ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2978 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2978 ************************************ 20 Jan 2005 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an appropriate name for an Icelandic man living between 800 and 1100. We did not find any examples of as a given name. We found one example of it as a byname in 1342; it derives from a word related to a Norwegian dialect term 'noisy blow' and Old Icelandic 'crashing noise, din'. We also found one place name in England based on this byname, 12th-14th centuries. [1] Despite these late dates, we believe that the place name is clear evidence for the use of in the Viking era, as the byname of an early owner of the place. It is not the best of recreation, but it's not impossible that it was used during your period. Because we have not found any examples of in the Viking era or in Iceland, we do not recommend that you use it as a given name. If you'd like to choose a different given name, we recommend the following article: "Viking Names found in the Landna/mabo/k" http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/landnamabok.html If you find a name that interests you, we'll be happy to offer a pronunciation. is found in Iceland as both a given name and a byname. [2,3] One of the settlers of Iceland was named , where the {dh} represents the letter edh, which looks like a backwards <6> with a crossbar. [4,5] We found one instance of as a byname in 1321. The meaning of it is uncertain; it is either '{flat) stone, slab' or 'leaning, inclined, sloping'. [3] is a fine choice for a given name for your period, but we do not recommend that you use it as a byname. While we cannot recommend , we believe that is a possible Viking-era Old Norse man's name. In your period, the Norse wrote in runes. Once you've picked a name, we'll be happy to research its runic spelling. We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you won't hesitate to write us again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Hartmann Rogge, Gunnvor Silfraharr, Talan Gwynek, Maridonna Benvenuti, Arval Benicoeur, and Adelaide de Beaumont. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 20 January 2005 -- References: [1] Fellows Jensen, Gillian, _Scandinavian Personal Names in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire_ (Copenhagen: 1968). p. 74 s.n. Dunkr [2] Friedemann, Sara L. (aka Aryanhwy merch Catmael), "Viking Names found in the Landna/mabo/k" (WWW: privately published, 1998). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/landnamabok.htm [3] Peterson, Lena, "Nordiskt runnamnslexikon" (WWW: Institute for Dialectology, Onomastics and Folklore Research, 2001). http://www.sofi.se/SOFIU/runlex/. [4] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Personbinamn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala: 1920-21). s.v. Go{dh}lauss [5] 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. Hallr - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Addendum: Runic spelling and pronunciation Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wrote: > If I understand correctly (Hallr Dunkr) would be acceptable as an > old norse name. I am extremly interested in the runic spelling and > the pronunciation. Yes, is a fine name, meaning roughly "Hallr the Noisy". It was pronounced \HAHL(r) DOONGK(r)\. The symbol (r) represents a lightly voiced rolled \r\ -- which is _not_ a separate syllable. The \OO\ in is similar to the vowel in , shading toward the vowel in . \NGK\ represents the sound of the in words like . The the futhark, or runic alphabet, varied from one place to another and from one period to another. You can find several versions of the futhark on the web: http://www.arild-hauge.com/eindex.htm The futhark labeled Norwegian-Danish Runes from the 800's is a good choice for your culture. 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. Our suggested runic spellings are based on examples we found in this article: http://www.sofi.se/SOFIU/runlex/pdf/lexikon.pdf The spellings in bold face in that article are runic spellings, in the same notation that we are using. We don't have an example of written in runes, but we have several examples of names like or that use as an element. That element is normally written in runes, so we can recommend that you write your given name in runes, where 'a' here stands for the 10th rune and 'R' is the last rune. Words beginning in the Roman alphabet were generally spelled with the t-runes. The runic combination appears in names beginning with the element , and the \k\ sound is regularly represented by the rune. Therefore, one way to spell in runes is . However, the n-rune was often omitted before the k-rune, so is another possibility. If you have further questions, please write again. Arval for the Academy 27 Jan 2005