ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2743
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2743
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21 Apr 2003
From: Josh Mittleman 


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked whether <Dagr Osvaldson> is an appropriate name for a man in
Viking culture.  Here is what we've found.

<Dagr> is an excellent choice: It was in use in Norway and Iceland
throughout the Viking period [1, 2].  It was pronounced \DAHGHr\,
where the final \r\ was just a lightly voiced trill, not a separate
syllable.  \GH\ stands for the sound of <gh> in the exclamation of
disgust, <ugh>, that doesn't rhyme with <bug>.  

<Osvaldr> or <A/svaldr> is an Old Norse borrowing of the Old English
name <Osweald>.  The slash represents an acute accent mark on the
preceding letter.  Two of the settlers of Iceland were identified in
later writings as <{TH}orvalldr Asvalldz son> "Thorvalldr Asvalldr's
son" and <Olver en hviti son Osvallz Auxna-{TH}oris sonar> "Olver the
white son of Osvaldr Auxna-Thorir' son".  The symbol {TH} represents
the letter thorn, written like a 'b' with the vertical stroke extended
downward as far as it goes upward and pronounced like the <th> in
<thing>.  The patronymic <Asvalldz son> also appears as <Asvalls son>,
<Asvallz son>, <Asualldz son>, <Osualldz son>, and <A/svalds son> [3,
4].  The <u> in some of these spellings represents the sound \v\, so
<Osualldz son> tells us that <Osvalldz son> is also reasonable.  This
is the closest was can some to the spelling you asked about [5].

<Dagr Osvalldz son> is a fine 9th or 10th century Viking name, which
was pronounced \DAHGHr OHS-vahldz sohn\.  \OH\ stands for the vowel
sound in the word <more>.  In that period, the Norse wrote with runes.
If you would like a runic spelling of your name, please write again.


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, Adelaide de Beaumont, and Aryanhwy merch
Catmael.

For the Academy,


  Arval Benicoeur
  21 Apr 2003


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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. Dagr.

[2] Fleck, G. (aka Geirr Bassi Haraldsson), _The Old Norse Name_, Studia
Marklandica (series) (Olney, Maryland: Yggsalr Press, 1977).

[3] Lind s.n. Osvaldr.

[4] Kruken, Kristoffer, ed. _Norsk personnamnleksikon_, 2nd ed. (Oslo: Det
Norske Samlaget, 1995), s.n. Osvald.

[5] Lind consistently uses <z> after dental consonants; since the root
<Osvalld-> ends in <d>, we have used <z> here.