[671] This is admitted by Bugge, P.B.B. XII, 6. "Geátas ... ist sprachlich ein ganz anderer name als altn. Jótar, Jútar, bei Beda Jutae, und nach Beda im Chron. Sax. 449 Jotum, Jutna ... Die Geátas ... tragen einen namen der sprachlich mit altn. Gautar identisch ist."
[672] From a presumed Prim. Germ. *Eutiz, *Eutjaniz. The word in O.E. seems to have been declined both as an i-stem and an n-stem, the n-stem forms being used more particularly in the gen. plu., just as in the case of the tribal names, Seaxe, Mierce (Sievers, § 264). The Latinized forms show the same duplication, the dat. Euciis pointing to an i-stem, the nom. Euthio to an n-stem, plu. *Eutiones. For a discussion of the relation of the O.E. name to the Danish Jyder, see Björkman in Anglia, Beiblatt, XXVIII, 274-80: "Zu ae. Eote, Yte, dän. Jyder 'Jüten'."
[673] I regard it as simply an error of the translator, possibly because he had before him a text in which Bede's Iutis had been corrupted in this place into Giotis, as it is in Ethelwerd: Cantuarii de Giotis traxerunt originem, Vuhtii quoque. (Bk. I: other names which Ethelwerd draws from Bede in this section are equally corrupt.)
Bede's text runs: (I, 15) Aduenerant autem de tribus Germaniae populis fortioribus, id est Saxonibus, Anglis, Iutis. De Iutarum origine sunt Cantuarii et Victuarii; in the translation: "Comon hi of þrim folcum ðam strangestan Germanie, þæt [is] of Seaxum and of Angle and of Geatum. Of Geata fruman syndon Cantware and Wihtsætan": (IV, 16) In proximam Iutorum prouinciam translati ... in locum, qui uocatur Ad Lapidem; "in þa neahmægðe, seo is gecegd Eota lond, in sume stowe seo is nemned Æt Stane" (Stoneham, near Southampton). MS C.C.C.C. 41 reads "Ytena land": see below.
[674] Two Saxon Chronicles, ed. Plummer, 1899. Introduction, pp. lxx, lxxi.
[675] The O.E. version of Bede's Ecclesiastical History, ed. Miller, II, xv, xvi, 1898.
[676] Florentii Wigorn. Chron., ed. Thorpe, II, 45; I, 276.
[677] It cannot be said that this is due to textual corruption in our late copy, for the alliteration constantly demands a G-form, not a vowel-form.
[678] See pp. [8], 9 above, §§ 2-7.
[679] Just as, for example, in Heimskringla: Haraldz saga ins hárfagra, 13-17, the Götar are constantly mentioned, because the kingdom of Sweden is being attacked from their side.