ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1162 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1162 ************************************ From: "S Friedemann" 16 Aug 1998 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if would have been used as a Swedish or Danish masculine name between 500 and 1050. Here is the information we have found. was the name of a Hebrew prophet, an author of one of the books in the Old Testament, but we found no evidence that this name was used in Norse society or, in fact, anywhere in medieval Europe. The Norse did use some Biblical names after their conversion to Christianity around 1000, but as in all parts of medieval Christendom, they primarily used New Testament names. The few Old Testament names that were used had important Christian symbolism. We found a few similar names that you might be interested in instead: , , (where the "/" represents an accent over the 'a') [1], , (also spelled ), and . [2] Prior to the introduction of Christianity, it is unlikely that the Danes would have had any concept of "hell-bound," which makes an unlikely byname (nickname). We do, however, have four examples of the byname "godless." [2] The {dh} stands for the Norse letter , which looks like a with the top line curving to the left and crossed with a second line. It is pronounced as in . In period, a Dane would not have been known as "the Dane" in English, unless he was living in England. Rather, if he was a Dane living in Scandinavia, he would be known as "the Dane" in one of the Scandinavian languages. Such bynames that we found are "Dane, from Denmark" and "Sealander, Dane." [2] The {ae} represents the a-e ligature where the two letters are attached up the middle to form one letter. 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 Lindorm Eriksson, Talan Gwynek, Walraven van Nijmegen, and Arval Benicoeur. For the Academy, --Arianuia filia Catmail August 16, 1998 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Geirr Bassi Haraldsson (pseudonym for G. Fleck), _The Old Norse Name_, Studia Marklandica I (Olney, Maryland: Yggsalr Press, 1977). [2] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Islandska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fran Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenahavn: 1931)