ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1216
http://www.s-gabriel.org/1216
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29 Aug 1998
From: Braddon Giles 

Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked us for assistance in constructing and documenting a woman's
name in Norse or Icelandic, in the period 700 to 1100.  You were
interested in the given name <Asta>, with your father's name either
<Jorund> or <Thord>.  This is what we found.

Before we start, we would like to thank you for providing so much
information about your sources and preferences.  Our task was made so
much easier, and we hope that we are better able to answer your question
to your satisfaction.  For your information, the book you used as a
source anglicized the names by dropping some grammatical marks from the
names.

Your choice of given name, <A/sta>, is a very good one.  The slash
indicates an accent over the previous letter.  It is pronounced
\AHS-tah\, and is recorded in early histories and continues at least
into the 15th century [1].

For your father's given name you were interested in either <Jorund> or
<Thord>.  In <Jorund> the <J> is indeed pronounced \y\ as in <yes>.  As
you said you preferred the 'J' to be hard as in <judge>, this name
doesn't meet your requirements.  The Norse form of the name is
<Jo,rundr> or <Io,rundr>, where the comma  represents the little
backward-comma-shaped hook hanging off the bottom of the <o>; in Norse
it is pronounced like the vowel in <four>.  The name is pronounced
\YOR-oond-r\, with \oo\ as in <book> and the final \r\ barely pronounced
[2].

Your next choice was Thord.  The standard Old Norse form is
<{TH}o/r{dh}r>, where {TH} and {dh} are the Norse letters thorn and edh,
pronounced like the <th> in <thing> and <this>, respectively. I will
discuss how they were written later.  Our research shows that this name
was very common in both Iceland and Norway, and that forms of it
appeared in Sweden, Denmark and England [2].

Your idea of how to put your name together is basically right.  Your
patronymic (the part of your name that identifies your father) is formed
from the possessive form of your father's given name.  Some Norse names
have possessives ending in <s> as in English, but not all, and not this
one.  If your father were named <{TH}o/r{dh}r>, you would be called
<A/sta {TH}o/r{dh}ardo/ttir>.  

To summarize, we feel that <A/sta {TH}o/r{dh}ardo/ttir> would be an
excellent choice for you.  The name is pronounced \AHS-tah
THOR-dhar-DOAT-tihr\, with the emphasis on the capitalized syllables,
\dh\ pronounced as the <th> in <this>, \OA\ as in <boat> and \ih\ as the
<i> in <pick>.

You have several choices in how to write your name.  The genuine Norse
representation for your period is in runes.  If you would like to
represent your name in runic form, we suggest that you view this site,
and examine the futhark, which corresponds to our alphabet:

     http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/1568/

Your name would be spelled as <asta {th}ur{th}artutir> in the younger
futhark, which is appropriate for your period. Simply swap the letters
for the appropriate runes, but beware. There are two a-runes and two
r-runes in the younger futhark.  All three <a>s in your name should be
written with the 10th rune rather than the 4th, and both <r>s with the
5th rather than the 16th rune.  This spelling is only valid for runes,
not latin letters [2].  

The normalized form, <A/sta {TH}or{dh}ardo/ttir>, is useful if you have
to explain the name to someone who doesn't read runes: it's the
standard, scholarly form of the name.  Thorn {TH} is written like a
superimposed <b> and <p>, drawn with a single loop and extending both
above and below.  Edh {dh} is drawn like a backward 6 with a cross-bar
on the upper limb.

There may be times, as in e-mail, when runes and even the thorn and edh
are inconvenient or simply unavailable.  At such times you may wish to
write the name <Asta Thordhardottir>, which is actually one of a number
of possible 14th century spelling variants.

I hope this letter has been useful.  Please write us again if any part
of it has been unclear or if you have other questions.  I was assisted
in researching and writing this letter by Lindorm Eriksson, Talan Gwynek
and Arval d'Espas Nord.

For the Academy,

Giles Leabrook.



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References:


[1] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n
Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and
Kobenhavn: 1931).

[2] Fellows Jensen, Gillian, _Scandinavian Personal Names in
Lincolnshire and Yorkshire_ (Copenhagen: 1968).