WADE, WADES. The Pithrikssaga or Thidreks Saga tells that Wade was the son of King Wilkinus and a sea-woman. He grew to be a giant and became Weyland's father. He took Weyland, while he was still very young, to the dwarfs to be educated and agreed to return for him after one year. Weyland learned so quickly and became so expert in all kinds of smith work that the dwarfs decided to kill his father and to keep him in bondage to them. Wade returned early for his son, but the dwarfs killed him in a landslide. When Weyland discovered this deed, he killed the dwarfs and escaped from their country in a wonderful boat, which he constructed himself (Thidreks Saga II. Cantos 2 and 3). In the Anglo-Saxon poem Widsith 22, Wade is called "Wada Haelsingam." Wade's courtship of Hild for his king, Hetel, also involves a boat, but this one is not magical.

Januarie says that he does not want a thirty-year-old woman for his wife, for old wives know much craft "on Wades Boot," MerchT 1423-1424. The emphasis seems to be on the special qualities of the boat. The story of Weyland may have been transferred to Wade by Chaucer's time. Januarie is tricked and deceived by the twenty-year-old May just as successfully as Wade deceived Hagen, Hild's father. After dinner at Pandarus's house, Pandarus sings, Criseyde plays, and Pandarus tells the tale of Wade, Tr III.610-615. Pandarus is also deceiving Criseyde, for she does not know of the plan he has in mind for her.

Wade occurs in final rhyming position, Tr III.614. Wades, the ME genitive case, occurs in the penultimate position, MerchT 1424.