"And eke thise olde widewes (God it wote)
They connen so moch craft on Wades bote
So mochel broken harm whan that hem lest
That with hem shuld I never live in rest."—Lines 9297-9300.
... The philologist Grimm identifies Wada with the Danish hero Wate, in Gudrun.  In an old Anglo-Saxon poem, called the Widsith, (Scop, Gleeman's or Traveler's Tale, for the terms are identical), we are told that Wada ruled over the Helsings, a Scandanavian tribe which left a trace of its occupancy in the place-name, Helsingfors.  Grimm goes further and derives Wada's name from his having waded, like a second Christopher, with his son on his shoulder, over the nine-ell-deep Groenasund, between Seeland, Falster and Moen. (The Wade Genealogy, S.C. Wade, 1900)

964  This conjunction of Wade and Wawayn may lead to some sober reflection on the influence of alliteration on legend.  Wittich, a kinsman of Wade, is associated with Samson and Goliath as a type of strength in the old German poems edited by C. Bartsch ("Meister Lieder der Kolmarer Handschrift").  Chaucer twice mentions Wade, and Lydgate refers to romances of Havelok, Horn and Wade.  The romance was apparently a late development of Wade as an adventurer in a boat, Guingelot, "wherein," says Kinaston's note, "he did many strange things and had many wonderfull adventures."  Malory, in "Morte Darthure," Book VII., chap. ix., says "as wyȝte as euer was Wade," and a metrical romance, "Sir Bevis," from the Auchinleck MS., classes Bevis, Guy of Warwick, Launcelot and Wade together as dragon-slayers.  Camden mentions Wade's Gap in the Roman Wall, and a castle not far from Whitby belonging to Wada, a Saxon general who fought in a batle at Whalley in Lancashire, and died in 798.  The date and the localities in Northern England are interesting to students of "Bêowulf."  Roger of Hoveden, Leland and others tell of places named after Wade.  In Konrad's "Rolandslied" (ed. C. Bartsch, l. 7801) the Emperor Charles tells King Oigir of Denmark that he is of Wade's kin and has a lion-heart, "thu bist thes Waten kunnes, ...thu hâst rehte eines lewen muot."
     Little is known of the oldest form of the Wade myth.  The earliest of the Old English poems preserved to us, "Wîdsið," mentions Wada as ruler of the Hælsingas, and this is the first reference to him we have in any literature.  He was probably a sea-god or a sea-hero of the North Sea, but W. Mannhardt thinks he was a god of the Danube.  He had flaming eyes and a wide beard, was easily roused to wrath, and as strong as twenty-six men; when he blew his horn the earth shook, the sea raged and walls fell.  North Germanic saga gives the boat to Wieland.  In the "Thidrekssaga" Wade is Wieland's father, and sends the boy to learn his craft in Mimir's smithy, where he had Seigfrid for a companion; afterwards Wieland is carried over the Groenasund on Wade's back to two mountain dwarfs to continue his studies.  Wade is also woven into the Gudrun saga.  Sir Walter Scott lamented the loss of his story a hundred years ago, and we know little more about it to-day.  The reference of this poem is to Wade as slayer of monsters.  Wawayn is a champion of distressed damsels in French romance, always ready to protect against oppressors. (Morte Arthure: an Alliterative Poem of the 14th Century, Thornton-Banks, 1900)