Walter or Walther is a masculine given name, from an Old High German Walthari, containing the elements wald "rule" and hari "army, warrior".
The Latinized form is Waltharius, the title of a poem on the legendary Gothic king Walter of Aquitaine. A fragmentary Old English poem on the same character is known as Waldere. The Dutch equivalent of the name is Wouter. The name also entered the French language as Gauthier.
Jacob Grimm in Teutonic Mythology speculates that Walthari, literally "wielder of hosts", may have been an epithet of the god of war, Ziu or Eor, and that the circumstance that the hero of the Waltharius poems loses his right hand in battle may be significant, linking him to the Norse tradition of Tyr.
Famous quotes containing the word walter:
“O eloquent, just, and mighty Death! whom none could advise, thou hast persuaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world hath flattered, thou only hath cast out of the world and despised. Thou hast drawn together all the far-stretched greatness, all the pride, cruelty, and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two narrow words, Hic jacet!”
—Sir Walter Raleigh (1552–1618)