Ingwaz

Yngvi [ˈyŋɡwe], Old High German Ing/Ingwi and Old English Ingƿine are names that refer to a theonym, which was apparently the older name for the god Freyr. The Proto-Germanic Ingwaz was the legendary ancestor of the Ingaevones, more specifically the Ingvaeones, and is also the reconstructed name of the Elder Futhark rune ᛜ and the Anglo-Saxon rune ᛝ, which represents ŋ.

A torc, the so-called "Ring of Pietroassa," part of a Gothic hoard discovered in Romania from the late 3rd to 4th century, is inscribed with heavily damaged runes, one of which reads gutanī [i(ng)]wi[n] hailag "to Ingwi[n] the Goths sacred."

Etymology

Both the Old Norse Yngvi, Old High German Inguin, and Old English Ingƿine derive from the Proto-Germanic Ingwaz. Sound changes in Late Proto-Germanic transformed Ingwaz into Ingwi(z) in the nominative and Ingwin in the accusative. Its epithet Fraujaz appears in Old Norse forms such as Ingvifreyr and Ingunarfreyr. In Beowulf, Hrothgar is referred to as (OE) fréa inguina, meaning "Lord of the Ingvians," i.e. Lord of the Ingvaeones, the "friends of Ing." This strongly suggests that the two deities, Ing and Freyr, are in fact the same. The Ingvaeones, who around the turn of the millennium inhabited a region roughly corresponding to modern Denmark, Friesland, and the Netherlands, were mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History as one of the "five Germanic tribes." Tacitus claimed they descended from the three sons of Mannus or Mannaz, who were related to the Hindu Manus, the "first man," and one of these sons could have been Ingwaz. Other names that retain the theonym include Inguiomerus or Ingemar and Yngling, the name of an ancient Scandinavian dynasty.

The Ingwaz Rune

The ŋ-rune, the Ingwaz rune, belongs along with Peorð and Eihwaz to the problematic cases of runes of unclear derivation, which are not attested in early inscriptions. The rune first appears independently in the Futhark sequence of the Kylver stone and is not attested as an independent rune outside such sequences. There are several attestations of the i͡ŋ-bindrune Ing (the "Lantern rune," which resembles the Anglo-Saxon gēr-rune ᛄ), but its identification is contested in most cases, as the same symbol could also be a cipher rune for wynn or thurisaz. The earliest example of such an i͡ŋ-bindrune with a reasonably certain reading is the inscription mari͡ŋs (possibly referring to the "Mærings" or Ostrogoths) on the silver buckle from Szabadbattyán, dated to the first half of the 5th century and now held in the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest.

The Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem includes these obscure lines:

ᛝ Ing ƿæs ærest mid Eástdenum
geseƿen secgum, oð he síððan eást
ofer ƿæg geƿát. ƿæn æfter ran.
þus Heardingas þone hæle nemdon.

"Ing was first among the East Danes
thus seen by the men, until he went east
over the waves. His chariot followed behind.
Thus, the Heardings named this hero."

Norse Mythology

In Norse mythology, Yngvi, also called Yngve, was the ancestor of the Yngling dynasty, a legendary line of Swedish kings, from which the earliest historical Norwegian kings are also said to descend. Yngvi is a name for the god Freyr, perhaps Freyr's true name, as Freyr means "Lord" and likely developed from a common invocation of the god.

In Íslendingabók (written in the early 12th century by the Icelandic priest Ari Þorgilsson), Yngvi Tyrkja konungr ("Yngvi, King of the Turks") appears as the father of Njörðr, who in turn is the father of Yngvi-Freyr, the ancestor of the Ynglings. According to the Skjöldunga Saga (a lost epic from 1180 to 1200, only partially preserved in other sagas and later translations), Odin came from Asia and conquered Northern Europe. He gave Sweden to his son Yngvi and Denmark to his son Skjöldr. Since then, the kings of Sweden were called Ynglings and those of Denmark Skjöldungs.

In Gesta Danorum (late 12th century, by Saxo Grammaticus) and in Ynglinga saga (c. 1225, by Snorri Sturluson), Freyr is mentioned as the king of Sweden. In Ynglinga-Saga, Yngvi-Freyr reigns after his father Njörðr, who in this version succeeded Odin. However, in Historia Norwegiæ (written c. 1211), Ingui is the first king of Sweden and the father of a certain Neorth, who in turn is the father of Froyr: "Rex itaque Ingui, quem primum Swethiæ monarchiam rexisse plurimi astruunt, genuit Neorth, qui vero genuit Froy; hos ambos tota illorum posteritas per longa sæcula ut deos venerati sunt. Froyr vero genuit Fiolni, qui in dolio medonis dimersus est [...]"

In the introduction to his Edda (originally written around 1220), Snorri Sturluson again claims that Odin ruled in Sweden, reporting: "Odin had with him one of his sons named Yngvi, who after him was king in Sweden; and from him descend the houses called Ynglings." Snorri does not identify Yngvi and Freyr here, although Freyr occasionally appears elsewhere as the son of Odin and not of Njörðr.

In the Skáldskaparmál section of his Prose Edda, Snorri introduces the old king Halfdan the Old, who had nine sons, whose names all mean "king" or "lord" in Old Norse, and nine more sons, who were the ancestors of various royal families, including "Yngvi, from whom the Ynglings descend." Strangely, Snorri immediately follows this with information about four other figures, who were not sons of Halfdan but also founded dynasties, and calls the first of them again "Yngvi, from whom the Ynglings descend." In the corresponding account in the "Genealogies" of Ættartolur, attached to Hversu Noregr byggðist, the name Skelfir appears instead of Yngvi in the list of Halfdan's sons.

In Snorri's Ynglinga Saga (around 1230), a second Yngvi, son of Alrekr, is introduced as a descendant of Yngvi-Freyr, and he shared the Swedish kingship with his brother Álf (see Yngvi and Álf).

Given Names and Surnames

The element Ing(o)- was widely used in Germanic names early on; it is unclear whether it originally referred to the Ingaevones or directly to the god Yngwi. Inguiomer (Inguiomarus) was a relative of the Cheruscan Arminius in the first century; Ingundis was a woman of the Frankish King Chlothar I, whose son Charibert I married an Ingoberga (all in the 6th century). Further combinations like Inguin, Ingulf, Ingobald (male), Inghildis, Ingedrudis, Ingoflidis (female) as well as short forms like Ingo (male) and Inga (female) are attested for the early Middle Ages (7th to 9th century). In Scandinavia and Germany, as well as in areas where these groups settled, names starting with Ing have survived into modern usage, such as Ingmar, Ingvar, Ingvild, Ingeborg, Ingrid, Ingegerd, and the surname Ingalls.