ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2998 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2998 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 2 Mar 2005 From: Gunnvor Silfraharr Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for an 11th century Norwegian or Icelander. Here is what we found. As we explained in earlier correspondence, in our previous research of the Norse use of the , we discovered that this name didn't appear until the mid-11th century [1, 2, 3, 4]. The slash here represents an acute accent mark on the preceding letter. We found forms of this name in use in your period: mid-11th c., 1224, and before 1066 [3, 5]. was pronounced \YONE\, to rhyme with . was pronounced \YOE-ahn\, with the \OE\ as in . Your patronymic is almost perfect and just needs a couple of minor changes in spelling. The name was exceedingly common from the earliest times both in Iceland and in Norway [6, 7]. The here represents the Icelandic o-ogonek, an 'o' with a backward-comma-shaped hook hanging from the bottom. The o-ogonek is the standard scholarly representation of any of several symbols used by early Icelandic scribes to stand for a sound similar to that of the in the English word . You'll note that we've spelled with an instead of a . The letter wasn't used in writing the Scandinavian languages until the 18th century, when Danish linguist Rasmus Rask proposed using to replace the use of consonantal . Though modern scholars today often use to represent this use of as a consonant when writing Old Norse, medieval manuscripts used [8]. A man named who was the son of a man named would have been called . The change from to is a requirement of Norse grammar; it is analogous to the change from to in English. was pronounced \BYAR-nar sohn\, where the \oh\ pronounced like the in . The masculine byname is literally "bear-warmth", for someone supposed to have the body heat of a bear [9]. It appears in one of the Icelandic chronicles, which mentions an "Olaf bear-warmth, son of Havard the lame" (who lived c.1000 [9a]). Here the {dh} is the character edh, which resembles a backward <6> with a crossbar on the riser. is pronounced \BYARN-u"lr\, where \u"\ is the u-umlaut of German . (Thus, \nu"l\ is what one gets if one tries to say the word with one's lips rounded and pursed.). The final \-r\ is not a separate syllable; it's just a quick tap or trill following the \l\. You can write this 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 futharks labeled "Norwegian-Swedish Ro"krunes ca. 800-900" or "Runes from the 900s to ca. 1050 AD" are a good choice. The above represents an o-umlaut. 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 the and the . Just as our letter represents different sounds in the words and , the Norse used one rune to represent more than one sound. A runic spelling consistent with careful 11th century usage is , where is the 5th rune, is the 16th rune and is the 10th rune. Note 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 name for your persona. 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 Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, Juliana de Luna, and Aryanhwy merch Catmael. For the Academy, Gunnvor Silfraharr 2 March 2005 ----------------------------------------------------- References [1] Academy of St. Gabriel Report 1783. http://www.s-gabriel.org/1783 Academy of St. Gabriel Report 2000. http://www.s-gabriel.org/2000 Academy of St. Gabriel Report 2023. http://www.s-gabriel.org/2023 [2] 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 represents the letter a-ring, an with a small circle over the top of the letter, and represents an a-umlaut. [3] Kruken, Kristoffer, ed. _Norsk personnamnleksikon_, 2nd ed. (Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, 1995), s.n. . [4] Several examples of appear in the Landna/mabo/k, but they are not earlier than the ones cited above. 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 [5] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla"ndska Personbinamn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala: 1920-21). s.v. . [6] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla"ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_, s.n. . [7] Fellows-Jensen, Gillian. _Scandinavian Personal Names in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire_, (Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, 1968), s.n. . [8] Cleasby, Richard and Gu{dh}brandr Vigfusson. "The Alphabet", In: _An Icelandic-English Dictionary_. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon. 1957. p. xv. "Icelandic Alphabet". (WWW: Wikipedia, 2004). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_alphabet [9] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla"ndska Personbinamn fra*n Medeltiden_, s.v. . [9a] ibid s.n. halti dates Olaf's father to the late 10th century. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Addendum, Arval, Apr 2005: Added the dating of and note [9a]. Fixed a typo in note [8] and one in the previous version of this addendum.