Editing Gambrinus (section)

== Origin of Gambrinus ==
The source of the legend of Gambrinus is uncertain. An early written account, by German historian [[Johannes Aventinus]] (1477–1534), identifies Gambrinus with Gambrivius, a mythical [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] king about whom little is known. Two other men purported to have inspired the creation of Gambrinus are John I, Duke of Brabant, and John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy.

=== Gambrivius or Gampar ===
In his magnum opus ''Annals of Bavaria'', German historian Johannes Aventinus wrote that Gambrinus is based on a mythical Germanic king called Gambrivius, or Gampar, who, Aventinus says, learned brewing from [[Osiris]] and [[Isis]]. In 1517, [[William IV, Duke of Bavaria]] had made Aventinus the official [[historiographer]] of his dukedom. Aventinus finished composing the history in 1523; the work that he compiled, ''Annals of Bavaria'', extends beyond Bavaria, drawing on numerous ancient and medieval sources. However, it is also a work that blends history with myth and legend.

{{multiple image
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 | image1 = Standing Osiris.svg
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 | alt1 = Osiris stands in a composite pose, arrayed in burial dress.
 | image2 = Isis.svg
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 | alt2 = Isis stands in a composite pose, wearing the throne hieroglyph on her head, and holding an ankh and staff.
 | footer = Legends tell that Gambrivius learned the art of brewing from [[Osiris]] (left) and [[Isis]] (right).
}}
European anecdote credits Gambrinus with the invention of beer. Aventinus attempted to reconcile this account with much older stories attributing its origin to Osiris' agricultural teachings.<ref>{{cite book |last=Birmingham |first=Frederic Alexander |year=1970 |title=Falstaff's Complete Beer Book |location=New York |publisher=Award Books |page=36 |oclc=121991}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1007/978-3-662-34091-2 |title=Die Chemie des täglichen Lebens |year=1878 |last1=v. Hamm |first1=W. |last2=Schwartze |first2=Th. |last3=Wagner |first3=H. |last4=Zöllner |first4=J. |isbn=978-3-662-33693-9|url=http://digital.slub-dresden.de/id346126711 }}</ref> In Aventinus' chronicle, Gambrivius was the paramour of Osiris' wife and sister, Isis. It was by this association, he says, that Gambrivius learned the science of brewing (cf. myths of the [[theft of fire]]).<ref>{{cite book |last=Aventinus |first=Johannes |author-link=Johannes Aventinus |title=Annales Boiorum |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CyxDAAAAcAAJ |access-date=15 January 2014|year=1615 }}</ref>

Aventinus' account of Gambrivius contributed to the reverence for Osiris and Isis held by 17th-century European scholars.<ref name="Hornung">{{Cite book |last=Hornung |first=Erik |author-link=Erik Hornung |year=2001 |title=The Secret Lore of Egypt: Its Impact on the West |location=Ithaca |publisher=Cornell University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/secretloreofegyp00horn/page/104 104] |chapter=Triumphs of Erudition |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SB_y56Vlz5kC&pg=PA104 |isbn=978-0-8014-3847-9 |oclc=851341608 |url=https://archive.org/details/secretloreofegyp00horn/page/104 }}</ref> Perceiving Osiris and Isis as "culture bearers" enabled a willingness to see historical connections where there were none.<ref name="Hornung"/>

The 59th stanza of the English drinking ode "The Ex-ale-tation of Ale", written by Peter Mews, evidences a British appropriation of the myth:
{{Quote|To the praise of Gambrivius, that good British king<br />That devis'd for the nation by the Welshmen's tale<br />Seventeen hundred years before Christ did spring<br />The happy invention of a pot of good ale.|Previously erroneously attributed to [[Francis Beaumont]]|''A Select Collection of English Songs with Their Original Airs, Volume II''<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=Park |editor-first=Thomas |year=1813 |title=A Select Collection of English Songs with Their Original Airs, Vol. II |edition=2nd |location=London |publisher=Printed for F.C. and J. Rivington, etc. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C9IxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA73 |oclc=2093558 |access-date=8 January 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Johnson |first=Samuel |year=1810 |title=The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper |url=https://archive.org/details/worksenglishpoe84unkngoog |location=London |publisher=Printed for J. Johnson etc. |pages=[https://archive.org/details/worksenglishpoe84unkngoog/page/n222 204]–6 |oclc=14021579 |access-date=8 January 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hazlitt |first=William Carew |author-link=William Carew Hazlitt |year=1876 |title=Collections and notes, 1867–1876 |location=London |publisher=Reeves and Turner |page=[https://archive.org/details/collectionsnotes00hazluoft/page/6 6] |url=https://archive.org/details/collectionsnotes00hazluoft |oclc=3637760 |access-date=8 January 2014}}</ref>}}

According to Aventinus, Gambrivius is a seventh-generation descendant of the [[Patriarchs (Bible)|Biblical patriarch]] [[Noah]]. By incorporating earlier myths recorded by [[Tacitus]], Aventinus reckoned that Gambrivius was the fifth son of Marso (Latin: Marsus),<ref name="Waldenfels">{{cite book |last=Waldenfels |first=Christoph Philipp |year=1677 |title=Selectæ Antiquitatis, Libri XII: De Gestis primævis, item de Origine Gentium Nationumque migrationibus, atque præcipuis Nostratium dilocationibus |location=Nuremberg |publisher=Sumptibus Wolfgangi Mauritii Endteri and Johannis Andreæ Endteri Hæredum |oclc=804372376 |chapter=De Marſo Aſcenæ quinto filio |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZRs_AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA303 |pages=303–304 |language=la }}</ref> who was the great-grandson of [[Tuisto]], the [[Giant (mythology)|giant]] or godly ancestor of the [[Germanic peoples]] whom Tacitus mentions in ''[[Germania (book)|Germania]]''. Tacitus alludes to an earlier source ([[Strabo]]) who lists tribes called the ''[[Gambrivii]]'' and the ''[[Marsi (Germanic)|Marsi]]'' among the peoples descended from Tuisto:<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://elfinspell.com/TacitusGermany1.html#refch2 |last=Tacitus |first=Cornelius |title=''The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus: The Oxford Translation Revised, with Notes'' |website=Elfinspell |access-date=12 January 2014}}</ref> the offspring or subjects of Gambrivius and Marsus, respectively.

[[File:Gampar.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Gampar (Gambrivius), depicted as the king of Flanders and Brabant. A sheaf of wheat is to his right. (From a series of [[Broadside (printing)|broadsides]] produced c. 1543.)<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?assetId=82964&objectId=1440803&partId=1 |title=Ancestors and early kings of the Germans / Gambrivius Künig in Brabant/Flandern (Gampar, king of Brabant and Flanders) |website=[[British Museum]]}}</ref>]]

Gampar claims new lands east of the Rhine, including Flanders and Brabant, and founds the towns of Cambrai and Hamburg.<ref>{{cite book |last=Braungart |first=Richard |year=1911 |title=Der Hopfen aller hopfenbauenden Länder der Erde als Braumaterial nach seinen geschichtlichen, botanischen, chemischen, brautechnischen, physiologisch-medizinischen und landwirthschaftlich-technischen Beziehungen wie nach seiner Konservierung und Packung |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nvI7AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA131 |location=München |publisher=R. Oldenburg |page=131 |oclc=494652466 |language=de |access-date=13 January 2014}}</ref> The names of both these towns were theorized to be [[cognate]]s of ''Gambrivius'', as one of Hamburg's ancient Latin names was alleged to be ''Gambrivium''.<ref name="Walsh">{{cite book |last=Walsh |first=William S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M1u6tKZsBtIC&pg=PA117 |title=Heroes and Heroines of Fiction: Classical, Mediæval, Legendary |publisher=J. B. Lippincott Co. |year=1915 |location=London |page=117 |oclc=652491 |access-date=8 January 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Lediard |editor-first=Thomas |editor-link=Thomas Lediard |year=1740 |title=The German Spy, or, Familiar letters from a gentleman on his travels thro' Germany, to his friend in England |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_xE4HAAAAQAAJ |location=London |publisher=Printed for T. Cooper |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_xE4HAAAAQAAJ/page/n197 164] |access-date=9 January 2014}}</ref><ref name="Compte-rendu">{{Cite book |year=1844 |title=Compte-rendu des séances de la Commission royale d'histoire, ou, Recueil de ses bulletins. Tome VII (5 septembre - 2 décembre 1843.) |location=Bruxelles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nLNJAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA154 |access-date=11 January 2014|last1=Académie Royale Des Sciences |first1=des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique (Bruxelles) Commission Royale d'Histoire }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Schütze |first=Gottfried |year=1775 |title=Die Geschichte von Hamburg für den Liebhaber der vaterländischen Geschichte, Theil 1 |chapter=Gründung und Benennung von Hamburg |trans-chapter=Establishment and Appointment of Hamburg |location=Hamburg |publisher=Johann George Fritsch und Compagnie |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eOM-AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA38 |pages=38–9 |language=de }}</ref>

One of Aventinus' sources was ''Officina'' (1503), an encyclopedia compiled by French scholar [[Jean Tixier de Ravisi]]. This work purported that Tuisto and Gambrivius were giants descended from Noah. But Jean Tixier had only catalogued and reported a conjecture made in the name of the [[Hellenistic-era]] historian [[Berossus]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Gotthelf |first=Friedrich |year=1900 |title=Das deutsche Altertum in den Anschauungen des sechzehnten und siebzehnten Jahrunderts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OoNBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA20 |trans-title=German Antiquity from Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Perspectives |series=Forschungen zur neueren Litteraturgeschichte |location=Berlin |publisher=[[Alexander Duncker]] |page=20 |oclc=12373106 |language=de |access-date=15 January 2014}}</ref> by the fraudster [[Annio da Viterbo]] (1498), who had previously used the same hypothesis to postulate an ancestry for the [[Gauls]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rose |first=Carol |year=2001 |title=Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth |location=New York |publisher=Norton |pages=131, 369 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GKrACS_n86wC&pg=PA369 |isbn=9780393322118 |oclc=48798119 |access-date=12 January 2014}}</ref>

Some [[Francophone]] and [[Germanophone]] scholars reject the others' claim to Gambrinus as an appropriation of one of their own cultural heroes.<ref name="Compte-rendu"/><ref name="Gambrinal">{{cite journal |date=25 June 1882 |title=Gambrinal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=skUbAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA367 |journal=[[L'intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux]] |pages=366–7 |issn=0996-2808 |language=fr |quote=Nos voisins d'Outre-Rhin qui tiennent fort à ce que la bière soit née chez eux, ne peuvent se résigner à boire un produit ayant un protecteur français! |access-date=10 January 2014}}</ref> Aventinus' account did not just establish a claim to Gambrivius, but to a glorious ancestry and heritage.<ref name="Gambrinal"/> The myths also reimagined Gambrivius as a catalyst for the enlargement of the territory of a Germanic people (the Gambrivii), and made him a divine conduit into [[Germania]] for the Egyptians' ancient beer lore.

In 1543, Hans Guldenmundt published a series of 12 [[Broadside (printing)|broadside prints]] of "ancestors and early kings of the Germans". The series includes Tuiscon (Tuisto) and Gambrivius, [[Charlemagne]], and other kings historical and mythological. The heading for Gambrivius translates as "Gampar, King of Brabant and Flanders". Aventinus' contemporary Burkard Waldis (c. 1490–1556) wrote a descriptive verse for each of the 12 kings in the series. The verses for Gampar and Tuiscon recapitulate what Aventinus recorded in ''Annals of Bavaria''.

=== John I, Duke of Brabant ===
{{Further|John I, Duke of Brabant}}

[[File:Henri Leys - John I, Duke of Brabant (detail).jpg|thumb|upright|[[John I, Duke of Brabant]], as rendered by [[Henri Leys]] c. 1864–69]]

One of the persons theorised to be the basis for the Gambrinus character is John I (c. 1252–1294)<ref name="Reiber"/>{{rp|3}} of the [[Duchy of Brabant]], which was a wealthy, beer-producing jurisdiction that encompassed [[Duchy of Brabant#Quarter of Brussels|Brussels]] among other cities. The brewers' guild in Brussels may have made the Duke an honorary member and hung his portrait in their meeting hall.<ref name="Coremans">{{Cite journal |last=Coremans |first=Victor Amédée Jacques Marie |author-link=Victor Amédée Jacques Marie Coremans |year=1842 |title=Note sur la tradition de Gambrivius roi mythique de Flandre par le docteur Coremans |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yhw0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA379 |journal=Bulletin de la Commission Royale d'Histoire |language=fr |volume=5 |issue=5 |pages=378–388 |doi=10.3406/bcrh.1842.4171 |access-date=8 January 2014|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Rabin"/><ref name="Jackson"/>{{rp|81}}

In his 1874 [[monograph]] on Gambrinus, the Belgian political activist and historian [[Victor Amédée Jacques Marie Coremans|Victor Coremans]] reported that references to Brabant and Flanders in Gambrinus legends seemed to be relatively recent. However, he also reports a similarity between the likeness of John I on his tomb and the faces in some illustrations of Gambrinus.<ref name="Coremans"/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Vogel |first=Max |year=1874 |title=On Beer: A Statistical Sketch |location=London |publisher=Trübner & Co. |page=4 |chapter=Introduction |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vJMBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA4 |oclc=20877079 }}</ref> John's name, too, has a hypothetical connection to Gambrinus: In Dutch he was sometimes known as ''Jan Primus'', and in French as ''Jean Primus''. ''Jan'' and ''Jean'' are renderings of ''John'' in Dutch and French, respectively, and ''Primus'' is Latin for "the first". The name ''Gambrinus'' might be a [[Corruption (linguistics)|corruption]] of one of these names.<ref name="Rabin"/><ref name="Reiber">{{Cite book |last=Reiber |first=Ferdinand |year=1882 |title=Etudes gambrinales: histoire et archéologie de la bière et principalement de la bière de Strasbourg |location=Paris |publisher=Berger-Levrault |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SOl9rlgtIVoC&pg=PA1 |oclc=29620014 |access-date=8 January 2014}}</ref>{{rp|118}}<ref name="Jackson">{{Cite book |last=Jackson |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Jackson (writer) |year=1997 |title=The Simon & Schuster Pocket Guide to Beer |edition=6th |location=New York |publisher=Simon & Schuster |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p24Ktw6BDVoC&pg=PA81 |isbn=978-0684843810 |oclc=37929564 |access-date=8 January 2014}}</ref>{{rp|81}} Dutch and French were principal languages in the [[County of Flanders]] and the [[Duchy of Brabant]], and Latin was a language used by scholars and learned people.

=== John the Fearless ===
{{Further|John the Fearless}}

[[File:John duke of burgundy.jpg|thumb|upright|An anonymous portrait of [[John the Fearless]] (1371–1419) in the [[Early Netherlandish painting|Early Netherlandish]] style]]
Another presumptive Gambrinus, John the Fearless (1371–1419), was the [[Duke of Burgundy]] born nearly 80 years after the death of John I of Brabant. The large and powerful [[Duchy of Burgundy]] also produced beer, and was found to the southwest of Brabant.

John the Fearless held several [[titles of nobility]], one of which was [[Count of Flanders]]—a title he inherited in 1405. He is credited with introducing, or legalising, [[hops]] within the [[County of Flanders]].<ref name="Reiber"/>{{rp|4}} Before they switched to hops, the Flemish, like many other Europeans, brewed beer with an herbal medley called [[gruit]].

The transition from gruit to hops throughout Europe in the [[Middle Ages]] was a piecemeal, region-by-region process that lasted at least 500 years. It took time for farmers to learn of the existence of hops, how to farm them, when to cultivate them, and their value in brewing beer. Brewers had to learn the favourable and unfavourable characteristics of hops, and how to use hops to craft commercially successful beer. Even in the Middle Ages beer was an international commodity, and major brewing cities developed distinctive styles and reputations. Brewers had to consider the marketability of their beer, and competition from imports. Furthermore, regulations limited brewing ingredients in some jurisdictions. Even when a monarch permitted hop brewing, the hops might be taxed. What steps John took to institute hops in Flemish brewing is not documented, but he lived during a time when hops were being legalised in nearby jurisdictions. He was age 20 or 21 in 1392, when [[Albert I, Duke of Bavaria|Duke Albert I]] granted the Dutch cities of [[Haarlem]] and [[Gouda, South Holland|Gouda]] permission to brew beer with hops.<ref>{{cite book |last=Unger |first=Richard W. |year=2004 |title=Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rMNf-p1mu6AC&pg=PA54 |location=Philadelphia |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |pages=54, 56–7 |isbn=9780812237955 |oclc=55055450 |access-date=9 January 2014}}</ref>

Sometime after John inherited rule of the County of Flanders in 1405, he is said to have instituted an [[Order (honour)|order of merit]] called the [[Order of the Hop]] (Latin: ''[[Ōrdō lupuli]]''). According to [[Jean-Jacques Chifflet]] (1588–1660), John awarded the honour to curry the favour of his subjects in the [[County of Flanders]].<ref name="Chifflet">{{Cite book |last=Chifflet |first=Jean-Jacques |author-link=Jean-Jacques Chifflet |year=1658 |title=Lilium Francicum, veritate historica, botanica, et heraldica illustratum |language=la |location=Antwerp |publisher=Ex Officina Plantiniana Balthasaris Moreti |pages=[https://archive.org/details/liliumfrancicum00chifgoog/page/n83 79]–80 |url=https://archive.org/details/liliumfrancicum00chifgoog |oclc=24181922 |access-date=12 January 2014}}</ref> Recipients of the order drank beer in celebration.

John of Burgundy has another connection to beer, and possibly to the etymology of ''Gambrinus'': In 1385, he was married in [[Cambrai]], a powerful city (in modern-day north of France) whose beer was highly regarded. Allegedly, one of Cambrai's Latin names was ''Gambrivium''—but then, the same is also said of the city of [[Hamburg]].

The [[Medieval Latin]] noun ''camba'' means "brewery"; this word was corrupted to ''cambe'' in [[Old French]],<ref>{{Cite book |year=1902 |title=Transactions of the Philological Society: 1899–1902 |chapter=Mediaeval Latin: Polyptychum of St. Remi |location=London |publisher=Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. |page=618 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fzsQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA618}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Murray |first=Joseph Patrick |year=1950 |title=A selective English-Old French glossary as a basis for studies in Old French onomatology and synonymics, Volume 40 |location=Washington |publisher=Catholic University of America Press |page=50 |oclc=603511454 }}</ref> and may have yielded the vernacular French noun ''cam'', a word used by farmhouse brewers in Northern France and the Low Countries for the yoke that supports a brew kettle over a fire.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jackson |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Jackson (writer) |year=1998 |title=Michael Jackson's Great Beers of Belgium |publisher=Running Press Book Publishers |page=16}}</ref>