ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1338 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1338 ************************************ From: "Brian M. Scott" 30 Oct 1998 Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked for information about the name , which you thought was an Old English (Anglo-Saxon) name from about 450 CE. The earliest examples of that we have found are in Domesday Book, which was compiled about 1086. The name, which appears more frequently as or , is derived from the Old Norse name . (The slash stands for an acute accent over the preceding letter.) The substitution of for after a vowel is an Anglo-Norman phenomenon that can also be observed in other names in Domesday Book. [1] Because is an Anglo-Norman spelling, it cannot be any earlier than the 11th century. The other examples that we found are examples of the same Anglo-Norman phenomenon. They are from Geoffrey of Monmouth's 'History of the Kings of Britain', which was composed during the first half of the 12th century. In this work, which is a fascinating mixture of traditional history, legend, and pure invention, Geoffrey makes Colgrin the leader of the invading Saxons after the death of Uther Pendragon. [2] This is probably the source of the idea that is an Old English name from c.450, since that is the traditional date for the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in England. [3] To sum up, is an Anglo-Norman variant of . This, though not an Old English name, is an Old English spelling of , a name brought to England by the Scandinavians in the 9th and 10th centuries. Unaware of its actual origin, Geoffrey of Monmouth used the name for a fictional 5th century Saxon. However, 12th century records of real people consistently give the name as , , , and similar forms with final . For this reason we think that may have been purely a written form representing a spoken . At any rate, apart from Geoffrey's work it doesn't seem to have survived beyond the middle of the 12th century. Indeed, the name in any form seems to have gone out of use in England during the course of the 13th century. [4] Arval Benicoeur also contributed to this letter. We hope that we've answered your question; if anything remains unclear, or if you have further questions, please don't hesitate to write again. For the Academy, Talan Gwynek ===== References: [1] von Feilitzen, O. The Pre-Conquest Personal Names of Domesday Book (Uppsala: 1937); s.n. Kolgri/mr; p. 84. [2] Geoffrey of Monmouth. History of the Kings of Britain. Trans. by Sebastian Evans, rev. by Charles W. Dunn (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1958); pp. xvi-xvii; Bk. IX, Ch. 1, 4. [3] Robinson, Orrin W. Old English and Its Closest Relatives (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992); p. 136. Archaeological evidence indicates that although there were some Germanic settlers in England in the late 4th century, the big influx did indeed come in the middle of the 5th century. [4] Fellows Jensen, Gillian. Scandinavian Personal Names in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire (Copenhagen: 1968); s.n. Kolgrri/mr.