The Waetlings, in Germanic myth, are those descended from Wade (or Wate), the Anglo-Saxon giant (also called dwarf or elf). In Teutonic myth, Wade is called Ivaldi, and his sons were famous smiths. He and his kin were friends of Thor and were called Keepers of the Ford. They protected the crossing of the Elivagar, the great river that flows from the Groenasund, through Midgard to Niflheim. According to myth, Wade carried his son Weyland across the deep Elivagar, on his shoulder. The Waetlings gave their name to Watling Street, the medieval English road that once divided the Danes in the north from the Anglo-Saxons in the south. Perhaps the Anglo-Saxons compared this long road to Elivagar, the great dividing river.

Wade's name was originally Vaðill, an old Germanic word meaning Keeper of the Ford. He gave his name to many place names in Denmark, including the city of Vejle, in Jutland. There are also places in England that owe their name to Wade and his son Weyland. The Danes brought the epithet to Normandy in 911 A.D., and it eventually became the English surname Vail.