ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2456 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2456 ************************************ 24 Jan 2002 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a Norse man living between 850 and 1150. This letter answers your question. is a modern spelling of an Old Norse name that is best represented in Roman letters as (and slightly less well as ), where the slash represents an accent on the preceding letter [1, 2]. The name is found earliest in Norway, c.900, but in the Middle Ages it was more common in Iceland and not very common in either place [1, 3]. At the beginning of your period, it was probably pronounced \NEE-ahl\ or \NEE-@l\, where \@\ stands for the sound of the 'a' in . By the end of your period, the standard pronunciation was probably \NYAHL\, one syllable, with \NY\ representing the first sound in . Unfortunately, we have found no support for the name , either as a variant spelling of <{TH}orkell> or as an independent name. (The symbol {TH} represents the letter thorn, written like a 'p' with the vertical stroke extended upward the same length as it goes down.) <{TH}orkell> itself is a fine Old Norse name, quite common in medieval Iceland [2]. is a later-period spelling of that name which might have been used in some times and places [6]; but we have found no evidence at all to support the spelling variation from to [4]. is a fine Old Norse name, entirely appropriate for your period. It was probably pronounced \NEE-ahl THOR-kehls-sohn\ or \NEE-@l THOR-kehls-sohn\ at the beginning of your period, and \NYAHL THOR-kehls-sohn\ later, where \TH\ stands for the sound of the in and \oh\ stands for the vowel in . Of course, through most of your period the Norse wrote exclusively with runes; the Roman alphabet began to come into use in Norway in the 12th century [5]. If you would like a runic spelling of this name, we'll be happy to provide it. Beyond that, we recommend you not concern yourself overmuch with the exact spelling of your name. Spelling was not fixed in our period: In both runes and Roman letters, a name was often spelled differently from one occasion to another. In a broad sense, period spelling can be understood as a system for encoding the pronunciation of words. Each culture had accepted conventions defining the correspondence between sounds and letters; but these were not unique. Just as we use and for the same sound in some words, and for two different sounds in other words, so medieval scribes found many equally correct ways to record the same words. But note that lack of uniformity does not imply chaos: Although there was more than one correct spelling, there were also incorrect spellings. is incorrect because it does not appear to represent any period pronunciation of <{TH}orkell>. The upshot is that no one in your period would even have noticed that your surname was not spelled the same as your father's given name; they would have paid attention to the pronunciation. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Lindorm Eriksson, Talan Gwynek, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Hartmann Rogge, Zenobia Naphtali, and Ursula Georges. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 25 Jan 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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. Nia/ll. [2] Aryanhwy merch Catmael, "Viking Names found in the Landna/mabo/k" (WWW: privately published, 1998). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/landnamabok.html [3] Kruken, Kristoffer, ed. _Norsk personnamnleksikon_, 2nd ed. (Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, 1995), s.n. Nja*l. a* stands for an 'a' with a little ring over it. [4] The name was registered by the SCA College of Arms (Dec 1994) on the basis of two incorrect arguments. The first argument was that could be composed from the Old Norse elements and <-kill>. was supported only by the name . (The symbol stands for an 'o' with a backward comma hanging from its base, often represented in modern texts as o-umlaut.) However, the name derives from the Norse word "tar" (A. Janzen, "De fornva:stnordiska personnamnen" in _Personnamn_, #7 in "Nordisk Kultur" (Stockholm: Bonnier (and others), 1947), p.54 and endnote 173). is not a separable element and cannot be recombined to form new names. The second argument was that could have evolved from <{TH}>. This was based on a single 15th century example of <{TH}iorkiel> as a variant of <{TH}orkell> (Lind, op. cit., s.n. {TH}orkell). The submission argued that since <{TH}> in some names was spelled and was sometimes substituted for , a series of variations could lead to and that <{TH}orkill> could similarly become . This argument has many problems, most obviously that it is based on 15th century evidence and therefore is not applicable to Old Norse. Any speculation based on an isolated example is inherently dangerous, since it could be a scribal or editorial error. In this case the name is also recorded as 1410, <{TH}erkell> 1420, and 1448. These spellings appear to be precursors of the traditional southern dialect variant or [Kruken s.n. Torkjell]. Though it is not clear exactly what sound the is intended to represent, it seems very likely that <{TH}iorkiel> also belongs to this family. If so, the is very unlikely to represent \yoh\, the normal interpretation of the spelling . [5] Carin Orrling, ed., _Medeltidens ABC_ (Stockholm, 2001), s.n. Spra*kfo"rha*llanden. o" stands for o-umlaut. [6] We find <{TH}orkill> 1338 in Norway and 12th century in England in a Latin context. Lind s.n. {TH}orkill. Fellows Jensen, Gillian, _Scandinavian Personal Names in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire_ (Copenhagen: 1968), s.n. {TH}orketill.