Talk:Odo I, Duke of Burgundy

"Sibylla of Burgundy"
In atleast 2 other languages (French and Spanish), Sibylla (Sibilia) is referred to as "Sybilla de Barcelone" (Sibilia de Barcelona). Is the "Burgundy" in the English page an error? 79.225.0.149 (talk) 15:32, 20 August 2012 (UTC) Josie

editted to add: I see now that she is the daughter of "of Burgundy". Where does the "Barcelona" come from then in the other languages?


 * First, you are misreading the French and Spanish pages. They both say that Odo was son of Sybilla of Barcelona, and that he married Sybilla of Burgundy.  The English page just names his wife.  She is well documented - she was Sybilla of Burgundy, so all of the pages are in agreement here, and they are correct.  It is his mother that is the problem.  'Sybilla of Barcelona' is a chimera, the result of combining two different pieces of information.  One is a supposition regarding the byname of Odo - Borel.  This name was unknown among the earlier dukes of Burgundy, but was a name used among the counts of Barcelona.  It has been hypothesized that Odo received the name from his mother's family, and hence his mother was from Barcelona.  Second, there is a charter that names "Sybilla, mother of the Duke of Burgundy".  An argument has been made that the only woman who was mother of a duke, but not duchess herself, was the unknown mother of Duke Odo who thus must have been the Sybilla of this document.  Put the two together and you have Sybilla, of Barcelona.  Unfortunately, neither of these represent solid information.  The name Borel was not exclusive to the counts of Barcelona, and it could have come from some other family (or for that matter, it could have been earned by Odo for some reason other than family relationship).  As to the Sybilla charter, it is being interpreted with modern ideas of title usage.  After Duke Odo died, his widow would be Sibilla, mother of the Duke (Odo's son and successor), and hence the charter naming Sybilla is almost certainly a reference to Odo's widow, not his mother.  So, she was not named Sybilla (at least as far as we can tell) and she may not have been from Barcelona.  That is why we don't mention her. Agricolae (talk) 23:35, 20 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Thank you very much!!!
 * 79.225.0.149 (talk) 05:56, 21 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Josie