Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 159

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 159

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/159

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 is the information we found on the name "Thjodric."

Because German and Old Norse are seperate languages, it's not feasible to interpolate between them. Therefore, the German spellings can't be combined with the Old Norse ones. Thus, we looked at the Scandinavian evidence for the name.

The basic form of the name you're looking for is "{Th}io{dh}rek." It has many spelling variants; we've included some which are found in Norway and Iceland between 1000 and 1400. (1) Ð/ð sounds like "th" in "then" and Þ/þ sounds like "th" in "thin."

Thus, we have individual examples for most of the variants you want to use-- "d" for "dh," "c" for "k," and "i" for "e." We also know that "j" was sometimes used for "i" in manuscripts. Thus, it's theoretically possible that the name could have been spelled "Thjodric." However, when there are a large number of actually documented variants to choose from, we recommend against making up a new, undocumented spelling. If you're looking for which variants to use, it may help you to know that "c/k" and "i/j" were interchangeable--"Thjodric" and "Thiodrik" are essentially the same.

We couldn't find any examples of sharks in medieval heraldry, so we can't say for certain how they would have been drawn. But we can make some suggestions based on the ways similar charges were used. Fish are rare charges in medieval heraldry, and (except for the dolphin) are drawn in a fairly naturalistic way. We would guess that a shark would be drawn to look like an actual shark. Almost all the examples of specific fish come from "canting" arms (arms which make a reference to the name of their bearer) and we would expect that medieval arms with a shark in them would have been used by someone with the nickname "shark."

Lindorm Eriksson, Arval D'Espas Nord, Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Rouland Carre, and Hartmann Rogge all contributed to this letter.

We hope this has been helpful. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel

(1) Lind, E. H. Norsk-Islandska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namm fran Medeltiden. Uppsala: 1905-1915.