ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1799 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1799 ************************************ From: "Braddon Giles" 12 Nov 1999 Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel. You wanted to know whether would be an appropriate name for a Norse man at some time in the SCA period. Like all languages that existed through the 1,000-year period that the SCA studies, Norse went through many changes between 600 and 1600. Variations on both names you mention occurred from the Viking age to the modern day. As you have stated an interest in a particular spelling, we can tell you when and where it would have been mostly likely. The spelling is recorded as early as 1376 and has survived to be the modern form. Other variants of this name are found as far back as the Viking age, to at least 900. [1] Norse men were frequently referred to as their fathers' sons. As you suggest in your letter, a byname in which <-son> is added to the father's name indicates this relationship. The correct grammar has the father's name in the genitive, or possessive, form. The name was extremely popular in Norway and Iceland right through the Middle Ages in a variety of forms; the modern appeared by about 1300. The <{dh}> stands for the Norse letter "edh". [2] The genitive form was originally , making the patronymic . However, we have found in 1346, so the patronymic byname would be appropriate after then. [1,3] The specific form is therefore a very authentic name for any period from the second half of the 14th century on past the end of the SCA period in Norway. In earlier periods slightly different forms of the name would be more appropriate. If you find yourself interested in an earlier form, please let us know what period interests you, and we'll suggest suitable modifications. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write to 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 Talan Gwynek, Hartmann Rogge, Talorgen nei Wrguist, Arval d'Espas Nord, Lindorm Eriksson and AElfwyn aet Gywrum. For the Academy, Giles Leabrook. 12/ Nov /99 _____________________________________________________________ Bibliography. [1] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931). [2] "Edh" is a Norse letter that is not used in modern English. It is drawn like a backwards <6> with a short crossbar through the upright, and is pronounced like the "th" in . [3] Bjerke, Robert, _A Contrastive Study of Old German and Old Norwegian Kinship Terms. Indiana University Publications in Anthropology and Linguistics_, Memoir 22 of the International Journal of American Linguistics. (Baltimore: Waverly Press, Inc., 1969).