ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2333 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2333 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 12 Jul 2001 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether we could suggest a byname appropriate for your pre-10th century Irish persona. Based on our previous correspondance [1], you chose the name , and you wanted to add a byname that describes an herbwoman who was feared by her neighbors, perhaps meaning "the dreadful". Here is what we have found. In all our research on Irish names, we have not found a period example of a woman identified as a healer or herbwoman. In general, the Irish rarely used occupational bynames, so this is not surprising. However, we have also been unable to find an early medieval Irish _word_ that means "herbwoman". It may be that there was no such word, either because there were no herbwomen in this culture; or because the activity was so common that a special word to describe it might be useless and might therefore not have existed (for example, there is no word in modern English to describe a person who wears shoes). We do have an example a woman with the byname "horrible, dreadful"; but it appears in an early medieval genealogy which includes a mixture of historical people and legendary or mythical figures. As we explained in our previous report [1], this particular woman appears to be legendary, not a real person. We therefore recommend strongly that you not use this byname. Unfortunately, we cannot recommend any other byname that captures the idea you want to convey. Given our research, we must conclude that women simply weren't given that sort of name. We checked our best sources of information on early medieval Irish names and language, and looked at a variety of words that capture some part of the meaning you have in mind: witch, frightening, weird, strange [3]. We found no evidence that the Old Irish forms of these words were used as personal bynames in your period. In the records from your period that we've studied, very few women are identified by descriptive bynames of any kind. Of this handful of examples, most are very straightforward: "young", "young, unmarried girl". This pattern continues throughout our period: Even as late as the 14th century, few women were identified with descriptive bynames, and almost all of those were very concrete: "black" 1421, "big" 1395, "crooked" 1370, 1598. The slash in one of these names represents an acute accent mark over the preceding letter. We found a couple late-period bynames based on geography or family relationships: 1421 "the Munster-woman", 1465 "of the O'Caemhain family", and a couple more abstract bynames: 1569 "gaudy, showy", 1471 "the hospitable" 1471 [2]. Some of these later-period bynames could easily have been used in your period, though not in the same spellings. We also found a reference to a woman in mid-9th century Ireland who was known as "black bitch", a "reproachful name ... bestowed by the monarch on his own sister" [5]. The dot after the 's' in the name represents a dot over the letter; it indicates "lenition", a softening of the pronunciation of the letter, and is equivalent to the 'h' placed after the letter in later-period spellings. wasn't precisely a byname, but rather a replacement for her given name. A greater variety of descriptive bynames was used in men's names; one that might appeal to you is "wise", recorded for a man who lived in the year 791 [3, 4]. However, we have not found an example of a woman using this byname, so we can't say for certain that it would have been considered appropriate. If one of the alternatives we've offered here appeals to you, we'll be happy to provide the correct spelling and pronunciation for your period. 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 Adelaide de Beaumont, Talan Gwynek, Effrick neyn Kenneoch, and Mari neyn Brian. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 12 Jul 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Academy of S. Gabriel report 2251 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2251 [2] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals: Feminine Names: Descriptive Bynames found in Feminine Names" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2001). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/Feminine/DescriptiveBynames.html [3] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983). [4] _Annala Rioghachta Eireann: Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters from the Earliest period to the Year 1616_ edited from MSS. in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy and of Trinity College, Dublin with a translation by John O'Donovan, VII Volumes (Hodges, Smith, and Co: Dublin, 1854), vol.1, p.398-99. "Colca the Wise". The spelling that we recommended is the standard spelling given in source [3]. [5] O'Donovan, p.588 and footnote p. He gives the name as , in the genitive case. The standard spelling of the nominative form should be or . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Arval, 22 Jul 2001: The client asked for a pronunciation of , one of the bynames we recommended. We told her that the word "wise" was pronounced roughly \AYK-neydh\ in early medieval Gaelic, with \AY\ pronounced as in "hay" and \ey\ as in "eye". \dh\ represents the sound of the "th" in "there".