ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1640 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1640 ************************************ 10 Apr 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked some questions about a Viking woman named , daughter of a man named , and particularly whether this name is possible for a woman living on the Isle of Mann before the year 1000. This letter is a brief answer to your questions. is pronounced \AHS-tah\, with both vowels similar to the in . A/sta daughter of Jo,rundr would have been called , pronounced \AHS-tah YOR-oon-dahr-DOAT-tihr\, with \oo\ as in [1]. The slash in the names represents an accent on the preceding letter, and the comma in represents a little backward-comma-shaped hook hanging off the bottom of the . In runes, this name could have been written [2]. As we explained in our last letter, we're representing each rune here by its name. You can find the younger futhark, the runic alphabet we're using, on the web: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/1568/ Viking invasions of the Isle of Mann began about 800, so it is certainly reasonable for you to use this name for a Norse woman living on Mann in the 10th century. We hope this brief letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Lindorm Eriksson and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 10 Apr 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] We previous documented and from E.H. Lind, _Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931), and Gillian Fellows Jensen, _Scandinavian Personal Names in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire_ (Copenhagen: 1968). [2] Uppsala University Department for Scandinavian Languages, _Rundata_, software pre-release version 8.84 (test) (Uppsala, Sweden: Uppsala universitet, 1990). The name is spelled several different ways in this database. We've chosen the most common spelling.