ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2516 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2516 ************************************ 10 Apr 2002 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether there is evidence of the Vikings using bynames that identified someone as an adopted or foster child, and more generally how a child might have been identified if his father were unknown. Here is what we have found. It's worth noting at the outset that it was probably relatively rare in Norse communities for a child's father to be unknown. In Icelandic law, for example, there were serious penalties for abandoning one's children and significant incentives for a woman to identify the father of her child, i.e. her family would otherwise have to bear the cost of raising the child and her father could legally torture her to make her reveal the child's father [1]. That said, there were various ways a child might be identified by a relationship to someone other than his father. It was not common to identify a man as his mother's son, but it wasn't unknown: there are a couple of examples in runic inscriptions, such as "Firi Asa's son". There are also examples of men identified as the grandsons of their grandfathers, e.g. "Hrilfli son of Asgeirr Bjorn's son". (The slash in these names represents an acute accent mark over the preceding letter.) Note that in this case, the father's entire name and byname are in the genitive (possessive) case. Another approach is suggested by the byname "Gyrdh's heir", from another runic inscription [2]. In another source, we found an example of a man identified as "[the] scarred-and-crippled [man]'s stepson" [3]. A byname like <{TH}orkels stju/pr> "Thorkell's stepson" seems perfectly reasonable. (The symbol represent an 'o' with a vertical slash through it; {TH} stands for the letter thorn, written as a lower case 'b' with the vertical stroke extended downward.) You might be particular interested in a byname using "fosterling". A 10th century king who had been fostered to the English king AEthelstan was identified around 960 as "King Hakon AEthelstan's fosterling". Another 10th century example is <{TH}orleifr Romunder fostri> "Thorleif Hromunds fosterling". The byname might be based on the fosterfather's byname rather than his given name: around 1000, a man called "Bellowing Sumarlidhi" had a fosterling called <{TH}orliotr giallanda fo/stri>. In the 11th century, was also called [4]. 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 Talan Gwynek, Gunnvor Silfraharr, Lindorm Eriksson, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, and Avraham haRofeh. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 10 Apr 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Dennis, Andrew, Peter Foote and Richard Perkins, trans. Laws of Early Iceland: Gra/ga/s. Vol. II. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press. August 2000. See the section "Betrothal". [2] Lindorm Eriksson (aka Christer Romson), _The Bynames of the Viking Age Runic Inscriptions_ (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 2000). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/lindorm/runicbynames/ [3] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Personbinamn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala: 1920-21), s.n. O|rrabeins stiu/pr. [4] Lind, op. cit., s.nn. Fo/stri, A{dh}alsteins fo/stri, Giallanda fo/stri, {TH}o/ris fo/stri, Hro/mundar fo/stri. See also s.n. -fo/stri for other examples, mostly either later than your period or from fiction.