ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1863 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1863 ************************************ From: "Sara L Friedemann" 15 Nov 1999 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if or a similar name was used in Norse between 1300 and 1600. Here is a quick letter with the information we have found. We did a report awhile ago on this name, and are enclosing a copy of the report. If you have any questions about it, please feel free to write us again! We also found an Old Norse name , spelled as in 1305 and or in 1482. [4] This would be an excellent name for your time period. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael ******** Academy of Saint Gabriel Client 1014 http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi?1014+0 Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked whether the name , which you found in a saga called 'Volundarkvida', is a valid given name for a Viking from about the year 800. 'Vo"lundarkvi{dh}a' [1] is a narrative poem that forms part of the Poetic Edda, which is a collection of mythology and heroic legend, not history [2]. Unfortunately, that means that it's not a reliable source of names that were actually used by the Vikings themselves. As the name implies, it contains a version of the tale of (to give the name its standard Old Norse form [3]). This , better known in English as , is a legendary and supernatural smith, and it appears that his name is strictly a mythological name ([4] s.n. Vo,lundr, [5] s.n. Weland). At this point you have a couple of choices. If you really like the idea of a Viking persona, you might consider using some similar Old Norse name that is actually known to have been used by real people. One good choice would be , a name that was quite popular in Viking times ([4] s.n. Ve/mundr). (The slash stands for an acute accent over the previous letter.) It was pronounced roughly \VAY-mundr\, where \u\ stands for the sound of in . The final \r\ is part of the same syllable as the \mund\; try to minimize any connecting vowel between the \d\ and the \r\. If you're interested in pursuing this option, we can suggest other names used in that period [6]. At that time a Viking name, if written down at all, would have been written in runes, and we can also show you how to do this. But if you really like the idea of sharing a name with the legendary smith, that can be done very authentically, even in Viking times; it just can't (so far as we can tell) be done within the Viking culture. He is a common Germanic figure, and stories were told about him not only by the Scandinavians, but also by the Anglo-Saxons and the Continental Germanic tribes ([7] s.v. Wayland). Various Continental Germanic forms of his name are attested in actual use during your period. From Gaul, for instance, we have the forms 772, 862, 799, 894, 764-92, n.d., 725, 927, 922, and 895 ([8], I:220a). (The final <-us> in some of these is a Latin ending added by the scribe, so that , for example, actually represents .) You can also find forms of the name elsewhere, especially in somewhat later periods. It reached England a bit before the Norman Conquest, since Domesday Book records a or who held land there in 1066 ([9] s.n. Weland). It remained in use there for quite a while ([10] s.n. Wayland): a is recorded in 1185, and as late as 1318 we find a , whose byname means 'the Smith'! In Germany the name remained popular into the 15th century in the form , and in 1341 in Freiburg we even find a 'master Wieland the Smith' ([11] s.n. Wieland). (The stories of Wayland were quite well known, and it seems likely that the contemporaries of these last two men enjoyed the joke.) Finally, we can place the name in Denmark, but not until the 15th century, when we find record of a 1475. Here the final stands for some form of the Danish word for 'son', and the man in question was 'Clemitt Vellannd's son' ([5], loc. cit.). To summarize: the Old Norse name appears to be strictly mythological in use, but closely related names were used by ordinary people in various places from at least the 8th to the 15th century. If the name and its associations are most important to you, we recommend choosing one of these forms and setting your persona in the appropriate culture. However, there are also Old Norse names actually used in the Viking period that are somewhat similar to ; if it's the Viking culture that matters most, we recommend choosing one of these. In either case we'll be happy to help you choose a historically appropriate byname. Arval Benicoeur, Modar Neznanich, and Zenobia Naphtali also contributed to this letter. We hope that it has been helpful (and not too discouraging!) and that you will write again if you have any further questions. For the Academy, Talan Gwynek ******** References and Notes: [1] Here represents o-umlaut, an with two dots side by side above it, and {dh} represents the letter edh. This letter is properly written like a backward <6> with a short bar across the curved upright. It is pronounced like the in . [2] 'Edda' Britannica Online. [Accessed 05 May 1998]. http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=micro/185/77.html [3] Here represents an with a reversed comma hanging from its lower edge. In Viking times this letter had roughly the sound of the in English . In many texts it is replaced with the modern Icelandic o-umlaut mentioned in note [1]. [4] Lind, E.H. Norsk-Isla"ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, suppl. Oslo, Uppsala and Copenhagen: 1931). [The is an a-umlaut; the is an with a small circle directly above it.] [5] Knudsen, G., M. Kristiansen, & R. Hornby. Danmarks Gamle Personnavne, Vol. I: Fornavne (Copenhagen: 1936-48). [6] You might in that case want to buy a copy of the pamphlet 'The Old Norse Name', by Geirr Bassi Haraldsson, which contains an extensive list of historical Old Norse names and instructions on how to form a complete Old Norse name. It's available very inexpensively from Black Sheep Books, 9850-3 San Jose Blvd, Jacksonville, FL 32257 (+1 904 880-1895). [7] The New Encyclopaedia Britannica. 15th ed. 30 vols. (Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1983). [8] Morlet, Marie-The/re\se. Les noms de personne sur le territoire de l'ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe sie\cle, 3 vols. (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1968, 1972, 1985). [Here the '\' stands for an accent grave over the previous letter.] [9] von Feilitzen, O. The Pre-Conquest Personal Names of Domesday Book (Uppsala: 1937). [10] Reaney, P.H., & R.M. Wilson. A Dictionary of English Surnames (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995). [11] Brechenmacher, J.K. Etymologisches Wo"rterbuch der Deutschen Familiennamen (Limburg a. d. Lahn, C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960).