Editing Lombards (section)

====Legendary origins====
{{Further|Hundings}}
{{multiple image
| direction         = vertical
| width             = 240
| footer            =
| image1            = Wodan Frea Himmelsfenster by Emil Doepler.jpg
| alt1              =
| caption1          = [[Wodan]] (Godan) and [[Frigg]] (Frea) looking out of a window in the heavens...
| image2            = Wodan Frea Himmelsfenster II by Emil Doepler.jpg
| alt2              =
| caption2          = ...and spotting the Lombard women with their long hair tied as to appear as beards
}}

According to their own legends, the Lombards originated in Northern Germany/Denmark zone{{sfn|Christie|1995|pp=1–6}} including modern-day Denmark. The Germanic origins of the Lombards is supported by genetic,<ref name="Vai_2019"/> anthropological,{{sfn|Christie|1995|pp=1–6}} archaeological and earlier literary evidence.{{sfn|Christie|1995|pp=1–6}}

A legendary account of Lombard origins, history, and practices is the ''Historia Langobardorum'' (''History of the Lombards'') of [[Paul the Deacon]], written in the eighth century. Paul's chief source for Lombard origins, however, is the seventh-century ''[[Origo Gentis Langobardorum]]'' (''Origin of the Lombard People'').

The ''Origo Gentis Langobardorum'' tells the story of a small tribe called the ''Winnili''<ref name="ReferenceA"/> dwelling in Northern Germany/Denmark zone<ref name="dick"/> (the ''[[Historia Langobardorum codicis Gothani]]'' writes that the Winnili first dwelt near a river called ''Vindilicus'' on the extreme boundary of [[Gaul]]).<ref name="HLcG2">''Historia Langobardorum codicis Gothani'', 2.</ref> The Winnili were split into three groups and one part left their native land to seek foreign fields. The reason for the exodus was probably [[Human overpopulation|overpopulation]].<ref>{{harvnb|Menghin|1985|p=13}}</ref> The departing people were led by Gambara and her sons Ybor and Aio <ref>Priester, 16. Grimm, ''Deutsche Mythologie'', I, 336. Old Germanic for "Strenuus", "[[Sibyl]]".</ref>{{r|r=Instead of ''Ybor'' and ''Aio'', [[Prosper of Aquitaine]] uses the names ''Iborea'' and ''Agio'', while [[Saxo Grammaticus]] calls them ''Ebbo'' and ''Aggo''. A folk song from [[Gotland]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lyschander |first=Claudius Christophorus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pB1PAAAAcAAJ |title=Synopsis historiarum Danicarum, En kort Summa offuer Den Danske Historia etc |date=1622 |publisher=Waldkirch |language=da|page=263}}</ref> uses the names ''Ebbe'' and ''Aaghe''.<ref>Peters, p. 5</ref>}} and arrived in the lands of ''Scoringa'', perhaps the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]] coast<ref>{{harvnb|Priester|2004|p=16}}</ref> or the [[Bardengau]] on the banks of the [[Elbe]].<ref name="Hammerstein-Loxten56">{{harvnb|Von Hammerstein-Loxten|1869|p=56}}</ref> Scoringa was ruled by the [[Vandals]] and their chieftains, the brothers Ambri and Assi, who granted the Winnili a choice between tribute or war.
[[File:PaulusDiaconus Plut.65.35.jpg|left|thumb|304x304px|[[Paul the Deacon]], historian of the Lombards, circa 720–799]]
The Winnili were young and brave and refused to pay tribute, saying "It is better to maintain liberty by arms than to stain it by the payment of tribute."<ref name="PD, VII">PD, VII.</ref> The Vandals prepared for war and consulted Godan (the god [[Odin]]<ref name="dick"/>), who answered that he would give victory to those whom he would see first at sunrise.<ref name="PD, VIII">PD, VIII.</ref> The Winnili were fewer in number<ref name="PD, VII"/> and Gambara sought help from Frea (the goddess [[Frigg]]<ref name="dick"/>), who advised that all Winnili women should tie their hair in front of their faces like beards and march in line with their husbands. At sunrise, Frea turned her husband's bed so that he was facing east, and woke him. So Godan spotted the Winnili first and asked, "Who are these long-beards?," and Frea replied, "My lord, thou hast given them the name, now give them also the victory."<ref>OGL, appendix 11.</ref> From that moment onwards, the Winnili were known as the ''Longbeards'' (Latinised as ''Langobardi'', Italianised as ''Longobardi'', and Anglicized as ''Langobards'' or ''Lombards'').

When Paul the Deacon wrote the ''Historia'' between 787 and 796 he was a [[Catholic]] monk and devoted [[Christianity|Christian]]. He thought the [[Paganism|pagan]] stories of his people "silly" and "laughable".<ref name="PD, VIII"/><ref name="Priester 2004 17">{{harvnb|Priester|2004|p=17}}</ref> Paul explained that the name "Langobard" came from the length of their beards.<ref>PD, I, 9.</ref> A modern theory suggests that the name "Langobard" comes from ''Langbarðr'', a [[List of names of Odin|name of Odin]].<ref>Nedoma, Robert (2005).''[https://www.academia.edu/36246147/Der_altisländische_Odinsname_Langbarðr_Langbart_und_die_Langobarden Der altisländische Odinsname Langbarðr: 'Langbart' und die Langobarden]''. In Pohl, Walter and Erhart, Peter, eds. ''Die Langobarden. Herrschaft und Identität''. Wien. pp. 439–444</ref> Priester states that when the Winnili changed their name to "Lombards", they also changed their old agricultural [[fertility cult]] to a cult of Odin, thus creating a conscious tribal tradition.<ref name="Priester 2004 17"/> Fröhlich inverts the order of events in Priester and states that with the Odin cult, the Lombards grew their beards in resemblance of the Odin of tradition and their new name reflected this.<ref>{{harvnb|Fröhlich|1980|p=19}}</ref> Bruckner remarks that the name of the Lombards stands in close relation to the worship of Odin, whose [[List of names of Odin|many names]] include "the Long-bearded" or "the Grey-bearded", and that the Lombard given name ''Ansegranus'' ("he with the beard of the gods") shows that the Lombards had this idea of their chief deity.<ref>{{harvnb|Bruckner|1895|pp=30–33}}</ref> The same Old Norse root Barth or Barði, meaning "beard", is shared with the [[Heaðobards]] mentioned in both ''[[Beowulf]]'' and in ''[[Widsith]]'', where they conflict with the [[Daner|Danes]]. They were possibly a branch of the [[Langobard]]s.<ref name=Hadubarder>[https://runeberg.org/nfbj/0531.html The article ''Hadubarder'' in ''Nordisk familjebok'' (1909).]</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Wilson Chambers |first=Raymond |title=Widsith: A Study in Old English Heroic Legend |date=2010 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |page=205}}</ref>

Alternatively, some etymological sources suggest an Old High German root, barta, meaning "axe" (and related to English halberd), while [[Edward Gibbon]] puts forth an alternative suggestion which argues that:

<blockquote>...Börde (or Börd) still signifies "a fertile plain by the side of a river," and a district near Magdeburg is still called the lange Börde. According to this view Langobardi would signify "inhabitants of the long bord of the river;" and traces of their name are supposed still to occur in such names as Bardengau and Bardewick in the neighborhood of the Elbe.<ref>{{cite book |last=Smith |first=William |title=A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities |date=1875 |publisher=John Murray |location=London |page=119}}</ref></blockquote>

According to the [[Gallaeci]]an [[Christian priest]], [[historian]] and [[theology|theologian]] [[Paulus Orosius]] (translated by [[Daines Barrington]]), the Lombards or Winnili lived originally in the Vinuiloth (Vinovilith) mentioned by [[Jordanes]], in his masterpiece [[Getica]], to the north of [[Uppsala]], Sweden. Scoringa was near the province of [[Uppland]], so just north of [[Östergötland]].

The footnote then explains the etymology of the name Scoringa:

<blockquote>The shores of Uppland and Östergötland are covered with [[skerry|small rocks and rocky islands]], which are called in German Schæren and in Swedish Skiaeren. Heal signifies a port in the [[North Germanic languages|northern languages]]; consequently, Skiæren-Heal is the port of the Skiæren, a name well adapted to the port of [[Stockholm]], in the Upplandske Skiæren, and the country may be justly called Scorung or Skiærunga.<ref>{{cite book|author=Orosius |title=The Anglo-Saxon Version, from the Historian Orosius, by Ælfred the Great together with an English Translation from the Anglo-Saxon |year=1773 |publisher=Printed by W. Bowyer and J. Nichols and sold by S. Baker |location=London |edition=Alfred the Great |translator-first=Daines |translator-last=Barrington |url=https://archive.org/details/anglosaxonversi00barrgoog/page/n559/mode/2up/search/scoringa |page=256 |access-date=7 May 2020 |language=en}}</ref></blockquote>

The legendary king [[Sceafa]] of [[Scandza]] was an ancient Lombardic king in [[Anglo-Saxon paganism|Anglo-Saxon legend]]. The Old English poem [[Widsith]], in a listing of famous kings and their countries, has Sceafa [weold] Longbeardum, so naming [[Sceafa]] as ruler of the Lombards.<ref>[[Widsith]], line 30</ref>

Similarities between Langobardic and Gothic migration traditions have been noted among scholars. These early migration legends suggest that a major shifting of tribes occurred sometime between the first and second century BC, which would coincide with the time that the [[Teutoni]] and [[Cimbri]] left their homelands in Northern Germany and migrated through central Germany, eventually invading Roman Italy.<ref>{{harvnb|Cardini|2019|p=80}}</ref>