ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1415 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1415 ************************************ 4 Jan 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked if is a suitable name for a 9th to 11th century Viking. You also asked our opinion of your design for your arms: Yggdraasil, the world tree, flanked by Thor's hammer and the head of a dragon. Here is what we have found. is a late medieval spelling of a name that was spelled <{TH}o/ro/lfr> in your period. {TH} represents the letter thorn, written like a superimposed and

, sharing a single loop, and pronounced like the in , and the slash represents an accent over the preceding letter. The spelling you asked about didn't develop until after your period -- e.g. <{TH}orolfuer> 1305, <{TH}orollfur> 1348, in Norway and Iceland. You could anglicize your name or , but the correct Old Norse form is <{TH}o/ro/lfr>. This is a two-syllable name, \THOR-olfr\. The final is almost silent; it is an unvoiced rolled . In particular, it is _not_ a separate syllable. If you pronounce it simply \THOR-olf\, you won't be too far off [1, 2]. is a moderately common Old Norse name. {TH}o/ro/lfr the son of Ivarr would have been called <{TH}o/ro/lfr Ivarsson>, which is a fine choice for your period [1]. In your period, the Vikings wrote in runes. If you'd like to know a runic spelling appropriate to your period, please write us again. Heraldic arms were invented in northwestern France in the late 12th century. Since your persona is earlier than that, you obviously would not have used armory. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use arms in the Society: Many Societyfolk use arms even though their personas would not have done so. Whether you use arms or not depends on how you think about authenticity and your persona. You can find a few thoughts on this issue in an article we've posted on the web: What Do I Use for Arms if my Persona Wouldn't Have Used Arms? http://www.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/faq/nonheraldic.html If you do choose to use arms, then you'll have to pattern your arms after a style of heraldry from some culture other than your own. The design you described, a tree between a hammer and a dragon's head, is very unusual for any period heraldic style. Most medieval heraldic design stressed visual balance and simplicity. Early medieval arms, which are closest to being appropriate for your period, were particularly simple, usually with only one type of complex charge and perhaps a simple stripe across the shield in one direction or another. You may want to look at some examples of medieval arms, so that you can get an idea of the kinds of designs that they used. A very good place to look is "A Dictionary of Heraldry" by Joseph Foster [3]. It contains several thousand color drawings of 13th and 14th century English arms. A couple other sources are on the web: Die Wappenrolle von Zurich http://people.delphi.com/ivanor/zroaen0.htm Bigot Roll of Arms http://www.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/docs/bigot.html The first page contains a reproduction of a 14th century German roll of arms. The second contains a list of descriptions of 13th century French arms; if you understand heraldic blazonry, you may find it useful. A tree as the central charge in your arms is a fine choice, but we recommend that you drop the hammer and dragon's head to simplify the design. You might add a simple stripe across the top quarter of the field, called "a chief" in heraldry, like this: .-----------------. | | | |<---- This part is the chief |-----------------| | *** | | ***** | ` ******* '<---- The stars are the tree ` ***** ' ` * ' \ * / `. *** .' `-. .-' `v' With a gold background and a red tree and chief, this design would be described "Or, a tree and a chief gules". As far as we can tell, you could register it with the SCA College of Arms. You could probably register it in other color combinations, too, but we haven't checked all of them. By the way, we've described the tree just as "a tree", rather as "Yggdraasil". We're not sure how Yggdraasil is distinguished from any other tree and we doubt that the specific name would have been used in medieval heraldic blazon. We 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 Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Talan Gwynek, Lindorm Eriksson, Alan Fairfax, Margaret Makafee, and Walraven van Nijmegen. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 4 Jan 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Fleck, G. (aka Geirr Bassi Haraldsson), _The Old Norse Name_, Studia Marklandica (series) (Olney, Maryland: Yggsalr Press, 1977). [2] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931). [3] Foster, Joseph, _The Dictionary of Heraldry_ (New York: Arch Cape Press, 1989).