ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2930 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2930 ************************************ 28 Nov 2004 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a woman in Viking culture. You told us you intended to mean 'from Ravenslake', but you weren't sure it is correct; and you asked us to suggest a correct byname with that meaning. Here is what we have found. Throughout this letter, we will use some special notation to represent certain characters: * A slash after a letter represents an acute accent mark over the letter. * {ae} represents the letter aesc (ash), written as an 'a' and 'e' squashed together so that they share a common vertical stroke. * {dh} represents the letter edh, written as a backward '6' with a crossbar on the upper limb. * represents an 'o' with a slash through it. * represents an 'o' with a backward-comma-shaped hook hanging from the bottom of the letter. * {TH} represents the letter thorn, written as a 'P' with the vertical stroke extending upward as far as it extends down. As we mentioned in previous correspondence, we discussed the name for a previous client; you can find our report at http://www.s-gabriel.org/2778 The name, pronounced \AH-sah\, was used throughout the Scandinavian world, though it was most common in Norway [1]. Your word isn't a good choice, because isn't a likely word for "lake" in a Norse place name: in place names, it always refers to the sea, not to a lake [2, 3]. A better choice is "water; lake" [4]. This word is combined into place names in various ways. In particular, it is found compounded with a given name, like "Geirhildr's water" and "Ho,skuldr's water"; and with types of animal found at the lake, like "trout-water" or "swine water" [5]. We also found an example of a body of water compounded with a word for "raven" [6], so we are quite comfortable recommending , which can mean either "raven's lake" or "Hrafn's lake"; and "ravens' lake". These names were pronounced roughly \HRAHV-nah-vaht(n)\ and \HRAHFS-vaht(n)\, respectively [7]. The symbol \(n)\ represents an unvoiced \n\, just a little puff of air through the nose with the tongue positioned to make an \n\ sound. The Old Norse word means "in". It was used with particular kinds of place names, including the names of many towns and some countries [8]. We found only one example of a placename based on combined with the preposition [9]: {TH}ar ty/ndist Geirhildr do/ttir hans i/ Geirhildarvatni 'His daughter Geirhild perished there in Geirhildarvatn' In this case, the meaning seems to be that the woman drowned _in_ the lake, so it probably isn't a good model for a personal byname. It isn't impossible that a woman from a town called would have been called , but we don't recommend it as the most likely construction. Placenames in <-vatn> are more likely to be combined with "at; by; by the side of." Viking Age examples include [10]: Helgi at Helgavatni {TH}orbrandr at O,lfusvatni {TH}orgeirr at Ljo/savatni Herjo/lfr at My/vatni This is the pattern we recommend for your name: or . The bynames were pronounced roughly \aht HRAHFS-VAHT-nee\ and \aht HFAHV-nah-VAHT-nee\ [12]. Note that after , the place name appears in the dative case, e.g. becomes . In your original note, you had asked for guidance designing heraldic arms. We explained that your persona would not have used heraldic arms, and suggested you read this article for thoughts on how to reconcile that fact with your Society re-creations: What Do I Use for Arms if my Persona Wouldn't Have Used Arms? http://www.s-gabriel.org/faq/nonheraldic.html If you decide to design arms, there are a couple articles on the web that offer advice in heraldry to Societyfolk with Viking personas: Personal Display for Viking Age Personae: A Primer for Use in the SCA http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/display.html Heraldry for a Non-Heraldic Culture: Vikings and Coats of Arms in the SCA http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/vikheraldry.htm We also have some examples of Norwegian arms from the 13th and 14th centuries. That's well after the period you've chosen for your name, of course, but we would be happy to help you design arms that fit the early Norwegian style. We 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 Hartmann Rogge, Talan Gwynek, Gunnvor Silfraharr, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, and Mari neyn Brian. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 28 Nov 2004 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Other examples of appear in Peterson, Lena, "Nordiskt runnamnslexikon" (WWW: Institute for Dialectology, Onomastics and Folklore Research, 2001). http://www.sofi.se/SOFIU/runlex/ [2] Cleasby, R., G. Vigfusson, & W. Craigie, _An Icelandic-English Dictionary_ (Oxford: At the University Press, 1975), s.v. s{ae}r. [3] Another possibility is "lake"; but this word is used in place names mostly to refer to an arm of a fjord. Sandnes, J{o|}rn, and Ola Stemshaug, _Norsk Stadnamnleksikon_, 4th ed. (Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, Oslo), s.v. . [4] Cleasby s.v. vatn. [5] Landna/mabo/k (Sturlubo/k). (WWW: Netu/tga/fan. 1998), chs. 2, 31, 72, 90. http://www.snerpa.is/net/snorri/landnama.htm [6] Sandnes and Stemshaug s.n. Ramfjorden notes that the place-name is 1567, which would be from Old Norse <(H)rafnafjo,r{dh}r> 'ravens' fjord'. [7] More precisely, was pronounced \HRAHBH-nah-vaht(n)\, with secondary stress on \-vaht(n)\; and was probably pronounced \HRAHPH(N)S-vat(n)\. \BH\ represents a sound similar to \V\, but made with the two lips vibrating against one another rather than one lip and the upper teeth. \PH\ is the voiceless version of the same sound, related to \BH\ is the same way that \f\ is related to \v\. In the modern language has become roughly \hrahfs\. For a Viking Age pronunciation this probably implies that the and have assimilated to the voicelessness of the \s\; our suggested pronunciation of reflects this assumption. [8] Cleasby s.v. i/, p.315. More precisely, was used with local names denoting low land, firth or inlet, dale, island, holt, wood, haven, many (perhaps most) town names, and at least some country names. [9] Landna/mabo/k, ch. 2. [10] Landna/mabo/k, chs. 23, 29, 71, 72, 92. We also found a couple examples of with these place names: Hallfridhr, do/ttir {TH}orbjarnar fra/ Vatni (ch 39) {TH}orgeirr fra/ Ljo/savatni [11] [11] Arno/rsson, Einar, ed. _Landna/mabo/k I/slands_ (Reykjavi/k: Helgafell, 1948), p.304. This name actually appears in the genitive; we have converted it to the nominative form. [12] More precisely, was pronounced \HRAHBH-nah-VAHT-nee\ and was probably \HRAHPH(N)S-VAHT-nee\. See note [7] for details.