User:Doug Weller/Godulf Geoting

The name Godulf, Godwulf, Godwolf, Gudolf, Gudólfr or Guðúlfr or Godulf Geoting appears in several Anglo-Saxon genealogies, and later also sources derived from them. The earliest such pedigree is one of the Kings of Lindsey, composed by the early 9th century. The name Godulf consists of the Anglo-Saxon naming elements for the words "god" and "wolf", while Geoting indicates that he was son of Geot. Gudólfr appears as a son of Ját and father of Finn in Snorri Sturlson's Prose Edda.

Vespasian B VI Lindsey Genealogy
Frank Stenton mentions Godulf's placement in the Anglian collection, Cotton Library manuscript Vespasian B VI royal pedigree for the Kingdom of Lindsey as "a set of mythological names through to Godulf Geoting". This list gives a line of legendary ancestors to Woden that runs through Frealaf, Friodulf and Finn to Godulf, son of Geot. This pedigree is further extended in a genealogy of the monarchs of Kent found in Historia Brittonum, other later manuscript versions of the Anglian collection, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and the chronicle of Æthelweard. Thirteenth-century Icelander Snorri Sturluson incorporated the pedigree of Woden, including Godulf (Gudólfr or Guðúlfr) into his Prose Edda.

Historia Brittonum
In the Historia Brittonum, commonly attributed to Nennius, it relates a similar descent of conquerors Horsa and Hengist though Woden and Godwulf to Geat. Discussing this genealogy, Hector Munro Chadwick notes that it differs from other Anglian collection manuscripts, saying "The exception is that the name of Finn's father is here given as Folcwald (al. Fodepald) instead of Godwulf. But this is a mistake which could only have been made by some one familiar with English traditions; for Finn the son of Folcwalda was a well-known figure in English heroic poetry." Raymond Wilson Chambers discussed the concept of a "Folcpald" or "Fodepald". He mused; "Is it not possible that Godwulf was a traditional, probably historic, king of the Frisians, father of Finn, and that Folcwalda was a title which, since it alliterated conveniently, in the end supplanted the proper name in epic poetry?" J. R. R. Tolkien took a similar view, that Folcwalda may have been the title borne by Godulf.

Geat, father of Godulf
Dispute has been raised regarding Geat, the name mentioned prior to Godulf in the line of the Historia Brittonum, Hector Munro Chadwick noted that "Asser says that Geat was worshipped as a god by the heathen, but this statement is possibly due to a passage in Sedulius' Carmen Paschale which he has misunderstood and incorporated in his text. It has been thought by many modern writers that the name is identical with Gapt which stands at the head of the Gothic genealogy in Jordanes, cap. 14; but the identification is attended with a good deal of difficulty." He further discusses how in some Norse sources, a matching name "Gautr" is given to a variety of legendary figures including a King of Gotland and another name of Odin. A Gautatyr is also noted as a God of the Gautar, which some scholars suggest was worshipped by a northern tribe called the Gotar.

Chadwick questioned the authenticity of this entry in the legend as being that of a place name, saying "If the personal name is really derived from that of the nation one cannot help wondering how it came to stand at the head of the English genealogies. Did any of the English royal families ever believe that they were of Gotish origin?"