Name
The etymology of the name Hwicce "the Hwiccians" is uncertain. It is the plural of a masculine i-stem. It may be from a tribal name of "the Hwiccians", or it may be from a clan name.
Smith suggested a tribal name that was in origin pejorative, meaning "the cowards", cognate to quake, Old Norse hvikari "coward". An alternative etymology would be from the common noun hwicce "ark, chest, locker", in reference to the appearance of the territory as a flat-bottomed valley bordered by the Cotswolds and the Malvern Hills. A third possibility would be derivation from a given name, "the people of the man called Hwicce", but no such name has been recorded.Eilert Ekwall connected the name of the Gewisse
Stephen Yeates (2008, 2009) has interpreted the name as meaning "cauldron; sacred vessel" and linked to the shape of the Vale of Gloucester and the Romano-British regional cult of a goddess with a bucket or cauldron, identified with a Mater Dobunna, supposedly associated with West Country legends concerning the Holy Grail.
The toponym Hwicce survives in Wychwood in Oxfordshire, Whichford in Warwickshire, Wichenford and Wychbury Hill in Worcestershire.
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