Surname, Widing - Wid. Did a "Wid" of Saxon Origin Have Legs? Become Part of Anglo-Saxon?

What's with the Wid word-root.
Looking for Saxon as well as Norse Origin.

Widing- Widingh (new variation)

The Widinga Saga

I.  Did the segment Wid travel with the Saxon Invaders into England, and become part of Anglo Saxon, Old English?

II.  Did the Wid travel with the Saxons in their Diaspora, Resettlements, into other parts of Germany, Scandinavia 

Meet Johannes Widingh, 1376 Will, Hamburg -is the H for Hof or Farm?

And Sven Widingh, Sweden 1700's - farm

And Olaf Widing,  Sweden 1800's - farm

Looking for the Wid. Whither the Wid.

I.  Did the Wid travel with the Saxon Invaders into England,

And Become part of Anglo Saxon, Old English?

"Wid" as a word root, in the surname Widing, is Norse according to some sources; but the Norse and the Saxons dealt and lived extensively among each other.  Finding the meaning of wid in its migration from Norse-Saxon broad category, to Anglo-Saxon. has to be the last of the possibilities, or is it? Norse and Germanic. Two groups, but with similarities.

Germanics and Norse on the move. Here we look at linguistics, in the group of Saxons who remained on the mainland of Europe (see Saxon King Widukind. He fought Charlemagne in the 900's.

Then look at those linguistics among the group of Saxons who earlier raided and finally invaded the British Isles in about 410 AD, see ://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/England-History/Invaders.htm/.  They became the Anglo Saxons by doing the happy dance with the Angles who arrived about 430 with the Jutes and each took over different areas of England.


There was an affinity. The Angles were also Germanic, and came from southeastern Jutland, now Denmark; and the Jutes also came from Jutland. Note that the Saxons were already there in England, and had an inroad well ahead of time - before their big invasion period - as mercenaries for the Romans.


The Norse Vikings arrived and raided beginning in about 793 AD. Run! There were periods of peace and war, then the Danes conquered England in 1000 or so. Etc. See the History UK site. Languages. Norse. Germanic Angle and Saxon. A bloody free-for-all.

Maps of migrations, invasions. Words follow.

So:  Anglo-Saxons.  What of the Wid did they bring with them, that became Old English, old Anglo-Saxon English. Can Beowulf help, as a Norse tale (Danish) recorded in Jolly Olde Englande?  Some originate the Geats, the tribe of Beowulf, in southern Sweden, but much of southern Sweden was ruled by Danes for many centuries.  See http://historymedren.about.com/od/beowulf/p/beowulf.htm

Look at the Saxon connection, thinking of Widukind the Saxon King, and his dealings and his living with the Norse, the Danes; and his people moving into those areas, or being relocated by Charlemagne as entire population groups.

• Spells. Incantations. 
• The Wid also appears in Anglo-Saxon charms, Old English, a site with modern translation of these charms for healing and warding off evil at ://www2.hawaii.edu/~kjolly/unc.htm/  We need the Old Norse, however, to get beyond "wid gedrif" and "wid poccas" and another wid that is unreachable because it is a paid site and it stops mid-phrase. The search paragraph that stops refers to an Old Norse Runic charm book, at://brepols.metapress.com/content/654334h18v3247n1/  We do see that gedrif means to drive, in past participle in an Old English grammar text - what? See ://www.archive.org/stream/oldenglishgramma00smituoft/oldenglishgramma00smituoft_djvu.txt

• Wide. The Wid in Anglo-Saxon is an adjective meaning wide, or "of a certain width". See the Bosworth-Toller Anglo Saxon Dictionary at ://bosworth.ff.cuni.cz/finder/3/wid/. look up "wid" as part of other words at the home search page, ://bosworth.ff.cuni.cz/; and find reference to far and wide, broadly, widely known, "wide-feorh" and similars for long life.

Widinga Theory. Saxon meets Angle?

• Swedish records. The Saxon connection to the Norse appears in several ways,  Stockholm has Anglo Saxon manuscripts, and microfiche, and where did they come from, if not the Danes or northern German:  
• Boundaries were fluid. Swedish-linguistic folk moved about
• The location of documents is not conclusive.  It could be incidental - just the usual scholarship and storage unrelated to origin. Other cities also have Anglo Saxon materials, see http://mendota.english.wisc.edu/~ASMMF/msslist.htm 
• How to vet sites for self-serving, finding connections desired rather than actual, see http://www.imperialteutonicorder.com/id43.html.  Is it reliable or justifying claimed roots?

• Old English Anglo Saxon language Beowulf, with Beowulf as Danish [or the Swedish side of Danish rule]. 
• The Saxon connection to the Norse also appears in the travels of the Norse Beowulf (see electronic Beowulf at ://www.uky.edu/~kiernan/eBeowulf/main.htm) that ended up in Anglo Saxon England and was recorded there (is that so?). There appear to be connections between mainland Norse-types and Saxons and those Saxons who became the Anglo-Saxons in the British Isles. More Beowulves: in hypertext, at ://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~beowulf/; and http://www.heorot.dk/beowulf-on-steorarume_front-page.html/   
• Beowulf the Geat.  Could that be a group that migrated from Thracia, known as the Getae, see Sigge Fridulfsson's lore.  Books are dedicated to finding such origins, see sample at Taylor and Frances Online at  http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03468758608579081

•  A real linguistic analysis of Beowulf for purposes of tying in Old Norse, and mainland Saxon, and British Isles, Anglo-Saxon is beyond us here. It is a Norse tale, recorded in Ye Olde Englande. You do it. Many translations at one site, at ://www.beowulftranslations.net/

Beowulf as a name may mean bee-wolf, or bear, see ://www.archive.org/stream/oldenglishgramma00smituoft/oldenglishgramma00smituoft_djvu.txt/ (search for Beowulf). Yes! Back to the Widing bear story. Norse and bears: a recurrent topic, and a stretch to connect with anything much.

• Wid and woods:  Linguistics. The Anglo Saxon wipig or wibig (think of that middle letter in font as a b, with the tail continuing down, making also a p with a b on top - we will call the letter a bip) is an Anglo Saxon name for tree or shrub, see ://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/STELLA/ihsl/projects/ASPNS/Lstnam.htm/.  There is also a plant or a flower, wi bip obend, or wi bip owinde.  Pay for this site (we didn't) to get an Old English Dictionary, at ://www.doe.utoronto.ca/

• Wid and wide.  In addition to wood or forest, Norse uses wid for something that means a descriptive measure, wide: see http://www.archive.org/stream/oldenglishgramma00smituoft/oldenglishgramma00smituoft_djvu.txt/ at page 103:  Find the widsse, or wide sea? Norway Skager Rack?
  

"Ohthere made two voyages. Sailing first northward along the western 
coast of Norway, he rounded the North Cape, passed into the White Sea, 
and entered the Dwina River (an niicel ea) . On his second voyage he 
sailed southward along the western coast of Norway, entered the Skager 
Rack (widsse), passed through the Cattegat, and anchored at the Danish 
port of Haddeby (set Hsejjum), modern Schleswig."

Aha.  Widse does mean wide, in the sense of "open sea".  Find this navigator, Ohthere, or Orosius, who served Saxon King Alfred (Olde Englande) (is that so?) and his sailings at ://ycdl4.yukoncollege.yk.ca/~agraham//nost202/ottar.htm/ We underestimate the extent of old travelings.

Do a "find" for the root "wid" at that Old English Grammar site and come up with many words with it. There is a glossary that defines many.  It takes an expert to figure it all out, but we will start stoutly:

Examples are not consistent with one meaning.  There are widre (farther, more widely, as a comparative to wide),  cwidegiedda (cwidegiedd means word), larcwidum (precept,, instruction), inwid-sorge (means sorrow caused by an enemy), widre gwindan, gilp wide-Geates (the Geats?) gulp here come the wide Geats?  no, gilp- c wide means boasting speech (note that is masculine), hwider means whither.

Only those two in the list, widre and hwider connect to wide, or some description of size, extent.

Then go on to wid in constructing conjunctions, adverbs, etc.

Conclusion:  The Wid word-root did have legs. It became words meaning wide, among other meanings (the fun part here is that King Inge of Sweden in his battles with the Norse was known as a wide, bottomy person),  Some connection with wood (or woods, as in the reference to trees and shrubs in the plants names) remains. The wid makes sense in our continuing use of wide as in far and wide, a measurement that way.

Back to Big King Inge who took a long time to get on his horse. Far more fun.

Wid as Saxon, Wid as Anglo-Saxon, Wid as Norse. Could be worse.

Anglo-Saxon wid.

Add that to the Saxon wid.

And the Norse wid.

What's wrong wid dat?
 ..................................................................................................

II.  Did the Wid travel with the Saxons in their Diaspora, Forced Resettlements,

into other parts of Germany --  Prussia, Scandinavia, even Romania

Meet Johannes Widingh, 1376 Will, Hamburg -is the H for Hof or Farm?

And Sven Widingh, Sweden 1700's - farm

And Olaf Widing,  Sweden 1800's - farm

See at Germany Road Ways: Prussia, Saxony, Saxon Diaspora.

If the "h" at the end of Widing in Widingh stood for "hof" - that means a variety of dignified things:  farm, court including holding court, courtyard, inn. See://dictionary.reverso.net/german-english/Hof  Also a city in Bavaria, see ://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hof/  Hof family - crest does mean court, see http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.fc/qx/hof-family-crest.htm.

Drop the "H" when the designation is no longer needed, and you have Widing with no H.  Is that so? Ten points for effort. Widinghof.