ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2023 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2023 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 22 May 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a Viking man living between 780 and 1066 and, if so, how it was written in runes. Here is what we have found. Unfortunately, you've chosen a name which would be perfect for 15th or 16th century Scandinavia, but isn't appropriate for the Viking period. is a late-period form of . It is recorded in Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Sweden in the 15th century, and we found one instance in Sweden in 1375 [1, 2, 3]. The earlier form, , was reasonably common in Viking culture, so it would be a fine choice [4]. The Latin name was first adopted in Western Scandinavia in the 11th century in the form or ; the slash represents a sharp accent mark on the preceding letter [5]. Toward the end of your period, would be an appropriate name. It would have been pronounced \GOO-nar YOE-ahns sohn\. (The runic spellings we found in reference [6] suggest that the 'h' was silent.) In your period, the Vikings usually wrote with a runic alphabet called the futhark that had 16 runes. We can't reproduce them in this letter, so we'll represent them with the Roman letters by which they are conventionally named. That is to say, we'll use for the k-rune, for the i-rune, and so on. The futharks from your period contained two a-runes and two r-runes. The a-runes are distinguished as and , where represents an 'a' with a small hook hanging from its base; and the r-runes are distinguished as and . Note that this encoding of runes would never have been used in period. You can find an illustration of several versions of the futhark on the web: http://ils.unc.edu/~yanda/futhark.html You'll could use the Danish, Swedish-Norwegian, Mixed, or Halsinge futhark for your entire period, and the Dotted Rune futhark after the mid-10th century. By far the most common runic spelling of your given name is . The predominant spellings of were and . The full name could have been written two ways: or [6]. Note that letters weren't doubled in runic writing, which is why contracts to . We hope this letter has been useful. Please write 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 Hartmann Rogge, Talan Gwynek, Lindorm Eriksson, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, and Adelaide de Beaumont. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 22 May 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931). s.n. Gunnarr. [2] Knudsen Gunnar, Marius Kristiansen, & Rikard Hornby, _Danmarks Gamle Personnavne_, Vol. I: Fornavne (Copenhagen: 1936-48). s.n. Gunnar [3] _Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn_, bd. 1, h.8 (Uppsala: 1967), s.n. Gunnarr. [4] Aryanhwy merch Catmael, "Viking Names found in the Landna/mabo/k" (WWW: Privately published, 1998). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/landnamabok.html [5] Lind, op. cit., s.n. Ioha/n. [6] Uppsala University Department for Scandinavian Languages, "Samnordisk runtextdatabas" (WWW: Uppsala universitet, 29 Oct 1997), search patterns "Gunnarr" and "Johan". The latter found these entries: O"G 231 $ iyan, U 50 iuan, U 179 ioan, U 216 iuan, U 337 iohan, U 547 ioan, U 565 # ioan, U 572 ioan, VS 20 iuon. Note that this database uses a different convention for labelling runes, particularly using for . http://www.nordiska.uu.se/forskn/samnord.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, Arval, 25 Jan 2005: Fixed a typo in note [6].