ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3080 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3080 ************************************ 18 Jul 2005 From: Gunnvor Silfraharr Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel! You asked whether is appropriate as a name for a 10th-century Swedish woman. Here is what we found. We have previously researched the name (with the slash representing an acute accent mark on the preceding letter), available at: http://www.s-gabriel.org/2545 In that report, we explained that the earliest Swedish instances of the name come from two runestones. Specifically, we have one inscription for ca. 1010-1050 from So"dermanland, Sweden. We also have one inscription ca. 1060-1100, from Va"stmanland, Sweden, for a woman named ; this is the feminine name prefixed with a by-name from the Norse god-name [1, 2]. The and above represent an o-umlaut and an a-umlaut, respectively. The notation {dh} used above represents the character 'edh', which looks like a backward <6> with a crossbar on the riser. Our sources for early names in Sweden are quite few. Our best source of evidence is the runic inscriptions, but even that is limited. Almost all of the Swedish runestones were produced in the period roughly from 990 to 1130. Based on the runic inscriptions we do have, we can only place the name in the 11th century in Sweden, but since one of our examples is from the early part of the century, the name may also be appropriate in the late 10th century as well. would be pronounced roughly \DEE-sah\. We were not able to find an example of the name in your period. The surname may have developed from an earlier locative byname, a type of identifer that tells where a person lives. Locative bynames were the second most common type of byname after patronymics [3]. may also have developed as a surname in the early-modern era, from Swedish "birch" and "grove". Old Norse placenames could have similar elements, including "birch", "birch-trees, birch-wood", and "grove" [4]. Both and (the singular possessive form of ) were used in place-names, but seems more likely in connection with a whole grove of trees. The above represents the Icelandic o-ogonek, an with a backward-comma-shaped hook hanging from the bottom. This is a standard modern scholarly symbol used to represent an Icelandic sound that has a particular historical origin; early manuscripts use a variety of letter forms. It's likely that , the Latin name used by the 9th century chronicler Rimbert for an important Swedish trading port (now Birka, near Stockholm in the Ma"lar Sea), represents an earlier form of [5]. In Norway, we have medieval charters with a farm-name derived from Old Norse [6]. We also found the Norwegian place-names , from ON and , "land (as opposed to sea), a country"; , from ON and , "ness, headland"; and , from ON and <{th}veit> "a small parcel of land; an outlying cottage with its paddock" [7]. The {th} represents the character 'thorn', which resembles a lower-case p overlapping a lower-case b, so that they share a single loop. We found several placenames in Norway naming types of groves of trees, with names derived from Old Norse "ash grove", "aspen grove", "fir-tree grove", and "pine-needle grove" [6]. A Swedish runic inscription has the placename "Freyr's groves", ca. 1050-1100 from So"dermanland, so we know that the <-lundr> element was in use in Swedish placenames as well [8, 9]. In your period, a preposition expressing the idea "at, of, in" was an integral part of a locative byname. Different prepositions were used with different place-names; with names whose last element was a word for "a wood", "a grove", or the like, the usual preposition was , whose basic meaning is "in" [10]. However, usage wasn't entirely consistent, and Landna/mabo/k (the Icelandic Book of Settlements) consistently has "at Lundr" [11]. (For grammatical reasons changes to after any of the locative prepositions.) The most likely locative byname based on a place-name is therefore , but is also possible. These are pronounced approximately \ee BEER-kee-loon-dee\ and \aht BEER-kee-loon-dee\, where \oo\ stands for the vowel of , not , and the syllable \loon\ has secondary stress. In summary, is a fine name for for an 11th c. Swedish woman, and would be reasonable for the late 10th c. as well. 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/esruner.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 . 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 tenth century we would expect to see spellings similar to or [12]. 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 and Arval Benicoeur. For the Academy, Gunnvor Silfraharr 18 July 2005 ----------------------------------------------------- References [1] Lena Peterson. Nordiskt runnamnslexikon. (WWW: Spra*k- och folkminnes-institutet). http://www.sofi.se/SOFIU/runlex/ S.nn. , . [2] Samnordisk runtextdatabas. (WWW: Uppsala universitet, 2004). http://home.swipnet.se/~w-61277/rundata/1.htm So"352 §A : ailkulfR : rais{th}i : stin : {th}ansi : [at] : {th}urfast : mag : sin : tisa : at bru{th}ur sia ...---u §B tisa : kiar{th}- eft-- ... sina §C tu{th}ruu [§A Helgulfr(?) raised this stone in memory of {TH}orfastr, his kinsman-by-marriage; Di/sa in memory of her brother ... §B Di/sa made in memory of ... her.] Vs24 buonti X ku{th}r X hulmkoetr X lit X resa X ufteR X o{th}intisu X kunu X seno X kumbr X hifrya X til X hasuimura X iki betr X {th}on X byi ra{th}r ro{th}balir X risti X runi X {th}isa X sikmuntaR X uaR ... sestR X ku{th} [The good husbandman Holmgautr had (the stone) raised in memory of O/{dh}in-Di/sa, his wife. There will come to Ho,sumy/rar no better housewife, who arranges the estate. Red-Balli carved these runes. O/{dh}in-Di/sa was a good sister to Sigmundr.] [3] Academy of St. Gabriel Report #1919 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1919 [4] Cleasby, Richard and Gudbrandr Vigfusson. _An Icelandic-English Dictionary_. 2nd. ed. Oxford: Clarendon. 1957. p. 66 s.v. , p. 399 s.v. . [5] Rimbert. Vita Anskarii. Monumenta Germaniae Historica 55. Hannover: Hahn, 1988. . [6] Rygh, Oluf. Norske Gaardnavne. http://www.dokpro.uio.no/rygh_ng/rygh_form.html 1593 and 1603. [7] Sandnes, J{o|}rn, and Ola Stemshaug, _Norsk Stadnamnleksikon_, 4th ed. (Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, Oslo). S>nn. , , . The represents the character o-slash. [8] Peterson, op. cit [see note [1] above]. S.n. . [9] Samnordisk runtextdatabas, op. cit. [see note [2] above]. Signa So" 208 and O"g136. [10] Cleasby and Vigfusson, op. cit. [see note [4] above]. Pp. 315-316. S.v. . [11] Arno/rsson, Einar, ed. _Landna/mabo/k I/slands_ (Reykjavi/k: Helgafell, 1948). Pp, 84, 90, 243: , , <{TH}o/rir ... bjo/ at Lundi> "{TH}o/rir ... settled at Lundi". [12] The runic form of is possible because is often omitted before a consonant.