ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2142 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2142 ************************************ 12 Oct 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is a correct Old Norse name. It is an excellent choice. In this letter, we're using the symbol to represent an 'O' with an umlaut, for a 'u' with an acute accent mark, and for an 'O' with a backward-comma-shaped hook hanging from the bottom of the letter. The O-hook, used in medieval Norse, was replaced by O-umlaut in some modern Scandinavian languages. was used as early as c.900 and continued in use through the Middle Ages in Norway and Iceland. The spelling is more typical of the early end of that span; later in the period, the name usually appears as . However, the earlier spelling was recorded as late as 1309 [1, 2]. "eager for ale" was also in use by c.900. We find , also spelled and in that period [3]. We haven't found examples later, but the elements of the name would have been understandable well into the Middle Ages, certainly until 1300 or so [4]. The pronunciation changed somewhat over this four hundred year period, but a good approximation is \FINNr OHL-foos\ with \oo\ as in . The \r\ in the given name is very lightly pronounced, barely more than a roll of the tongue. We hope this brief letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek, Hartmann Rogge, Lindorm Eriksson, and Dietmar von Straubing. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 12 Oct 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. Finnr. [2] Kruken, Kristoffer, ed. _Norsk personnamnleksikon_, 2nd ed. (Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, 1995), s.n. Finn. [3] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Personbinamn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala: 1920-21), s.n. O,lfu/ss. [4] The elements of the name remained pretty much unchanged in both Icelandic and Norwegian to modern times. Modern Icelandic has "ale, beer" and "willing, eager", and Modern Norwegian has "beer" and "willing, eager". The symbol represents an 'o' with a diagonal slash through it. Einarsson, Stefa/n. Icelandic: Grammar, Texts, Glossary (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1945), and _McKay's Modern Norwegian-English English-Norwegian Dictionary_ (Gyldendal's) (New York: David McKay Company, Inc., n.d.).