind - it's of him on a horse in bronze, with the horse uncovering a spring. I've heard various versions of what this commemorates: my mum had told me it was because him finding this water was important (say, for his side in battle), while other sources say the spring represents one he found while crossing the Wiehengebirge (a nearby mountain range) and took it as a sign ( ... )

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murstein April 15 2009, 22:07:26 UTC
I'm going to call him Wittekind because that's the spelling as used in street names . . .

If I'd known about that spelling, I'd have gotten farther before asking for help. We'll see how far that gets me.

Wittekind or Widukind itself comes from Wald and Kind, or essentially "child of the forest".

Now that is a valuable insight. One that I'm already hoping to use for some sort of foreshadowing. Thank you.

Can you read German? The German Wikipedia entry on Wittekind is fairly good . . .

A little -- although I'm far more likely to use it to wade through a Wagner libretto, hunting for credits, than anything else. And I can wash it through Google Translate (and hope I catch where the software gets it automatically wrong!), when it exceeds my vocabulary.

So when he was not killing people and burning villages (in his Viking-like sports-kit), he was skulking around the Monetary in monks robes and writing the history of the period. It is mainly thanks to him that the Germans have so much information about the period around the time when ( ... )

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