ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2819 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2819 ************************************ 11 Apr 2004 From: "Brian M. Scott" Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked whether the name was an appropriate choice for a Norwegian man. appears to be a slight misspelling of the Old Norse masculine name . (The slash stands for an acute accent over the preceding letter.) This was not at all a common name, but there are a few examples; in Iceland the earliest known bearer of the name is a man who died in 1031, though a place-name, 'Vi/karr's Run', mentioned in one early source suggests that there may have been an earlier bearer of the name. (Here <{dh}> stands for the letter edh, which looks like a backwards <6> with a short line through the upright.) Other Icelandic examples are from the 13th century and perhaps a little later. The earliest known bearer of the name in Norway died in 1190, and we have no other dated Norwegian citation. [1, 2, 3] On balance we think that the name, though rare, would not have been out of place in Iceland in the 11th - 13th centuries and in Norway at least between 1150 and 1250 or so. The name was pronounced roughly \BHEE-kar\ in the Viking period. Here \BH\ stands for the sound of in Spanish 'a wolf' and of in Spanish 'a grape'. To make this sound, set yourself to say \b\, but relax your lips slightly so that the air can escape between them with a sort of buzzing sound. (It's rather like blowing out a candle, except that your vocal cords are vibrating.) By the 13th century the pronunciation had shifted to \VEE-kar\ in most dialects; both this and \WEE-kar\ would be reasonable approximations for the Viking period if you find the sound \BH\ difficult. is a descriptive byname meaning 'a slayer, a killer (of someone)'. [4, 5] We have not found an actual instance of its use, but both its general sense and its grammatical construction are found in attested bynames with dates ranging from the late 10th century through the early 13th century. [7] In both Iceland and Norway it should be appropriate during the periods in which is suitable. was pronounced approximately \BHAY-ghahn-dee\, where \gh\ stands for the voiced version of the sound spelled in Scottish and German . (Here again you can substitute \VAY-ghahn-dee\ or \WAY-ghahn-dee\ if necessary, and by the 13th century \VAY-ghahn-dee\ was the usual pronunciation.) Juliana de Luna, Arval Benicoeur, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Mari neyn Brian, and Gunnvor Silfraharr also contributed to this letter. We hope that it has been useful and that you won't hesitate to write again if any part of it is unclear, or if you have further questions. For the Academy, Ekaterina Novgorodskaia and Talan Gwynek 10 April 2004 ===== References and Notes [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. . (Here stands for a-umlaut, and stands for an with a small circle directly above it.) [2] Fleck, G. (aka Geirr Bassi Haraldsson). The Old Norse Name. Studia Marklandica (series) (Olney, Maryland: Yggsalr Press, 1977). Fleck gives the name as , with a short first vowel, but this appears to be an error. [3] Arno/rsson, Einar, ed. Landna/mabo/k I/slands (Reykjavi/k: Helgafell, 1948); p. 129. [4] Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson, and William A. Craigie. An Icelandic-English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957); s.v. . [5] Fleck, op. cit., glosses the byname 'battler, fighter'. However, the citations in [4] clearly show it used to mean 'slayer, killer (of someone)', both in the sagas and in an early compilation of the laws of the Icelandic Commonwealth. It should be noted that Fleck may have misinterpreted a literal description along the lines of 'So-and-so, a killer' as a name and byname, since is not included in the standard compilation of Old Norse bynames. [6] [6] Lind, E.H. Norsk-Isla"ndska Personbinamn fra*n Medeltiden (Uppsala: 1920-21). [7] Ibid. s.vv. , , . The nickname is likely short for 'hired bandit, assassin', and the byname is 'the outlawed'. And just as 'hewer, smiter; headsman, executioner' is the present participle of the verb 'to smite (with a sharp weapon); to kill, to behead', so is the present participle of the verb 'to attack with a weapon; to smite, slay, slaughter'. (Here stands for a letter that looks like an with a backwards comma hanging from its lower edge.)