miracle speaks of the dominion of the Vandals in Africa,[1] and lastly, in a somewhat damaged text of a Vita different from that of Metaphrastes, we find unmistakable traces of the tradition of sacrificing oxen to St. George.[2] In general, we can hardly doubt that the cult of St. Nicolas is one of the oldest cults of Christianity; it therefore seems to me very probable that his name should have so spread at the time Beowulf was written[3] (eighth to tenth century) as to become a common noun for a sea-monster. If we find Eastern coins and ornaments in Ireland and England,[4] why should we not also find distant echoes of Eastern creeds?
The philological side of the question can hardly be considered difficult. We have already seen that the name of Nicolas in its nicknames still lives under the shape of Nickelman[5] in Germany and Nick[6] in England. The forms Nisse, Nissen, "must be explained", says Grimm, "from Niels, Nielsen, i.e., Nicolaus, Niclas".[7] From the root niq[8] (=nick?) sprang all the other names of water-spirits—Mid. H. G. nix (niches); O. H. G. nikhus; A. S. nicor; O. Ic. nykr, etc.
There can be, therefore, only some doubt about the etymology of the presupposed roots, nick or nik or niq, themselves, which both Sanders[9] and Dr. Skeat[10] decline to give. Professor Earle says: "It (nicor) is a word of
- ↑ Assemanus, l. c., p. 418.
- ↑ See Mikola Ugodnik, etc., p. 5, etc.
- ↑ Ten Brink, Beowulf, Strassburg, 1888, S. 246; and Prof. T. Earle, The Deeds of Beowulf, Oxford, 1892, pp. li-lii.
- ↑ Heyd, Geschichte des Levantenhandels, 1879, i, S. 97.
- ↑ Grimm's Mythology, p. 514.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 488.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 505.
- ↑ Fr. Kluge, An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, London, 1891, p. 253. Compare Grimm's Deutsches Wörterbuch, Leipzig, 1882, S. 861.
- ↑ Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, Leipzig, 1861; see Neck: "Stamm fräglich."
- ↑ Etymological Dictionary, Oxford, 1884, p. 392; see Nick: "Root unknown."
