ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1122 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1122 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 30 Aug 1998 Here's the information we found on your registered SCA name, . You explained that you intend to mean 'one who lives near the ruins'. The Old English name <{AE}lfric> was in use by the early 7th century and was extremely common in the 200 years or so leading up to the Norman Conquest in 1066. [1, 2, 3] (Here <{AE}> represents the Old English letter aesc, the a-e-ligature formed by squashing together an and an so that they share a common upright.) The name continued in use after the Conquest, but, like most native Old English names, it gradually fell out of favor and eventually disappeared; our last example in any form is from 1332. [4] The Old English spelling <{AE}lfric> and its Latinized counterpart <{AE}lfricus> are occasionally still found in the first few decades after the Conquest; we found an instance of <{AE}lfric> recorded sometime during the period 1093-1109 and one of <{AE}lfricus> from sometime between about 1115 and 1130. [5, 6] We also found 1212 and, in a patronymic byname (i.e., one giving the name of the bearer's father), 1296. [8] For the most part, however, the name appears in the 12th and 13th centuries as or in the Latinized form . [4] Here the stands for the sound \v\, and in fact all of these forms were pronounced roughly \ALV-ritch\. We were unable to find the byname . There are more or less similar sounding bynames in several languages, but none of them has a meaning at all close to 'one who lives near the ruins', and only one is definitely compatible with something very close to <{AE}lfric>. There is an Old French masculine name that appears in English records as , among others; an early, Latinized instance of this type is 1212. [9] is therefore a possible early 13th century English name, but it means 'Alfric son of Mauger', not 'Alfric who lives near the ruins'. At that time was probably pronounced roughly \mow-DJAIR\, with \ow\ as in . Since <{AE}lfric> is Old English, we investigated the possibility of an Old English byname meaning something like 'one who lives near the ruins'. Old English 'a fortified place' is a common place-name element that often referred to a prehistoric earthwork or encampment or to a Roman fortification or camp. The name of Badbury in Wiltshire, for instance, is from Old English 'Badda's fortified place' and refers to a prominent 5th-4th century BCE Iron Age hill fort. Similarly, Aldborough in Yorkshire gets its name from Old English 'old fortification', referring to the site of the Roman town of Isurium. In fact Old English 'old' is not uncommon in place-names, where it usually refers to ancient and often disused forts and homesteads. Another place-name of the same type is modern , from Old English (or , depending on the dialect) 'old fortification'. [10, 11] Another Old English word that in place-names was commonly applied to ruins, and specifically to Roman sites, is '(Roman) city' (or in some dialects ), which was actually borrowed from Latin 'a camp'. Woodchester in Gloucestershire, for instance, was 'Roman settlement/ruin in the wood' to the Anglo-Saxons, presumably referring to the nearby remains of a Roman manor house. [11] A byname formed form any of these place-names would have suggested that the bearer lived near the remains of some sort of disused habitation or fortification. Old English bynames of this type are very similar to modern English expressions like 'of York', but there are a couple of small differences. First, a variety of prepositions were used; in our experience the two most common ones were <{ae}t> and , as in the following examples from a charter of the late 10th century: [12] Oswi on {AE}{dh}elingtune Oswi{dh} {ae}t {AE}thelingtune Clac {ae}t Byrnewillan Clac on Castre Grim on Castre Osulf on Castre {AE}lfweard on Dentune {AE}lfuuard {ae}t Dentune Steigncytel {ae}t Lullingtune {AE}tlebrant {ae}t Pilesgeate Sumerlyda {ae}t Stoce {AE}{dh}estan on Uptune (Here <{dh}> stands for the letter edh, which looks like a reversed <6> with a short stroke through the upright.) Secondly, the place-name undergoes small grammatical changes after the preposition; for instance, becomes , becomes , and becomes , as in some of the examples above. It's not clear to what extent the prepositions <{ae}t> and were interchangeable. Certainly they were to a considerable extent: and refer to the same person, as do <{AE}lfweard on Dentune> and <{AE}lfuuard {ae}t Dentune>. On the other hand, seems to be preferred with the place-name . On the whole, however, we think that any of the following would be reasonable 10th century Old English bynames based on the place-names , , and . {ae}t Aldebyrig on Aldebyrig {ae}t Aldeweorce (or <{ae}t Aldewerce>) on Aldeweorce (or ) on Wuduceastre Any of these may be combined with the given name <{AE}lfric> to produce a fine Old English name: <{AE}lfric {ae}t Aldebyrig>, <{AE}lfric on Aldewerc>, <{AE}lfric on Wuduceastre>, etc. Finally, we have not found the byname in any language. This is not surprising: medieval bynames of this type generally refer to specific occupations of economic significance to the community, like 'the weaver', 'the fisherman', 'the tailor', 'the maker or seller of gloves', and 'the wire-drawer'. Over the years many Society folk have tried without success to find period justification for the byname in some form. Of course we cannot absolutely guarantee that such a name was never used, but we are as sure as possible short of absolute proof that is not in any form an authentic English byname, and we cannot recommend its use. Arval Benicoeur, Alan Fairfax, and Brad Miller also contributed to this letter. We hope that it has been useful and that you'll not hesitate to write again if you have any further questions. Talan Gwynek 25 March 2005 ===== References: [1] Searle, William George. Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1897); s.n. <{AE}lfric>. [2] Stro"m, Hilmer. Old English Personal Names in Bede's History: An Etymological-Phonological Investigation. Lund Studies in English 8 (Lund: C.W.K. Gleerup, 1939); p. 158. (Here stands for o-umlaut, an with a diaresis over it.) [3] von Feilitzen, Olof. The Pre-Conquest Personal Names of Domesday Book (Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksells, 1937); pp. 176-180. [4] Selte/n, Bo. Anglo-Saxon Heritage in Middle English Personal Names, Volumes 1 & 2. (Lund, Sweden: Royal Society of Letters at Lund, 1979); II:18. (The slash stands for an acute accent over the preceding letter.) The 1332 name is . [5] Clark, Cecily. 'People and Languages in Post-Conquest Canterbury', in [7], 179-206; p. 186. [6] Clark, Cecily. 'The _Liber Vitae_ of Thorney Abbey and its "Catchment Area"', in [7], 320-338; p. 338. [7] Jackson, Peter, ed. Words, Names and History: Selected Writings of Cecily Clark (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1995). [8] Reaney, P.H. & R.M. Wilson. A Dictionary of English Surnames (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995); s.n. . [9] Ibid. s.n. . [10] Smith, A.H. English Place-Name Elements (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1956); s.vv. , . [11] Watts, Victor, ed. The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society (Cambridge University Press: January 2004); s.nn. , , , . [12] Sawyer 1448a, dated 983x985, which may be found at Sean Miller's site, Anglo-Saxons.net, at http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=seek&query=S+1448a [13] Reaney & Wilson, op. cit. s.nn. , , , , . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Rewrite, Arval, Mar 2005: This report was originally written in August 1998. After reviewing it, we decided to rewrite it completely. For archival value only, here is the original report, with some small revisions earlier the same month. Do not rely on the old version. Greetings, Here's the information we found on your registered SCA name, "AElfric Magor the Seeker." You explained that you intend to mean "one who lives near the ruins". <{AE}lfric> is an Old English name which was very common in the 9th, 10th, and early 11th centuries [4]. The symbol {AE} here represents the Old English letter aesc, which was written like an 'A' and 'E' squashed together so that they share a common vertical stroke. The name declined in popularity after the Norman Conquest in 1066, but we have found examples of it in England around 1110 and in the 12th century [1, 2]. We didn't find any clear reference for , so we're not sure what to say about it. We didn't find any evidence that connected it to the meaning "person who lives by ruins." There are a couple of similar names, but before making any guesses we need to know where you found it. We did not find as a name in English or any other language. Although "seek" is an English word, English names of this type were generally based on a person's occupation. Since seeking isn't an occupation, it is not surprising that doesn't show up as a name. Many SCA people have picked the name in some form, and many heralds have tried to find it with no success. It's never possible to say that a name absolutely wasn't used, but we're as sure as it's possible to be that was not used as a name. Since is Old English, we looked up some possiblilities for an Old English name that means "dweller by the ruins." The Old English words and were both used to describe fortifications that had fallen into disuse as well as newer structures. The Old English word was often used to describe ruined places as well. and both mean "ruined castle or fort" and could be the names of communities located near such a ruin. You could therefore get the meaning you want with the names or (the spelling of the place-name changes for grammatical reasons), either of which means "AElfric who lives at Aldecastre (or Aldeburg)" [3]. Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, and Brad Miller contributed to this letter. We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you. In service, Alan Fairfax Academy of S. Gabriel 30 Aug 1998 References [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Alberic. This is the Continental Germanic cognate of <{AE}lfric>. It is referenced here only for general information. [2] Cecily Clark, _Words, Names and History: Selected Papers_, ed. Peter Jackson (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1995), pp.237, 240, 271. [3] Smith, A.H., _English Place-Name Elements_ (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1956), s.vv. ald, burh, ceaster. [4] Searle, William George, _Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum_ (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1897), s.n. {AE}lfric.