# Gaut > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Gaut > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Gaut.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaut > Source revision: 1324914181 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Deity Not to be confused with [Gout](/source/Gout), the medical condition commonly affecting the big toe. **Gaut** ([Old Norse](/source/Old_Norse_language): *Gautr*, from a [Proto-Germanic](/source/Proto-Germanic) **Gautaz*) is an early Germanic name which represents a mythical ancestor or [national god](/source/National_god) in the [origin myth](/source/Origin_myth) of the [Geats](/source/Geats). ## Etymology Further information: [Name of the Goths](/source/Name_of_the_Goths) *Gautaz* may be connected to the name of the Swedish river [Göta älv](/source/G%C3%B6ta_%C3%A4lv)[1] at the city of [Gothenburg](/source/Gothenburg). Early inhabitants of present-day [Götaland](/source/G%C3%B6taland) called themselves [Geats](/source/Geats) ([Swedish](/source/Swedish_language): *Götar*), derived from a [Proto-Germanic](/source/Proto-Germanic) singular **Gautaz*, plural **Gautôz*, assumed to have meant "to pour".[2] The Geatish ethnonym **gautaz* is related to the ethnonym of the [Goths](/source/Goths) and of the [Gutes](/source/Gutes) (inhabitants of the island of Gotland), deriving from Proto-Germanic *gutô (cf. Gothic *Gut-þiuda*, Old Norse *gotar* or *gutar*). ## Accounts This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) The German chronicler [Johannes Aventinus](/source/Johannes_Aventinus) (ca. 1525) reported Gothus as one of 20 dukes who accompanied [Tuisto](/source/Tuisto) into Europe, settling Gothaland as his personal fief, during the reign of [Nimrod](/source/Nimrod) at Babel. The Swede [Johannes Magnus](/source/Johannes_Magnus) around the same time as Aventinus, wrote that Gothus or Gethar, also known as Gogus or Gog, was one of [Magog](/source/Magog_(Bible))'s sons, who became first king of the Goths (Geats) in Gothaland. Magnus separately listed Gaptus as son and successor of [Berig](/source/Berig), first king of the Goths south of the Baltic. ## Theonym This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) *Gautr* is also one of the Eddaic [names of Odin](/source/Names_of_Odin) in [Norse mythology](/source/Norse_mythology), but also as an alternative form of the name *Gauti*, who was one of Odin's sons, and the founder of the kingdom of the Geats, Götaland (**Gautland**/*Geatland*), in *[Bósa saga ok Herrauðs](/source/B%C3%B3sa_saga_ok_Herrau%C3%B0s)* (c. 1300). This Gautr/Gauti also appears as the father of the recurrent and undatable [Geatish king](/source/Geatish_king) [Gautrekr](/source/Gautrekr) in that saga, and several other sagas produced between 1225 and 1310. ## Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies Further information: [Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies](/source/Anglo-Saxon_royal_genealogies) This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Some versions of the English royal line of Wessex add names above that of Woden, purportedly giving Woden's ancestry, but the names are now usually thought be from another royal lineage erroneously added to the standard genealogy. Some of the genealogies end in Geat (or Geata) who is identified as an ancestor of Woden, and father of Godwulf. Geat, it is reasonable to think, might be Gaut. Others continue with Geat's father, Tatwa (Tetuua), and even further, stretching back to [Adam](/source/Adam).[3] In the *Life of Alfred* (893), [Asser](/source/Asser) states that the pagans worshipped Geat himself, for a long time, as a god. He quotes a disdainful verse attributed to [Coelius Sedulius](/source/Coelius_Sedulius) (5th century). The 10th-century poem of [Deor](/source/Deor) briefly mentions Geat and his wife, Maethehilde. The account in the *[Historia Britonum](/source/Historia_Britonum)* (c. 835; generally attributed to [Nennius](/source/Nennius)) says that Geat was considered the son of a god by the heathens of [England](/source/England). Elsewhere, it names Gothus, a son of Armenon, as the Goths' ancestor. ## See also - [Gaute](/source/Gaute) - [Germanic mythology](/source/Germanic_mythology) ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** [Wolfram 1990](#CITEREFWolfram1990), p. 21 1. **[^](#cite_ref-Hellquist_2-0)** Hellquist, Elof. "göt". [*Svensk etymologisk ordbok*](https://runeberg.org/svetym/0306.html) (in Swedish). Retrieved 1 Mar 2014. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Asser's life of King Alfred by Asser, John, d. 909; Cook, Albert S. (Albert Stanburrough), 1853-1927, [https://archive.org/details/asserslifeofking00asseiala/page/2/mode/1up](https://archive.org/details/asserslifeofking00asseiala/page/2/mode/1up) - [Andersson, Thorsten](/source/Thorsten_Andersson). (1996) "*Göter, goter, gutar*" in **Journal Namn och Bygd**, Uppsala. - [Wolfram, Herwig](/source/Herwig_Wolfram) (1990). [*History of the Goths*](https://books.google.com/books?id=xsQxcJvaLjAC). Translated by Dunlap, Thomas J. University of California Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0520069838](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0520069838). --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Gaut](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaut) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaut?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.