On Wando & Wisla

It is a fact that no one had recorded the name Wanda before Master Vincentius Kadlubek.  (On the story see here).  The assertion, therefore, has been made that Kadlubek just made it up.

He also stated that “name, they say, is the name of the River Wandal[us] [meaning Wisla/Vistula] derived, for that [river] was the center of her kingdom; so too all those who were under her rule became known as Vandals.”  In the version coming from the Greater Poland Chronicles, Wanda receives the homage from the Alemanni and a loyalty oath and, to thank the Gods, after returning home, she offers herself in sacrifice by jumping into the Wisla/Vistula.  And “[f]or this reason, the river Wisla from Queen Wanda has received the name Wandal.  And from that the Poles and other Slavic peoples who border their country stopped being called Lechites and began to be called Vandals.”

It has been noted that already Isidore from Seville derived the Vandals from the river Vindelicus (not Vandalicus) while also bringing up the Alemanni: “…They say that the Lanus is a river beyond the Danube, after which the Alani were named, just as the people living by the river Lemannus [or Lake Leman] are called Alemanni. About these Lucan says … The River Vindilicus springs from the far frontier of Gaul and people maintain that the Vandals lived by it and got their name from it.”  See here.

What is interesting, however, is that the name Wando had been in use before and was even borne by a Catholic Saint – Saint Wando of Fontenelle.  We can read about him the Gesta Abbatum Fonanellensium – the Deeds of the Abbots of Fontenelle (the later Abbey of Saint-Wandrille or Abbaye de Saint-Wandrille de Fontenelle) an early to mid-9th century work the earliest surviving manuscript comes from the 11th century.  This Benedictine abbey of Fontenelle (or Saint Wandrille) (of which Wando had been an abbott) is located in Normandy.  Saint Wando died about the year 756.

All in all nothing special here.  Except, right after the chapter discussing Wando (among others), we have a chapter discussing Milo.  And in that Chapter we have a mention of an abbess (i.e., a female abbot of a nun abbey or, if you will, a “mother superior”).  She was the abbess of the nearby abbey at Caudebequet.  And her name was… Wisla.  Here is the text:

So the question is, is this the source of the idea for Kadlubek?  Or is it just coincidence?

And, in any event, why are abbesses in the 7th century north of France called Wisla?  There is a Slavic name Wislawa.  Of course, Wisla has been recorded “before the Slavs”… Mysteries continue.

The text also contains further references regarding our prior topic, the Viltaburg and the Veleti.