ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1032 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1032 ************************************ From: "S Friedemann" 21 Jul 1998 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked on the behalf of a friend about the name , which your friend wants to use as a Swedish masculine name in the Viking Age. You said that he believes is a Swedish cognate of , and wants a compatible byname that reflected his height and size. Here is the information we have found. We could not find in Swedish or in any Scandinavian language. If your friend can tell us where he found it, perhaps we can learn more about it. The Swedish cognate of is . [1] is a name of Christian origin, so it only came into use after the arrival of Christianity in the 11th century, but after that, would be a fine Swedish name. There are a number of examples of animals being used in bynames in Swedish names. The closest to that we found is . [2] For a medieval name, would be the expected form; for a late Viking age name, either or would be usual. We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Arval Benicoeur, Lindorm Eriksson, Talan Gwynek, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Walraven van Nijmege, and Zenobia Naphtali. For the Academy --Aryanhwy Prytydes merch Catmael July 21, 1998 -------------------------------------------------- References: [1] Romson, C. private communication. [2] Fleck, G. (aka Geirr Bassi Haraldsson), _The Old Norse Name_, Studia Marklandica (series) (Olney, Maryland: Yggsalr Press, 1977). [3] Modeer, Ivar, _Svenska Personnamn: Handbok for universitetsbruk och sjalvstudier a v Ivar Modeer utgiven av Roger Sundqvist och Carl-Erik Thors med en bibliografi av Roland Otterbjork som kompletterats och omarbetats av Sigurd Fries_, 3rd ed., Anthroponymica Suecana 5 (Lund: Studentlitteratur 1989, ISBN 91-44-29033-0).