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It's not an amalgam of two languages, it's just Frankish, which is neither High German nor Gothic. Frede is the Frankish equivalent of High German Frida, runa is probably a declined form (e.g. the equivalent English run is declined rune, runa, runum), quite common for records of female names where they are mentioned in relation to someone else (e.g. a father, husband or son). The senses are not quite right though. In Frankish Frede means "affection", not "peace", cognate with Gothic Friathwa "affection, love". There is a tendency of course for it to be treated as the feminine of masculine Fridu "peace", even in prosaic use. Thus in Old English we have native freothu (f.) originally the equivalent of Gothic friathwa which has become a feminine equivalent of frith (m.), as well as the cognate freod (f.) borrowed from Frankish frede with the sense "affection, good will", but which latterly also acquired a sense of "peace" by association with freothu and frith. The primary sense of Run/rune/runa is "whisper", with derived senses of "something whispered", depending on the context a secret, confidence, counsel, mystery.

This message was edited 9/13/2017, 7:50 AM