Etymologies (2)

The Merovingian Dynasty ruled over the Franks (the Germanic tribe which conquered Gaul after the fall of the Roman Empire) from A.D. 475 to 751. There are those who believe that [to quote Steve Mizrach from his summary of the thesis of Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln (1982)]

"Jesus and Mary Magdalene, legitimate nobility from the Judaic Houses of Benjamin and David, married and sired heirs. Jesus did not die on the cross but went either to England or India.The Magdalene's heirs married into the Visigoth families of the time, and gave birth to the sacred Merovingian ruling family. The Visigoths of the area might have themselves been descended from the House of Benjamin, which had fled to the Arcadia region of Greece, and thence north into France, a thousand years earlier. The Merovingians were not wiped out by the Carolingian usurpers, and their lineage survives in some of the other royal families of Europe. [...] The Merovingians were "sacred kings" who reigned but did not rule, leaving the secular governing function to chancellors known as the Mayors of the Palace. It was the one of the Mayors, Pepin the Fat, who founded the dynasty that came to supplant them--the Carolingians."

Interestingly, History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours (539-594 A.D.) lists Merovingian women's names and includes the names Leibovera and Audovera.

Hedwig Vogelsang could be name-connected to the only other Hedwig I've ever heard of, Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler (aka Hedy Lamarr) (c.1913-). Before she emigrated to the United States in 1937, Hedy was, according to Hans-Joaquim Braun's article in the Spring 1997 issue of Invention & Technology, "an institution in Viennese society, entertaining--and dazzling--foreign leaders, including Hitler and Mussolini." In 1933 she "showed the world her acting skills and most of herself in the film Extase (Ecstasy), which quickly became notorious for its extensive nude scenes."

Not only was Hedy Lamarr a famous Hollywood movie star/glamour-girl in the 1940s, BUT, with her composer/second-husband George Antheil, she also invented and patented a device that controlled torpedoes by radio via "frequency hopping" whereby a signal is broadcast over a seemingly random series of radio frequencies, switching from frequency to frequency at split-second intervals."

In the late 1920s/early 1930s, George Antheil was one of Paris' top avant-garde composers, "writing and playing machinelike, 'mechanistic', rhythmically propulsive pieces [...] His Ballet Mécanique was scored for sixteen player pianos, xylophones, and percussion [...] but also had electric bells, airplane propellers, and a siren." (Braun, p.13)