Note 652 — Chapter VI · (continued 2)

On this early hero, son of King Anna of East-Anglia, whose name has gone through endless corruptions, see Liebermann’s note (Ungedruckte Anglo-Normannische Geschichtsquellen, p. 277) to Heremann’s Miracles of Saint Eadmund. William of Malmesbury (Gest. Pont. 156) writes him “Germinus,” and not unnaturally says that he knows very little about him, save that he was brother of Saint Æthelthryth. His editor turns him into Saint German of Auxerre; he then wonders that William should know so little of Saint German of whom he had found a good deal to say elsewhere, but he does not himself seem the least surprised to hear Saint German spoken of as brother of Saint Æthelthryth.