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Godhild

Gender: Female

Author: CPL

Editorial Status: 4 of 5

Discussion of the name

Recent scholarship has not recognized the OE woman’s name Godhild in DB, and the name is not otherwise recorded (Okasha 2011), but an OE name provides a more satisfactory explanation of the forms collected here than von Feilitzen’s suggestion that they stood for one or more Continental Germanic names (von Feilitzen 1937: 263, 264–5). This new suggestion gathers together the DB spellings Gotild and Gotil (Godhild 2), besides Godil and Godel (Godhild 3).

On this analysis, Godhild was formed from the common OE elements god (‘god’) or gōd (‘good’) and hild (‘war’), both of which were widely used in forming names (von Feilitzen 1937: 262–73, 291; Okasha 2011: 59). As for the DB spellings, Got– appears alongside God– in other names besides Godhild, while –ild and –il (Latinized as –ila or –illa) are perfectly acceptable spellings for –hild and even the –el in Godel has a near parallel in Elfelt for Ælfhild (Glos. 74:1).

Godhild also appears as the name of the hero’s mother in the Middle English romance King Horn. It is not clear whether that should be taken as evidence for an Old English Godhild, since the other personal names in King Horn are the usual eclectic mixture of insular, Continental, and made-up (King Horn).

Bibliography

King Horn: King Horn, in Four Romances of England: King Horn, Havelok the Dane, Bevis of Hampton, Athelston, ed. Ronald B. Herzman, Graham Drake, and Eve Salisbury (Kalamazoo MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 1999)

Okasha 2011: Elisabeth Okasha, Women’s Names in Old English (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011)

von Feilitzen 1937: Olof von Feilitzen, The Pre-Conquest Personal Names of Domesday Book, Nomina Germanica 3 (Uppsala: Almqvist and Wiksells, 1937)

Forms of the name

Spellings in Domesday Book: Godel, Godil, Gotil, Gotild

Forms in modern scholarship:

von Feilitzen head forms: Godel; Godhild, Gothild

Phillimore edition: Godel, Godil (Kent), Gotild (Essex)

Alecto edition: Godel, Gothild (Kent), Gotild (Essex)

Distribution map of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

List of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

Holder 1066

Shire	Phil. ref.	Vill	DB Spelling	Holder 1066	Lord 1066	Tenant-in-Chief 1086	1086 Subtenant	Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value	Conf.	Show on Map
Shire Essex	Phil. ref. 28,13	Vill Greensted	DB Spelling Gotild	Holder 1066 Godhild 'of Greensted'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Hamon the steward	1086 Subtenant Serlo 'of Essex'	Fiscal Value 0.33	1066 Value 0.50	1086 Value 0.50	Confidence A	Map
Shire Essex	Phil. ref. 28,13	Vill Greensted	DB Spelling Gotild	Holder 1066 Godhild 'of Greensted'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Hamon the steward	1086 Subtenant -	Fiscal Value 1.67	1066 Value 3.50	1086 Value 4.50	Confidence A	Map
Shire Essex	Phil. ref. 28,14	Vill Navestock	DB Spelling Gotild	Holder 1066 Godhild 'of Greensted'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Hamon the steward	1086 Subtenant Ralph de Marcy	Fiscal Value 0.67	1066 Value 0.60	1086 Value 0.75	Confidence A	Map
Shire Essex	Phil. ref. 28,16	Vill Norton Mandeville	DB Spelling Gotil	Holder 1066 Godhild 'of Greensted'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Hamon the steward	1086 Subtenant Wimund 'of Norton Mandeville'	Fiscal Value 1.63	1066 Value 2.00	1086 Value 4.00	Confidence A	Map
Shire Kent	Phil. ref. 5,18	Vill Horton Kirby	DB Spelling Godel	Holder 1066 Godhild 'of Horton Kirby'	Lord 1066 Beorhtsige	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Odo, bishop of Bayeux	1086 Subtenant Ansketil de Rots	Fiscal Value 2.00	1066 Value 4.00	1086 Value 6.00	Confidence C	Map
Shire Kent	Phil. ref. 5,98	Vill Wateringbury	DB Spelling Godil	Holder 1066 Godhild 'of Horton Kirby'	Lord 1066 Edward, king	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Odo, bishop of Bayeux	1086 Subtenant Hugh de Bréboeuf	Fiscal Value 4.00	1066 Value 4.00	1086 Value 5.00	Confidence C	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value