ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2545 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2545 ************************************ 27 Apr 2002 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a medieval Icelandic woman. This letter is a brief answer to your question. is a fine name. The slash here represents an acute accent mark on the preceding letter. The name also appears on a couple Viking-period runestones in Sweden. Several instances were also recorded in 14th century Norway. It was probably a short form of some name ending <-di/s>, like or [1, 2]. The short form was pronounced \DEE-sah\. A similar name was used a little earlier: lived in 12th century Iceland, and lived in early 13th century Norway [3]. The symbol represents an 'o' with a backward-comma-shaped hook hanging from the bottom. was pronounced \DEES\. 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, Lindorm Eriksson, and Aryanhwy merch Catmael. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 23 Apr 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. Di/sa. The name appears in the genitive as 1314 in Norway; the byname is 'Elland's wife', where is a variant of (ON ). Another Norwegian 1354 and yet another, in the genitive, 1378; the byname here is locative. [2] Peterson, Lena, "Nordiskt runnamnslexikon" (WWW: Institute for Dialectology, Onomastics and Folklore Research, 2001), s.n. Di/sa. http://grimnir.dal.lu.se/runlex/index.htm. The entry reads: "Di/sa" female name: Old Swedish "Disa", old West Scandinavian "Di/sa". Short form of names starting with "Di/s-", see also "-di/s". Nominative "tisa" So"352A, So"352B. See also "O/{dh}in-Di/sa". This gives no explicit dates, but the introduction describes the material as Viking period. The codes So"352A and So"352B identify the runestones on which the name was found. refers to the Swedish region So"dermanland that runs south from Stockholm. The form represents the runic spelling of the name, using a standard coding of runic letters in the Roman alphabet that you can find at: http://www.arild-hauge.com/enruner.htm Look at the Norwegian-Danish runes from the 800's. Old West Scandinavian, a dialect of Old Norse, was the language spoken in the Viking Age in Norway and Iceland. [3] Lind s.n. Di/s.