Ælfwine (also ''Aelfwine'', ''Elfwine'') is an

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

personal name. It is composed of the elements ''ælf'' " elf" and ''wine'' "friend", continuing a hypothetical

Common Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic branc ...

given name ''*

albi Albi (; oc, Albi ) is a commune in southern France. It is the prefecture of the Tarn department, on the river Tarn, 85 km northeast of Toulouse. Its inhabitants are called ''Albigensians'' (french: Albigeois, Albigeoise(s), oc, albig� ...

- winiz'' which is also continued in

Old High German Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050. There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...

and Lombardic as ''Albewin'', ''Alpwin'', ''Albuin'', ''Alboin''.

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

forms of the name are Alfvin and Ǫlfun. The modern name

Alwin Alwin is a German and Dutch form of Alvin and may refer to: *Alwin-Broder Albrecht (1903–1945), German naval officer, one of Adolf Hitler's adjutants during World War II *Alwin Berger (1871–1931), German botanist and contributor to the nomencla ...

may be a reduction of this name, or alternatively of ''Adalwin'', the Old High German cognate of the Anglo-Saxon Æthelwine. The name of the

elves An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes "ligh ...

is clearly of

age. As an element in given names, it is not found in the earliest period, but it is well attested from the 6th century and extinct by the

Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the Periodization, period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Eur ...

Etymology

The ''ælf'' and the ''wine'' element are frequent elements in Germanic

anthroponymy Anthroponymy (also anthroponymics or anthroponomastics, from Ancient Greek ἄνθρωπος ''anthrōpos'' / 'human', and ὄνομα ''onoma'' / 'name') is the study of ''anthroponyms'', the proper names of human beings, both individual and co ...

, and these elements have in historical practice been combined without a compound meaning, though the name is often interpreted as "elf-friend". This translation was notably made use of by

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philology, philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was ...

in his legendarium, where an Ælfwine is a character who "befriended the elves". The name continues a hypothetical

given name ''*

- winiz'' which is also continued in

and Lombardic as ''Albewin'', ''Alpwin'', ''Albuin'', ''Alboin''.

forms of the name are Alfvin and Ǫlfun. The modern name

may be a reduction of this name, or alternatively of ''Adalwin'', the Old High German cognate of the Anglo-Saxon Æthelwine.

Middle Ages

The name of the

is clearly of

age. As an element in given names, it is not found in the earliest period, but it is well attested from the 6th century. The name is first attested as that of

Alboin Alboin (530s – 28 June 572) was king of the Lombards from about 560 until 572. During his reign the Lombards ended their migrations by settling in Italy, the northern part of which Alboin conquered between 569 and 572. He had a lasting effe ...

(r. 560–572), king of the

Lombards The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 and ...

. In

Anglo-Saxon England Anglo-Saxon England or Early Medieval England, existing from the 5th to the 11th centuries from the end of Roman Britain until the Norman conquest in 1066, consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927, when it was united as the Kingdom o ...

, it first occurs with the child-king Ælfwine of Deira (c. 661 - 679). The Old High German name is found in the 8th and 9th centuries in the forms ''Alfwin, Alfwini, Albuwin, Albuvin, Albewin, Albuin, Alpwin'', in the 11th century also as ''Elbewin''. The forms in ''alf'' are strictly speaking

Low German : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor = Old Saxon , ancestor2 = Middle L ...

, the forms in ''alb'' High German. The Old English '' ælf'', ''elf'' are a result of the

i-mutation I-mutation (also known as umlaut, front mutation, i-umlaut, i/j-mutation or i/j-umlaut) is a type of sound change in which a back vowel is fronted or a front vowel is raised if the following syllable contains , or (a voiced palatal approxi ...

North Sea Germanic North Sea Germanic, also known as Ingvaeonic , is a postulated grouping of the northern West Germanic languages that consists of Old Frisian, Old English, and Old Saxon, and their descendants. Ingvaeonic is named after the Ingaevones, a West Ge ...

. People with this name from the later Anglo-Saxon period include: * Ælfwine, son of

Æthelweard Æthelweard, also spelled Ethelweard, Aethelweard, Athelweard, etc., is an Anglo-Saxon male name. It may refer to: * King Æthelweard of the Hwicce (''fl''. 7/8th century) * King Æthelweard of East Anglia (''fl.'' mid-9th century) * Æthelweard (s ...

, who died in the Battle of Brunanburh (937) *

Ælfwine of Lichfield __NOTOC__ Ælfwine or Ælle was a medieval Bishop of Lichfield. He was consecrated between 903 and 915 and died between 935 and 941.Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 218 Ælfwine appears to have had a close relationship with ...

(died 937), Bishop of Lichfield * Ælfwine of Wells (died 998), Bishop of Wells * Ælfwine, a young warrior in the poem '' The Battle of Maldon'' *

Ælfwine of Elmham __NOTOC__ Ælfwine was a medieval Bishop of Elmham The Bishop of Norwich is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Norwich in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers most of the county of Norfolk and part of Suffolk. T ...

(died 1023), bishop of Elmham and Dunwich * Ælfwine of Winchester (died 1047), Bishop of Winchester * Aelfwine, Abbot of New Minster (died 1057), scribe or author of '' Aelfwine's Prayerbook'' (

Cotton Titus This is an incomplete list of some of the manuscripts from the Cotton library that today form the Cotton collection of the British Library. Some manuscripts were destroyed or damaged in a fire at Ashburnham House in 1731, and a few are kept in othe ...

D.xxvi) * Ælfwine Haroldsson (11th century), son of Harald Harefoot, King of England * Ælfwine of Warwick, Sheriff of Warwickshire under William the Conqueror People with the Old High German name: * Albuin, margrave of Carinthia (10th century) * Albuin, son of the above, bishop of Brixen (d. 1006) The earliest evidence of the name in Scandinavia dates to the 11th century. The Old Norse form of the name may thus be a loan from Low German or Anglo-Saxon. The name is attested on an 11th-century

runestone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones da ...

in the

Younger Futhark The Younger Futhark, also called Scandinavian runes, is a runic alphabet and a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, with only 16 characters, in use from about the 9th century, after a "transitional period" during the 7th and 8th centuries. The r ...

spelling ', and possibly on a second one, as '. An

Old Swedish Old Swedish (Swedish language, Modern Swedish: ) is the name for two distinct stages of the Swedish language that were spoken in the Middle Ages: Early Old Swedish (), spoken from about 1225 until about 1375, and Late Old Swedish (), spoken fro ...

spelling of the name was ''Alwin''.Lena Peterson
Nordiskt runnamnslexikon
(2001). In the Norman period, both Ælfwine and Æthelwine were shortened to ''Alwin''. This subsequently became a

surname In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...

Modern

The name is extinct by the

. It may have lingered longest in the Italian form ''Alboino'', a name of

Paolo Alboino della Scala Paolo Alboino della Scala (1344 – 17 or 18 October 1375) was a lord of Verona of the Scaliger dynasty. In 1351, after the death of his father Mastino II della Scala, he inherited the lordship of Verona and Vicenza, nominally together with his b ...

(1343–1375), after Alboino I (d. 1311). It survived only in the

English surname English names are names used in, or originating in, England. In England as elsewhere in the English-speaking world, a complete name usually consists of a given name, commonly referred to as a first name, and a (most commonly patrilineal) family ...

(variants Alwen, Alwyn, Allwyn, Elvin, Elwin, Elwyn), and there only by conflation with similar-sounding Anglo-Saxon names.

J.R.R. Tolkien

In J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium * Ælfwine of England, an early character in fantasy writings of J. R. R. Tolkien * Elfwine, son of Éomer and his successor as King of Rohan

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aelfwine Old English given names Germanic given names Masculine given names eo:Aelfwine

Etymology

Middle Ages

Modern

J.R.R. Tolkien

See also

References