Wade (Old English: Ƿada[ˈwɑdɑ]) is the English name for a common Germanic mythological character who, depending on location, is also known as Vadi (Norse) and Wate (Middle High German).
The earliest mention occurs in the Old English poem Widsith.[1] According to the Þiðrekssaga, he was born between king Wilkinus and a serpent-legged mermaid named Wachilt, who was a goddess of the sea and sometimes referred to as a “sea witch”. His famous son is Wayland, and grandson Wudga. Though not explicitly given as such, Egil and Slagfin may be Wade’s sons, since they are Wayland’s brothers according to the Poetic Edda.[2]
The medieval English romance about Wade once existed, for Chaucer alluded to the “Tale of Wade” in one of his works, Troilus and Criseyde,[a] and used the phrase “Wade’s boat” (Middle English: Wades boot), meaning some sort of trickery, in The Merchant’s Tale.[3] The tale and the boat was apparently familiar, at the end of the 16th century, to an editor of Chaucer’s works Thomas Speght, who remarked that Wade’s boat bore the name Guingelot. To the Angles, Wade was the Keeper of the Ford, and acted as both ferryman and protector.
Wade has always had a strong association with the sea or water. In the saga about Wade’s family, the Vilkina saga (also known as the (Þiðrekssaga), it is said that Wade (Vadi; Old Norse: Vaði) was born between King Vilkinus and a mermaid (normalized spelling, Old Norse: sjókona; text: gen. siokononar, lit. “sea woman”).[4][5][6]
Wade first apprenticed his son Wayland (Old Norse: Völundr) to Mimir, from age 9 to 12, and later to two dwarfs living in mount Kallava. He went from his home in Sjoland (=Sjælland,[7] i.e., Zealand[5]) to Grœnasund sound (in Denmark),[8] and finding no ship sailing out, he waded across the sound in waters nine ells deep while carrying his young son Wayland on his shoulder.[5][9][b] After the boy studied for two stretches of 12 months, Wade came to fetch his son from the reluctant dwarfs, and was killed in a landslide caused by an earthquake.[5]
In the aftermath, the son (Wayland) slays the dwarfs and sets off in a boat he crafts, windowed with glass, reaching the land of king Nidung.[1][5]
In Chaucer’s Merchant’ Tale occurs the following reference to Wade’s boat:
And bet than old boef is the tendre veel…And eek thise old wydwes, God it woot,They konne so muchel craft on Wades boot,So muchel broken harm, whan that hem leste,That with hem sholde I nevere lyve in reste…—1.209-14 And better than old beef is tender veal…and also these old widows, God did wot,They can play so much craft on Wade’s boat,So much harm, when they like it,That with them should I never live in rest….
It is clear that, in this context, Wade’s boat is being used as a sexual euphemism. However, it is debatable whether this single indirect reference can be taken to demonstrate fertility aspects are a part of his character
In the 19th century, three lines from the lost Old English Tale of Wade were found, quoted in a Latin homily in MS. 255 in the Library of Peterhouse, Cambridge:[15
Ita quod dicere possunt cum Wade:
Summe sende ylves & summe sende nadderes,sumne sende nikeres the biden watez wunien.Nister man nenne bute ildebrand onne.
“The homilist cites some comments made by Wade in the Tale:
Some are elves, some are adders,and some are nickers that (dwell near water?).There is no man except Hildebrand alone.”
—Wentersdorf tr.[16]
Stones at Mulgrave near Whitby were said to be the grave of the dead sea-giant (they were known as “Waddes grave”).[20] A tale was told of Sleights Moor in Eskdale, North Yorkshire. During the building of Mulgrave Castle and Pickering Castle, Wade and his wife Bel would throw a hammer to and fro over the hills. (A possible Roman road, called “Wade’s Causeway” or “Wade’s Wife’s Causey” locally, was also said to have been built in this manner.[21]) One day Wade’s son grew impatient for his milk and hurled a stone that weighed a few tonnes across Eskdale to where his mother was milking her cow at Swarthow on Egton Low Moor. The stone hit Bel with such force that a part of it broke off and could be seen for many years until it was broken up to mend the highways.[21][22]
It has also been said[weasel words] that the Hole of Horcum in North Yorkshire was formed where Wade scooped up earth to throw at his wife.[23]
Various authors suggest links to the giant Vaði, (also known as Witege, Vathe, Vidia, Widga, Vidga, Wadi or Vade) mentioned in the Norse Saga of Bern in the Þiðrekssaga;[35] the Danish hero Wate, also called Wada;[64] the Anglo-Saxon deity Wōden (also Wōđanaz or Wōđinaz),[36] who was historically referred to as “heaven’s giant“;[65] and the German figure Wa-te, a fierce sea-king similar to Neptune, who reigns in Sturmland in the 7th-century saga Kudrun.[37] Nurse and Chadwick identify all the above figures as being later facets of a single legendary character present in early, shared mythology of tribes living around the rim of the Baltic and North Seas.[38]
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