ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2905 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2905 ************************************ From: "C. L. Ward" 27 Sep 2004 Client 2905: Forni*% [NAM][ARM][NOR] - Final Report Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether or is appropriate as an Old Norse/Icelandic masculine name from the period 900-1100 A.D., and also for assistance in developing a heraldic device appropriate for a Viking Age person. We're assuming that your is a typo for . Here is what we found. Throughout this letter, we'll use some special notation for letters that we can't easily include here. The slash following a vowel represents an acute accent mark on the preceding vowel. The {TH} represents the character 'thorn', which resembles a lower-case p overlapping a lower-case b, so that they share a single loop. The notation {ae} represents an a-e ligature, which looks like the letters a and e pushed together, while represents the Icelandic o-ogonek, an 'o' with a backward-comma-shaped hook hanging from the bottom. Your given name appears in Old Norse in the form . ("Forni from Hagi") is found in Iceland at the end of the 10th c. The name ("Forni from {TH}vera/") occurs in the mid-11th c. A couple more instances of this name are also recorded, one undated, the other in 1187 [1]. This name was pronounced approximately \FOR-nee\. The name <{TH}orgri/mrson> isn't quite right for the patronymic -- the name that identifies Forni's father -- but it's close. The genitive (possessive) form of the masculine name <{TH}orgri/mr> is actually <{TH}orgri/ms>, so the proper Old Norse form of the patronymic is <{TH}orgri/ms son> "{TH}orgri/mr's son". <{TH}orgri/mr> is the 11th most common name in the Landna/mabo/k, an account of the settlement of Iceland, with 41 instances; additionally, <{TH}orgri/mr> is found in several runic inscriptions [1, 2, 3], and was also popular in Norway throughout the Middle Ages [1]. The name <{TH}orgri/mr> is pronounced roughly \THOR-greem(r)\, where the \(r)\ represents an unvoiced trilled (essentially a soft roll, not a separate syllable). The patronymic is pronounced approximately \THOR-greems sohn\, where \oh\ stands for the vowel in the word . Viking Age names often included a descriptive nickname or byname. Such bynames are found in two places in the name, either in front of the given name or immediately after it. Some bynames have been found only before the given name; many have been found only after it; and a few have been found in both positions. We have found the byname only after the given name [4, 5]: Haki berserkr (800s) {TH}ro,str berserkr (900s) Eysteinn berserkr (900s) Thorer berserker (1354) Oghmundr b{ae}rs{ae}rk (1389) We recommend you follow this pattern and place the byname after your given name but before your patronymic, . You can write your name in several ways. In your period, the Norse wrote in runes. You can find several versions of the futhark, or runic alphabet, on the web: http://www.arild-hauge.com/enruner.htm The futhark labeled Norwegian-Danish Runes from the 800's is a good choice. Notice that these tables identify each rune with a Roman letter; we will use that labeling in this letter to give you the runic spelling of your name. We should stress that this is a modern scholarly convention, not a notation that would have been used in our period. You'll also notice that there are no runes corresponding to some of the letters in the name, like and . Just as our letter represents different sounds in the words and , the Norse used one rune to represent more than one sound. Runic spelling was not entirely consistent, but in the ninth and early tenth centuries we would expect to see spellings similar to , from the futhark mentioned above. Remember that this spelling is suitable only when you write the name in runes; it should not be used with Latin letters. You may want to write the name as if you have to explain it to someone who doesn't read runes, since this is the standard scholarly form. When special characters are inconvenient you might write . In conclusion, is a fine Icelandic name in the 9th-11th centuries. You also asked about designs for heraldic arms using two colors and a single charge, perhaps including inscribed runes. As we mentioned in an earlier letter, armory was invented around the middle of the 12th century. It developed most rapidly in Anglo-Norman England and in the region between the Loire and the Rhine rivers, but it had reached Scandinavia by the late 13th century [6, 7]. Clearly your persona would not have used heraldry of any kind. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use arms in the Society: Many Societyfolk use arms even though their personas would not have done so. Whether you use arms or not depends on how you think about authenticity and your persona. You can find a few thoughts on this issue in an article we've posted on the web: What Do I Use for Arms if my Persona Wouldn't Have Used Arms? http://www.s-gabriel.org/faq/nonheraldic.html We can offer two approaches for designing a device that will conform to the usages of heraldry while also utilizing Viking Age motifs. The first would be to use a single-charge design using a charge drawn from (or at least based on) objects in Viking-period shield or banner art [8, 9, 10, 11]. Some examples include: * raven * pall * bear * wolf * goat * horse * cat * wyvern * serpent * gyronny arrondy of 6 or 8 parts For more ideas for charges that can be described using the language of heraldry which were also in use as artistic motifs in the Viking Age, we can recommend the following article: Heraldry for a Non-Heraldic Culture: Vikings and Coats of Arms in the SCA http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/vikheraldry.htm For choice of tinctures (colors used in the design), we can recommend black, red, or blue; and yellow or white [9, 10]. To the people of the Viking Age, the color blue was associated with death, which might appeal to a man who described himself as a berserker [9]. The second approach would be to look at the charges and heraldic design in use in the earliest Scandinavian coats of arms, which are discussed in: Academy of St. Gabriel Report #2696 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2696 If you have any further questions about designing a coat of arms after reading these articles, please don't hesitate to write us again. I 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 Arval Benicoeur, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Talan Gwynek, Juliana de Luna and Jillian Saint Andre. For the Academy, Gunnvor silfraharr 27 September 2004 ----------------------------------------------------- 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.nn. , <{TH}o/rgri/mr>. The name is also found late in Norway and was rare there, with the earliest example being the patronymic (i.e., ) from 1366. The notation represents an a-ring, the letter a with a small circle at the top, while the represents an a-umlaut. [2] Lena Peterson. Nordiskt runnamnslexikon. Spra*k- och folkminnes-institutet. http://www.sofi.se/SOFIU/runlex/ S.n. <{TH}o/rgri/mR>. The name <{TH}o/rgri/mR> is found in at least five runic inscriptions: <{th}urkrimr> (runic inscription from Norway) <{th}urkri-> (runic inscription from Ireland ca. 1100 AD) <{th}urkrim> (runic inscription from Uppland, Sweden) <{th}urkrimr> (runic inscriptions from Uppland, Sweden) <{th}okrim> (runic inscription from So"dermanland, Sweden ca. 1000 AD) The represents an o-umlaut. [3] Insley, John, _Scandinavian personal names in Norfolk: a survey based on medieval records and place-names_ (Uppsala: Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy; Stockholm : Distributor, Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1994). S.n. <{TH}o/rgri/mR>. [4] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla"ndska Personbinamn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala: 1920-21). S.v. . [5] Arno/rsson, Einar, ed. _Landna/mabo/k I/slands_ (Reykjavi/k: Helgafell, 1948). p. 293. [6] Pastoureau, Michel. Traite/ d'He/raldique, 2nd ed. (Paris: grands manuels Picard, 1993); p. 300. [7] Huitfeldt-Kaas, H.J. Norske Sigiller fra Middelalderen. 3rd and 4th parts (Kristiana: Aktie-Bogtrykkeriet, 1902); pp. 1-4, Pls. 1-2. [8] Gunnvor silfraharr, Heraldry for a Non-Heraldic Culture: Vikings and Coats of Arms in the SCA (WWW: The Viking Answer Lady, 2004). http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/vikheraldry.htm [9] Caroline Priest-Dorman (Thora Sharptooth), Personal Display for Viking Age Personae: A Primer for Use in the SCA (WWW: Thora's Viking Resources, 2004). http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/display.html [10] Peter Beatson, The 'Viking Shield' from Archaeology (WWW: privately published, 2000). http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisandpeter/shield/shield.html [11] Gunnvor silfraharr, The Raven Banner and Other Viking Banners (WWW: The Viking Answer Lady, 2004). http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/banners.htm