Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 133

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 133

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/133

This is one of the Academy's earliest reports. We are not confident that these early reports are accurate. Please use it with caution.

Greetings,

Here's the information we have on the name "Liev Norgaard" and your device "Per bend sinister sable and Or, a wolf passant regardant and a Thor's hammer counterchanged."

We couldn't find any documentation for the spelling "Liev." We found many examples of the name "Leif." We found the variant "Laeif" and one example of "Lef," but no examples using either "ie" or "v." (1) We suspect that the name is either an Anglicized or modern Norwegian form of the "Leif." Names in Old Norse were followed with the grammatical suffix "r," so the most usual 10th-century forms of the name would be "Leifr" or "Laeifr." For diagrams on the appearance of your name in runes, see the Web page

http://www.kuai.sé%7Egriffon/runes/futhark/

"Norgaard" is also most likely a modern Norwegian surname. The name "Norgaard" is a reasonable medieval placename, but would probably have been used with the preposition "i," meaning "from." Thus, "Leifr i Norgaard" would be a reasonable name for 10th-century Scandinavia.

Your device is within SCA guidelines for armory, but it is not a very likely medieval coat of arms. Designs which use two different charges in different halves of the field are extremely common in the SCA and extremely rare in period heraldry--we've looked through thousands of examples of period heraldry and have found only one late-period coat of arms which used this arrangement. We also didn't any examples of Thor's hammers used in period heraldry. If you're interested in using a design that follows period heraldic style we would recommend dropping the Thor's hammer--perhaps using "Per fess sable and Or, two wolves passant regardant counterchanged."

You should be aware that heraldry, as we know it, did not exist in the 10th century. People in Scandinavia and elsewhere painted their shields, but the language and rules of heraldry had not developed. Thus, you may not want to use formal arms at all, or you may wish to research Viking shields and use Old Norse design elements in your arms. Whatever you do, we would be happy to provide further assistance. A more detailed description of options for people with non-heraldic personas is on our Web site at:

http://www.itd.umich.edú~ximenez/s.gabriel/faq-nonheraldic.html

We hope this has been helpful.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel