ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1434 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1434 ************************************ 3 Mar 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked about the first name and a second name indicating you were the sister of a Viking named Ivar (suggesting ). We are assuming you are interested in a Scandinavian name that was in use during the Viking era, covering approximately the 8th to the 11th century A.D., without any particular group (Icelanders, Danes, etc.) in mind. is a late period Danish feminine name. We were able to find three different women with this name in 1484, 1488 and 1490. [1] We were also able to find <{Th}y/re> or <{Th}y/rve> which are feminine names used in 10th century Denmark [2, 3]. (The {TH} represents the letter thorn, which looks rather like a 'p' with the left line lengthened to make it taller with the loop in the middle. It is pronounced like the in . The slash ("/") represents an accent on the preceding letter.) Therefore, we cannot say was used by Scandinavian women during the Viking era, although it was used later. If you want to keep the name , we recommend moving your persona to late period Denmark. If you want to be from the Viking age, we recommend using the name <{Th}y/re> or <{Th}y/rve>. <{Th}y/re> is pronounced \THU:R-@\ and <{Th}y/rve> \THU:R-v@\, where \TH\ is as in , \U:\ is the sound of the German u-umlaut in and \@\ is the sound of the "a" in . For some other possibilities, you may want to look at some of the lists of names linked on the "Medieval Naming Guides: Scandinavian Names" on Arval's Medieval Name Site at http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/scandinavian.html During the Viking era, there were no fixed "last names." Instead, people of the same first name would be usually distinguished by naming their fathers as well, a naming convention referred to as a "patronymic." Therefore, the most common way to indicate a brother-sister relationship was to refer to both of them with their father's name. If you (let's just use <{Th}y/re> as your name for convenience here) and your brother Ivar were born of a father named , you would be <{Th}y/re Gunnardo/ttir> and your brother . However, we did find two Viking Age runic inscriptions which refer to a woman as her brother's sister [3]: Ginnlaug Holmgaeirs dottir systir Sigroedhar (meaning 'Ginnlaug, Holmgaeir's daughter, Sigroedh's sister') Ragnhildr systir Ulfs (meaning 'Ragnhild, Ulf's sister') Because of the amorphous nature of this type of naming, it's difficult to sort out whether this means "Ragnhildr, Ulf's sister" just as you'd say "I'm {Th}y/re, Ivar's sister" in modern English or whether it means "Ragnhildr Ulfssystir" as in "My name is {Th}y/re Ivarssystir." Since all 'last' names were pretty much just descriptions of one kind or another, it does appear that this is a kind of byname, though a very rare kind. If you want to use it, the form would be , , or . To summarize: is a fine 15th century Danish woman's name. However, a woman of that period would not have been known as her brother's sister. She would most likely have been known as her father's daughter. A name like would be a fine choice for this period. If you want to keep your persona in the Viking period, then you might choose to call yourself <{TH}y/re Ivars systir>. It would be most authentic for you also to choose a patronymic, e.g. <{TH}y/re Gunnars do/ttir>. You could use the two bynames interchangably. If you decide to use a Viking Age name, you will probably want to know how to write it in runes, as that was the writing system used by Norsemen for their names. Runes were still in limited use in the 15th century, but Latin letters were more common at that time. If you'd like help with writing your name in runes once you've decided on a name, please contact us again and we'll be glad to help you with it. We hope this letter has been helpful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. Arval Benicoeur, Margaret Makafee, Blaise de Cormeilles, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Caelin of Andred, Talan Gwynek, Rouland Carre, and Lindorm Eriksson contributed comments and/or research for this letter. For the Academy, AElfwyn aet Gyrwum 3 Mar 1999 __________________ References: [1] Knudsen Gunnar, Marius Kristiansen, & Rikard Hornby, _Danmarks Gamle Personnavne_, Vol. I: Fornavne (Copenhagen: 1936-48). [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] Uppsala University Department for Scandinavian Languages, _Rundata_, software pre-release version 8.84 (test)(Uppsala, Sweden: Uppsala universitet, 1990) U617, Dr230. Accessible at: http://www.nordiska.uu.se/samnord.html