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Greetings! You asked about the female viking name 'Ashildr Skinkicker' and the arms 'Per pale azure and sable, a sun Or and an increscent moon argent'. We are still looking into the pronouciation and runic spelling of 'Ashildr', but have some information we want to share at this stage.
You may want to consider whether or not you want to have arms at all. Heraldry wasn't invented until the 12th century, so no Viking person would have had arms as we think of them today. However, many SCA people use arms designed in the style used through most of Europe during the Middle Ages, which is considered to be the "default" heraldic style. A more complete discussion of the possibilities is on our Web page at
http://www.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/faq/nonheraldic.html
If you want to use a Viking-age shield decoration as your arms we can try to find some information on that. Unfortunately, we haven't seen as many examples of viking shields, as medieval heraldry, and thus can't promise that we'll find anything.
If you want to have typical medieval heraldry, the arms you suggested have some problems. They look as if they combine one device in the left half and another in the right half. This was a standard way of combining the shields of a wife and a husband or a mother and a father during the middle ages, and it implies a form of noble birth which is often considered improper in the Society. The College of Arms does not register such designs.
The kind of celestial design is very atypical of period heraldry (and badly overused in the Society). If you decide to design arms in the medieval style, we suggest that you look at some coats from the period before you design yours. 'The Dictionary of Heraldry' by J. Foster (also known as 'Some Feudal Coats of Arms') is a good place to start. You may also want to visit the following web page of medieval heraldry:
http://people.delphi.com/ivanor/
The name 'Ashildr' is found twice in sagas about the Viking-age colonization of Iceland written during the 13th century (1). It's also found as a Norwegian, Icelandic and Swedish name during the middle ages (1, 2). The name is a compound of the initial element As- and the final element -hildr. Both of these name elements are found in many viking age names throughout Scandinavia (3a-b, 4a-h, 5a-c).
Bynames constructed from habits or particular incidents such as your 'Shinkicker' are sometimes met with during the Viking-age. The grammatical construction 'shinkicker' from 'to kick shins' is also met with. Other similar constructions are 'Field-destroyer', 'Bow-swayer', 'Fence-breaker', 'Cairn-breaker', 'String-shaker' and 'Cod-biter' (6). This is a rare, but quite acceptable type of byname.
There are different schools of thought regarding translations of bynames. Some people think it's better to have the byname in the same language as the rest of the name. In your case this would mean translating it into Old Norse. The other school of thought beleives that since the byname had meaning and was understood by the speakers, it should be in the language the people in your local group understands. This would mean keeping it in English. Either form can be registered with the College of Arms.
We hope this will be of assistance. We'd be happy to help with your arms, or translating 'Shinkicker' into Old Norse. If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to call us again! We'll write to you regarding the pronouciation and spelling of 'Ashildr' in a couple of weeks.
Arval d'Espas Nord, Lindorm Eriksson, Alan Fairfax, Rouland Kerr and Angus Scrymgeour all helped with the research for this letter.
Congratulations for chosing a good name for yourself!
In service,
Lindorm Eriksson,
Academy of S. Gabriels
Sources:
(1) Lind, E. H.: 'Norsk-Islandska dopnamn och fingerade namn fran medeltiden', Uppsala 1905-15. Column 72, under 'A/shildr' and 'A/shilda'.
(2) Janzen, A.: De fornsvenska personnamnen, p. 257. In 'Personnamn' (Nordisk Kultur 7). Stockholm, Oslo, Kobenhavn 1947.
(3a) Jacobsen, L., Moltke, E.: 'Danmarks Runeindskrifter. Ved Lis Jacobsen og Erik Moltke under medvirkning af Anders Baeksted og Karl Martin Nielsen', Kobenhavn 1941-42. Vol. "Text", "Ord- og navnforrad" (=Index of words and names) col. 632-633 under "As-", col. 657 under "Gunhildr", col. 696 under "Ragnhildr" and col. 746 under "AEs-".
(3b) ib. Vol. "Registre", "Ordregistre" (=Index of words) col. 67-68 under "As-", col. 75 under "Gunhildr", col. 87 under "Ragnhildr" and col. 99-100 under "AEs-".
(4a) Soderber, S., Brate, E.: 'Olands Runinskrifter' (Sveriges Runinskrifter 1), Stockholm 1900-06. "Ordforteckning" (Index of Words) p. 144-148.
(4b) Brate, E.: 'Ostergotlands Runinskrifter' (Sveriges Runinskrifter 2), Stockholm 1911. "Ordforteckning" (Index of Words) p. 256-266.
(4c) Brate, E., Wessen, E.: 'Sodermanlands Runinskrifter' (Sveriges Runinskrifter 3), Stockholm 1924-36. "Egennamn" (Index of Personal Names and Place Names) p. 419-425.
(4d) Kinander, R.: 'Smalands Runinskrifter' (Sveriges Runinskrifter 4), Stockholm 1935-61. "Egennamn" (Index of Personal Names and Place Names) p. 338-340.
(4e) Svardstrom, E., Jungner, H.: 'Vastergotlands Runinskrifter' (Sveriges Runinskrifter 5), Stockholm 1940-70. "Egennamn" (Index of Personal Names and Place Names) p 496-499.
(4f) Wessen, E., Jansson, S. B. F.: 'Upplands Runinskrifter 1-4' (Sveriges Runinskrifter 6-9), Stockholm 1940-58. "Egennamn" (Index of Personal Names and Place Names) v. 1, p. 482-486, v. 2, p. 529-533, v. 3, p. 673-678, v. 4, p. 681-685,.
(4g) Jansson, S. B. F.: 'Varmlands Runinskrifter' (Sveriges Runinskrifter 14:2), Stockholm 1978, ISBN 91-7402-066-8. Inscription number 'Va 3', p. 61-69.
(4h) Jansson, S. B. F.: 'Gastriklands Runinskrifter' (Sveriges Runinskrifter 15:1), Stockholm 1981, ISBN 91-7402-124-9. "Egennamn" (Index of Personal Names and Place Names) p. 228.
(5a) Olsen, M.: 'Norges Innskrifter med de Yngre Runer. Utgitt for kjeldskriftfundet med hjelp i forarbeider av Sophus Bugge, Oluf Rygh og Ingvald Undset ved Magnus Olsen'. Vol 1, Oslo 1941, pp. 31, 198
(5b) ib. Vol. 3 'Tredje bind, VIII. Aust-Agder Fylke, IX. Vest-Agder Fylke, X. Rogaland Fylke. Under medvirkning av Aslak Liestol', Oslo 1954, pp. 150, 159
(5c) ib. Vol. 5 'Femte bind, XIV. Sor-Trondelag Fylke, XV. Nord-Trondelag Fylke, XVI. Nordland Fylke XVII. Troms Fylke. Under medvirkning av Aslak Liestol', Oslo 1960, p. 224.
(6) Haraldsson, G. B. (pseudonym for Fleck, H.): 'The Old Norse Name' (Studia Marklandica 1), privately published 1977. Page 19-29, under 'akraspillir', 'bogsveigir', 'gardhabrjotr', 'haugarbjotr', 'thambarskelmir' and 'thorskabitr' (with 'th' representing the 'thorn' character).