ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2679 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2679 ************************************ 13 Mar 2003 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for an 8th to 9th century Anglo-Saxon man. You also asked about the names and . Here is what we've found. is a fine given name for your period; it appears in the works of Bede and was common in the 9th century [1, 2]. It was pronounced \WULF-heh-reh\. <{AE}lfwine> is also a fine choice; it was in use through your period [1, 2]. The symbol {AE} represents the letter aesc (ash), written as an 'A' and 'E' overlapped so that right leg of the 'A' is the vertical stroke of the 'E'. It was pronounced \ALF-wih-neh\, with the first vowel pronounced as in . was the name of a 5th century Jutish king who conquered Kent [7, 8]. We have turned up no other historical example of this name. It is unlikely that it was used in your period, so we recommend you consider your other choices. The word you wrote appears in our references as "woodworker, carpenter" [3, 4]. Note that you had the reversed. The symbol indicates a vowel that is pronounced longer in duration; in most texts it is written as an 'e' with a bar over it. The word is a compound of "tree" and "wright". Since also appears in period as [5], it wouldn't be surprising to see the compound written . Indeed, this could well have been the most common spelling. Occupational surnames were rare in Old English, but they do appear occasionally. They usually include the definite article, though, so we recommend "the woodworker" [6]. This was pronounced \seh TREHoh-WU"RKH-tah\. \U"\ represents the sound of u-umlaut in the German word "to fill". More precisely, it is the vowel you get by pronouncing the in with your lips positioned as if you were saying as in . \KH\ stands for the raspy sound of the in Scottish or German . 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 Talan Gwynek, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Galiana de Baiona, Adelaide de Beaumont, Lucien d'Artois, Julie Stampnitzky, and Aryanhwy merch Catmael. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 13 Mar 2003 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] AElfwyn aet Gyrwum, _Anglo-Saxon Names_ (WWW: privately published, 1997). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/aelfwyn/bede.html [2] Selte/n, Bo, _The Anglo-Saxon Heritage in Middle English Personal Names_, Volumes 1 & 2. (Lund, Sweden: Royal Society of Letters at Lund, 1979), II:24, II:177. [3] Clark Hall, J.R. & H.D. Meritt, _A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary_ (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1969) s.v. tre:owwyrhta. [4] Moore, Samuel, and Thomas A. Knott. The Elements of Old English. 10th edn., rev. by James R. Hulbert (Ann Arbor: The George Wahr Publishing Co., 1968); p. 125 [5] Ibid., p. 268. [6] Cecily Clark, "Onomastics", in Richard Hogg, _The Cambridge History of the English Language_ (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), v.I pp.469-70. [7] "Hengist and Horsa", _The Columbia Encyclopedia_, Sixth Edition, 2001 (WWW: bartleby.com, 2002). http://www.bartleby.com/65/he/HengistN.html [8] appears in Beowulf as the name of a Danish warrior. Not all names of characters in this poem were also used by real people; and in any case, this is much too early for your period. Tony Jebson, ed., "Beowulf" (WWW: The Labyrinth, 1994), ll. 1083, 1091, 1096, and 1127.