Frigga’s Ruse- or: How the Lombards Earned Their Name

[JWagner]

To Wodan cried the Vandal horde:
“Let's beat Winnilers with the sword!
Grant us triumph and we shall kneel
and offer you a sacred meal!"

The god replied through priestly tongue:
“You’ll win, if when the day is young,
I see you first at morning’s rise,
when sunlight breaks across the skies

The news arrived at hostile grounds,
where courage answered martial sounds
They would not yield nor live in chains
nor pay tribute as lifelong blame

They chose to fight with fearless breath,
to live as free or fall in death
And so they turned to Wodan’s bride,
to Frigga, viewing deep inside:

"Let women stand in twilight space
and tie their hair over their face
Before dawn breaks they stand in line,
long bearded warriors in design

At morning’s hush, while Wodan slept,
she turned the bed where shadows crept
He looked below with drowsy eyes
and saw a sight of strange disguise

“Who are these folk with beards so long?”
“My lord,” said Frigga, “you’re not wrong
You’ve named them now, so let them be
Your hand shall guide their victory”

Then Wodan gave them wrath and might,
endurance, breath, strong will to fight
They won the war with valiant hearts
and claimed the name: the Longobards

As a song: https://youtu.be/zi-LDnJphFg

[JWagner]

According to legend, the Lombards were once called Winnili. They were threatened by the Vandals, and both peoples prepared for battle. The Vandals prayed to Wodan, and he told them that those whom he saw first in the early morning would be victorious. However, Gambara, the mother of the Winnilian dukes Ibor and Agio, advised them to pray to the goddess Frea, Wodan's wife. Frea instructed the Winnilian women to line up in the east early in the morning and tie their long hair in front of their faces like beards. Frea did indeed rise early and turned Wodan's bed to face east, and when he awoke, he saw the Winnili women and asked in astonishment, “Who are these longbeards?” Frea replied, “You gave them their name, now give them victory!” Thus the Winnili defeated the Vandals, and since then they have called themselves the Langobards.