Flude in literature

I have just found references to use of the word 'Flude' in medieval and later literature - both are in the context of Noah's Flood, 'The good gossippe souge The flude comes flittinge in full faste, On everye syde that spreades full farre; For feare of drowninge I am agaste; Good gossippes, lett us drawe here, And lett us drinke or [ere] we departe, For ofte tymes we have done see. For att a draughte thou drinkes a quarte, A ND soe will I doe or I gee. Heare is a pottill full of malmsine, good and stronge; Itt will rejoice Louth hearte and tonge; Though Noye thinke us never so longe, Heare we will drinke alike.' For first the sun in hys uprising obscurate Shall be, and passé the waters of Noa’s flude, On erth which were a hundred days continueate And fifty, away or all thys waters yode, Ryght so on our waters, as wise men understode, Shall pass: that thou, with David, may say Abierunt in sicco flumina, etc (63). From Mary Anne Atwood Hermetic Philosophy & Alchemy So if some people at least spelt flood flude and makes it more likely that at some point flude may have come from people leaving by a swollen river or a flude. I had thought that the difference in pronouciation between flood and flude meant that they might have had different derivations but use of the word flude in literature to mean flood suggests not. Also looked at Michael flude's history http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/flude/narative0.htm This one champions the derivation from Lloyd http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/flude/Surname1.htm Although if you look at http://www.spatial-literacy.org/UCLnames/Surnames.aspx and look at distribution of fludes, floods and lloyds: You can see that Lloyd and flude have nowhere near any similarity in distribution. Flude and Flood do not have a similar distribution either - suggesting either that this reflects different pronouciation areas or that they came from difference sources. kevin Family History Surname: Flood. Flood (also recorded as Floud, Fludd and Flude) is a topographical surname denoting someone who originally lived near a small stream or spring - 'dweller by the stream or channel'. It can also be a Welsh variation of Lloyd. One of the earliest bearers of this surname is Wigot de la Flode in the 1198 Pipe Rolls of Berkshire.