ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3062 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3062 ************************************ 9 Jun 2005 From: Gunnvor Silfraharr Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is appropriate as a name for a Hiberno-Norse woman ca. 800-850, and also asked how the name was written in runes. Here is what we found. As we explained in an earlier report, we found one instance of the name in Iceland which was undated, but fairly early [1]. The represents the Icelandic o-ogonek, an 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 . was pronounced roughly \SOHL-wah\. The earliest examples of the Old Norse masculine name we have found are a 9th c. father of one of the early Icelandic settlers, and an Orkney jarl who died ca. 910; both are recorded in sources written much later than these dates [2]. This name continued in use in Scandinavia throughout the Viking Age, and was one of the most popular names in Iceland [3]. The patronymic byname for the daughter of a man named was ; early manuscripts normally show patronymic bynames written as two words. The slash indicates an acute accent on the preceding letter. This byname would have been pronounced \AY-nars DOAT-teer\. The Scandinavian settlers in Iceland, as well as those in Ireland, the Orkneys, and elsewhere in the Atlantic, spoke a dialect we call Old West Norse; thus a name found in Iceland is likely to be appropriate in other areas where Old West Norse was spoken, including Ireland. 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-Swedish Rokrunes" 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. We would expect a runic spelling such as for your name [4]. 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, Maridonna Benvenuti, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, Gunnvor Silfraharr 9 June 2005 ----------------------------------------------------- References [1] Academy of St. Gabriel Report #3035 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3035 [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. . The represents an a-umlaut, while the represents the letter a-ring. [3] Academy of St. Gabriel Report #2241 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2241 Academy of St. Gabriel Report #2044 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2044 Academy of St. Gabriel Report #2466 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2466 [4] Lena Peterson. Nordiskt runnamnslexikon. Spra*k- och folkminnes-institutet. http://www.sofi.se/SOFIU/runlex/ S.nn. <{AE}inarr>, . Samnordisk runtextdatabas. (WWW: Uppsala universitet, 2004) http://www.nordiska.uu.se/forskn/samnord.htm Signa G276, So"61, U836. Although the feminine name does not occur in runic inscriptions, two 11th c. runic inscriptions from So"dermanland and Uppland in Sweden have the masculine counterpart of the name, appearing in the nominative form (So"61) and the accusative form (U836). The name is found in the nominative form in one 11th c. runic inscription from Gotland, Sweden, inscription signum G276, where it appears as .