The Sceaf (Sheaf) Legend Indicates the Viking – Vihk, ’Sheaf’, Etymology

The Sceaf (Sheaf) Legend Indicates the Viking – Vihk, ’Sheaf’, Etymology By Kazmer Ujvarosy, B.A., M.A., International Relations, San Francisco State University An exposition of the view that the Sceafa or Sceaf (Sheaf) legend, found in Anglo-Saxon chronicles, indicates that the term Viking is derived from the Estonian word vihk, ’sheaf’, and the suffix -ing, signifying ’Sheaf’s descendants, people, or subjects’. To the best of our knowledge the name Sceafa (Sheaf), and the term Wicingum (i.e., Wicing, Viking), appear for the first time in written form in the Anglo-Saxon poem Widsith, copied in the tenth-century Exeter Book. Widsith itself probably originates from the 5th or 6th century, or later. In the poem the speaker, Widsith (meaning ’far journey’), states: I have heard of many men who ruled over nations. … Sigehere for many years ruled the Sea-Danes, ... Sceafthere the Ymbran, Sceaf the Langobards, Hun the Haetware, and Holen the Wrosnan. 1 The information that Sceafa or Sceaf (i.e., Sheaf) ruled the Lombards we find in line 33 of the poem, and the statement that “I was with the Wenlas, the Waerne and the Wicingas,” in line 59. The etymology or origin of the term Viking has been the subject of debates among scholars and remains unclear. In our view this term is etymologized in Estonian more convincingly than in Old Norse or Old English. It is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss the merits of the proposed etymologies. It will suffice merely to mention the current prevailing opinion. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary the term Viking derives either from Old Norse vik ’creek, inlet, small bay’, or from Old English wic ’village, camp’, related to Latin vic or vicus, ’village, habitation’.2 In view of the fact that many Anglo-Saxon chronicles and genealogies make Skef, Scef , Sceaf, Sceafa and so on the progenitor of the Skjoldung and Yngling dynasties, and of the Teutonic races in general, we propose that the term Viking comes from the Estonian word vihk, ‘sheaf’,3 and the suffix -ungr or -ingr, corresponding to the Anglo-Saxon suffix -ing, ‘son of, descendant of, people of, or subjects of’. Thus plausibly Viking means ‘Sheaf’s descendants, people, or subjects’. Indeed, in Beowulf Scyld, Skiold or Skjold (Shield) is referred to as Scyld Scefing, i.e. as Scyld (Shield), Scef’s (Sheaf’s) descendant. 1 https://www.phil-fak.uniduesseldorf.de/fileadmin/Redaktion/Institute/Anglistik/Anglistik_I/Downloads/Archiv/SS_06/VL06_Widsith.pdf 2 https://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=viking 3 https://www.englishestoniandictionary.com/en/dictionary-estonian-english/vihk At this point Robert Ferguson’s words may be appropriately cited here: The Scyldings, (or Shieldings, as their name would be in English), but in Ang.-Saxon Scyldingas, in Old Norse Skiöldungar, were an illustrious race, the descendants of Scyld or Skiöld, a name which, respectively in Ang.-Sax. and Old Norse signifies "shield." Most of the Danish traditions make their Skiöld the son of Odin, and first king of Denmark, after whom the Danes were called Skiöldungar.4… In a more restricted sense, among the Anglo-Saxons and other Teutonic races, there was a sort of nobility arising from connection with a distinguished ancestor. The whole of the descendants of such a man frequently took his name, with the addition of ing, "descendant of," not as their own individual name, but as a clan name. Hence names ending in ing have various senses. Sometimes it is a mere patronymic—Dunning, son of Dunn. Sometimes it is the badge of a family or clan —Billing, one of that family, a Billing. Sometimes it has the wider sense of nationality— Scolding, one of the people or subjects of Skiold. 5 In essence the information the Anglo-Saxon chronicles provide regarding Sceafa or Skeaf is this: Once upon a time many people were assembled on the seashore in the land of the Angles and not far from Schleswig. They were watching a small vessel sailing over the crested waves towards them. A gentle breeze filled out the white sails, but neither helm nor helmsman, nor yet sailors were to be seen. Bound to the mast-head was a shield, bright as the sun, though not blood-red, which would have betokened the arrival of an enemy. The little vessel rounded the promontory at the mouth of the harbour as cleverly as though a good pilot had been on board, and made straight for the land. The people now saw a little new-born child lying on a sheaf of corn (Schof, Skeaf) on the deck, with ornaments of gold, silver and precious stones scattered about it. The boy sat up and looked at the surrounding people so lovingly that all with one voice exclaimed: "He is the child of some god; we will take him and bring him up, and he shall be our king." They did so, and the boy grew strong and active, soon got the better of his comrades in the lists, learnt to honour the laws and ordinances of the free people who had adopted him, and gained the hearts of all by his wisdom. 4 5 English Surnames: And Their Place in the Teutonic Family, Robert Ferguson (London1858) pp. 103-104. Ibid., p. 107. When he had grown to be a man, the free people of the land raised him on a war-shield, and said: "Thou shalt be our king, for we shall be better off under thy rule than were we to remain a republic, and thou shalt be called Skeaf, because thou didst come to us lying upon a sheaf."6 The fact is noteworthy that in the ‘Prelude’ of Snorri Sturluson’s 13th century Prose Edda Sceafa is Magi’s son. It indicates that the Sceaf legend is based on the visit of the Magi or wise men to the birthplace of the child Jesus, whom they found laying on a bed of straw. Also based on the fact that Skiöld or Scyld is sometimes Sceaf’s son and sometimes Odin’s son it is inferable that Scyld and his descendants are the people of Jesus Christ, because Christ the Messiah can be identified with both Sceaf (the ‘sheaf’ of Leviticus 23:9-14)7 and Odin, i.e., with Adonai, who is identical with Sabaoth or Tsebaoth, the ‘Lord of Hosts’.8 Thus apparently in the Sceaf legend the little boy corresponds to the child Jesus; Magi to the Magi who visited the Christ child; the sheaf of grain on which the future king of the Angles was sleeping corresponds to the bed of straw on which the future king of Israel was laying; and the treasures surrounding the young boy correspond to the gifts of the Magi to the baby Jesus. It may be said that Sceaf, as well as Odin, are historical persons, because the historical person behind these names is Jesus Christ. Ideally in Scripture, as well as in etymology, the context indicates the sense or meaning. In this case the Sceaf legend indicates the Viking – Vihk, ’Sheaf’, or ’Sheaf’s people’, etymology. At the same time the Viking – Vihk, ’Sheaf’, etymology indicates the Kiev – Kéve, ’Sheaf’, etymology. Whereas in Estonian vihk means ’shief’, in the Magyar (Hungarian) language kéve means ’sheaf’. Thus vihk and kéve definitely have not only the same meaning, ’sheaf’, but a common etymological origin as well. Evidently vihk and kéve are pronounced differently because either the runic or Hebrew characters are read from left to right, or from right to left. In any case the Magyar kéve appears to be the correct reading, based on the name Skeaf. In other words phonetically kéve is closer to Skeaf, or rather keaf, than vihk. 6 Asga rd a nd the Gods: The Tales and Traditions of Our Northern Ancestors, by Dr. W. Wagner (London 1880) pp. 257-258. 7 See https://www.hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/firstfruits.pdf for “the waving of the ... barley sheaf ... pointed to Yeshua’s resurrection”; see https://books.google.com/books?id=SHk3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA352&lpg=PA352&dq=%22christ+the+wave+sheaf %22&source=bl&ots=CXNunYB289&sig=TDA8VhUfmtX9HMAI77XAXCtW8eo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=bhnTU6e3F tW1yAS-mYGAAQ&ved=0CGEQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=%22christ%20the%20wave%20sheaf%22&f=false for “Christ the wave-sheaf”; and see https://www.icgchurches.org/Chicago_IL/Bible_Studies/PF/Wave_Sheaf_pf.shtml for “Jesus Christ, the Wave Sheaf Offering”. 8 See The Hebrew-Magyar Odin, https://www.academia.edu/6376330/The_HebrewMagyar_Odin_Odins_One_Eye_Provides_the_One_I_Etymology Kiev, the present capital of Ukraine, is located on the Dnieper river. Herodotus, the 5th century BC Greek historian, mentions the river under the name Βο υσ έν (Borysthenes). The Olbians, a colony from Miletus, established their city close to the entrance of the Dnieper river to the Black Sea, and celebrated the wine god Dionysus Baccheios with wild orgies. Consequently the Royal Scythians, living in the area, called the city of the Milesians, as well as the nearby river, Boristenes. Boristen means ‘wine god’ in the Magyar language (bor, ‘wine’ and isten, ‘god’), and Boristenes means ‘devoted to the wine god’ or ‘venerating the god of wine’. Because even in the 5th century BC the Dnieper river had the Magyar name Boristen, ‘Winegod’, most likely the name of the ‘Mother of All Russian Cities’, Kiev—situated on the banks of the river Borysthenes or Boristenes (Dnieper)—, has a Magyar name as well, namely Kéve, ‘Sheaf’. Sheaf in Hebrew is 'alum’ or ‘aloom’. Alom in the Magyar language means ‘bed of straw’, referable to the bedding on which the baby Jesus laid upon in Bethlehem. Significantly, we have on record in the oldest known Russian historical text, the Russian Primary Chronicle, or Chronicle of Nestor, now termed The Tale of Bygone Years, that the court of Olma, or rather the court of Alum, ‘Sheaf’ (Olmin dvor, i.e., ‘Alom’s udvar’), stood “on the hill now known as Hungarian …”9 Olma’s court had a stone terem, i.e. an atrium or hall, where at a later date Olga (Helga) seated herself to await the arrival of her Drevlian suitors to bury them alive in a ship burial. 10 In his A History of Russia: Ancient Russia (Yale University Press, 1952), professor George Vernadsky identified Olma with the Magyar leader Almos, and in his Lebedia: Studies on the Magyar Background of Kievan Russia (Bruxelles 1939), credits the foundation of Kiev to Almos or Alom. In his treatise, De administrando imperio (On the administration of the empire), Constantine Porphyrogenitus wrote that Kiev was also known as Sambatas. Because the name Kiev comes from the Magyar word kéve, ‘sheaf’, almost certainly Sambatas derives from Szombat, Magyar for ‘Saturday’, and Szombat from szabad, meaning ‘free’. Szabad is cognate with the Hebrew Sabbath, denoting a day off, or abstinence from work. Finally we also have on record that Russia “… is also called Chungard because the Huns first had their seat there.”11 From the above facts and considerations the conclusion is clear that the term Viking is derived from the Estonian word vihk, ’sheaf’, and the suffix -ing, signifying ’Sheaf’s descendants, people, or subjects’, and the name Kiev from the Magyar word kéve, ’sheaf’. 9 The Russian Primary Chronicle, Laurentian Text (862-885), p. 61. The Beginnings of Russian History: An Enquiry into Sources, Nora K. Chadwick, Cambridge University Press, Jul 4, 2013, p. 29. 11 History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen, Adam (von Bremen), Columbia University Press, 2002, p. 195. 10