ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1953 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1953 ************************************ From: "Sara L Friedemann" 11 Feb 2000 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked the name could have been used by a woman born near Birka in the late 900s/early 1000s. Here is a brief letter with the information we have found. We were unable to find or anything similar in our Norse name sources. It is possible that the pamphlet in which you found it had it as an error for , which the Roman writer Tacitus gave as the name of a 1st century prophetess of a Germanic tribe. [1] Barring futher evidence, neither nor would be appropriate names for a Norse woman. There are a number of Norse feminine names beginning with that you may be interested in as alternatives [2]: Valdi/s Valger{dh}r Ve/di/s Ve/laug Ve/ny/ Vigdi/s Vilborg Vilger{dh}r In these names, the slash represents an accent over the previous letter, and {dh} represents the letter edh, which looks like a backward <6> with a cross-bar and is pronounced like in . Any of these names would be appropriate for a Norse woman living in your period. For information on Norse surnames, we recommend you read the following article: "A Simple Guide to Creating Old Norse Names" http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/sg-viking.html We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Maridonna Benvenuti, Talan Gwynek, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, and Arval Benicoeur. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 11Feb00 --------------------------------------- References & Notes: [1] Tacitus, _Agricola; Germania; Dialogus_ (Harvard University Press, Loeb Classical Library: 1970) [2] Aryanhwy merch Catmael, "Viking Names found in the Landna/mabo/k" (WWW: privately published, 1998). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/landnamabok.html