Talk:Wiglaf

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Untitled[edit]

While Wiglaf originated with Beowulf, currently there are three Wiglaf's of note. One, Wiglaf Droste, a musician from Germany. Two, Wiglaf computing cluster, built as a second generation Beowulf computing cluster. And three, Wiglaf Journal, a journal devoted to supporting sales and marketing executives in business markets. What each of these have to do with ground based entities would require tremendous imagination.

If there are articles for all those others, someone could create a disambiguation page. I don't know how to do that myself. Fumblebruschi 19:51, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Etymology[edit]

Wiglaf (proto-norse *Wigalaibaz) has the Old English parts Wig- (war, battle, strife, contest) and -laf (remnant, remain leftover, to leave). Taken together, this makes Wiglaf "what is left over by a war" or "survivor of a war". (Sources: Phyllis Portnoy, 'The "Legacy" of the "Remnant"' PhD Thesis, 1998, University of Manitoba. Peterson, Lena (2007). Lexikon över urnordiska personnamn p.40. Swedish Institute for Language and Folklore.(Lexicon of nordic personal names before the 8th century ) I wonder why 'Wig-' in this context could not be 'holy' or 'sacred', as in weoh (18.April 2008, 15:03). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.83.61.65 (talk) 13:03, 18 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

"Wiglaf cannot be traced to any Scandinavian source"[edit]

This is a statement that looks a bit categorical. Beowulf (Beowulf = bee-wolf = bear) has a counterpart in Bödvar Bjarki ("little battle bear") who leaves Gautland/Geatland and arrives at the Danish court in Lejre/Heorot, where he kills a beast (a dragon) with the help of a younger man, Hjalti. Although not a perfect corresponce (Beowulf kills the dragon with Wiglaf later), a correspondence between Wiglaf and Hjalti is nothing new:

"Sarrazin further equates Hjalti with Wiglaf, and says that the speeches of Wiglaf recall those of Hialto in Saxo Grammaticus, to which attention had been called by Bugge. Wiglaf's sword, too, has, according to Sarrazin, “gewissermassen” the function of the old demonic sword, which we have seen is, on his theory, to be equated with Hjalti."

(source: Some Disputed Questions in Beowulf–Criticism, by William Witherle Lawrence)

"[...] for the last fifth of Beowulf, Wiglaf is significant in more than the role attributed to Bǫðvarr's Hjalti in the Norse analogues"

(source: Longman Anthology of Old English, Old Icelandic, and Anglo-Norman Literatures)

I don't blame authors for missing this correspondence, or ignoring it for the purpose of promoting their own theses, but here on WP we need to be more neutral.--Berig (talk) 10:49, 2 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]