ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1525 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1525 ************************************ From: "Brian M. Scott" 14 Mar 1999 Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked for information on behalf of a client who is looking at as an Old Norse masculine name of no particular date. You mentioned that he wants to document it by arguing that Native Americans named themselves after animals, and Vikings had contact with Native Americans. We found no evidence that the Old Norse word 'poet' was used as a given (first) name. [1, 2] (The slash stands for an acute accent over the preceding vowel.) It was, however, used as an epithet placed in front of the given name: 'Poet-Hrafn' and 'Poet-Torfa' both lived about the year 1000, and there are several other examples of the epithet as well. (Here and are masculine and feminine given names respectively.) [3] is Continental Germanic, not Old Norse; the corresponding Old Norse name is , related to the common noun 'wolf'. It's a very old name that was common throughout Scandinavia. A man named who was a notable poet might well have been called 'Poet-U/lfr'. This name meets the two-element requirement for SCA registration, but an authentic name for a skald would probably include a patronymic byname, i.e., one describing him as his father's son. [5] If, for instance, his father's name were , his name in full would be 'Poet-U/lfr son of Brynio/lf'. [2] Reversing the given name and father's name, we get the equally authentic 'Poet-Brynio/lfr son of U/lfr'; this construction would let your client use a genuine Old Norse form of the patronymic . Of course any other Old Norse man's name can be substituted for in these examples. You can find a list of such names on the Web at http://www.wctc.net/~randomsf/landnamabok.htm For the sake of completeness I mention yet a third possibility. The epithet can also be placed after the given name (and before the patronymic, if any), as in 'Brynio/lfr [the] poet, son of U/lfr'. [4] As you suspected, your client's proposed justification simply doesn't work. First, we know nothing about the language or naming practices of the Native Americans with whom the Norse came into contact. Secondly, what little we know about such contact makes the idea of a Norseman (by culture) named for his Native American father seem very unlikely indeed. But most important, we have evidence that Norse naming didn't work this way. The Norse occasionally borrowed foreign names, especially from the Irish, but they didn't translate them; instead they made minor modifications to fit them to Norse pronunciation and grammar, turning Irish , for instance, into . [2] Hartmann Rogge, Lindorm Eriksson, Arval Benicoeur, Evan da Collaureo, and Alan Fairfax also contributed to this report. We hope that it has been useful and that you'll not hesitate to write again if you've any further questions. For the Academy, Talan Gwynek 14 March 1999 ===== References: [1] Cleasby, R., G. Vigfusson, & W. Craigie. An Icelandic-English Dictionary (Oxford: At the University Press, 1975); s.v. . [2] Lind, E.H. Norsk-Isla"ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, suppl. Oslo, Uppsala and Copenhagen: 1931); s.nn , , . [The is an a-umlaut; the is an with a small circle directly above it.] [3] Lind, E.H. Norsk-Isla"ndska Personbinamn fra*n Medeltiden (Uppsala: 1920-1921); s.nn. , . [4] Mode/er, Ivar. Svenska Personnamn: Handbok fo"r universitetsbruk och sja"lvstudier av Ivar Modeer utgiven av Roger Sundqvist och Carl-Erik Thors med en bibliografi av Roland Otterbjo"rk som kompletterats och omarbetats av Sigurd Fries. 3rd ed. Anthroponymica Suecana 5 (Lund: Studentlitteratur 1989, ISBN 91-44-29033-0); p. 105. [5] Family was extremely important in early Scandinavian society, and it seems to have been extremely rare for a man of any standing not to have been known as the son of his father (or occasionally his mother). A notable poet would have been a man of some consequence.