ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3086 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3086 ************************************ 17 Aug 2005 From: Gunnvor Silfraharr Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel! You asked whether is appropriate as a name for a 10th-century man from the Faroe Islands, or for a name with a meaning related to "defender". Here is what we found. The name , with the slash representing an acute accent over the preceding letter, does not appear to be a good choice for a Viking Age man in western Scandinavia (Norway, Iceland, and the various colonies in the Atlantic, including the Faroes). doesn't occur in west Scandinavia until after the end of the Viking Age, with just a few examples starting from the second half of the 14th c. [1]. In eastern Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden, and colonies in the Baltic), there are likewise few instances of this name, and these come from runic inscriptions; in Denmark, we found a man mentioned in two inscriptions dating ca. 750-900, and another from ca. 1065-1075, and in Sweden we found one possible instance dating to around 1050-1070 [2, 3]. We also found a similar name, <{AE}varr>, with several Icelandic examples in the settlement period [4]. This would be a much better choice for you. This name is pronounced \EH-war\, where the first vowel is roughly that of , verging towards that of rather than towards that of [5]. , the other name that you asked about, appears to be a slightly misspelled form of , which is also written . This is a patronymic, i.e., a name indicating who your father was; this one means "son of Skio,ldr, Skio,ldr's son", being the possessive form of . This is a masculine name identical to the Old Norse word for "shield", but the earliest known historical examples of the name are from the 14th century; there are possible earlier examples, but they are found only in legendary material and therefore may not reflect actual usage [6]. 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 .) Instead of the patronymic, you might instead consider using a byname meaning "shield". Landna/mabo/k (the Icelandic Book of Settlements) gives the name of one of the early settlers as , or using a normalized spelling [7]. Based on this example, would be a fine name for a Norseman in one of the Atlantic Scandinavian colonies such as Iceland or the Faroes [8, 9]. is pronounced \SKYAHL-dah\, with \Y\ as in . Another possibility is to adopt a byname whose meaning suggests a defender. One example would be "a hero, a champion, a man of valor"; two of the Icelandic settlers bore this name [10]. This would result in a name such as <{AE}varr kappi>, where is pronounced \KAHP-pee\. We would expect runic spellings for <{AE}varr> such as , where is the 10th rune not the 4th, and is the 16th rune, not the 5th [11]. For , the runic spelling would be something like , where both instances of represent the 10th rune from the futhark mentioned above, not the 4th. For we would expect a runic spelling such as , where is used to indicate the 4th rune from the futhark mentioned above. 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, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Mor inghean Chathail, Calybrid ine Tere, Alzbeta Michalik, and Arval Benicoeur. For the Academy, Gunnvor Silfraharr 17 Auguest 2005 ----------------------------------------------------- References [1] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla"ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931). S.nn. . Here represents the letter a-ring, an with a small circle over the top of the letter, and represents an a-umlaut. [2] Peterson, Lena. Nordiskt runnamnslexikon. Spra*k- och folkminnes-institutet. http://www.sofi.se/SOFIU/runlex/ S.n. . The notation {ae} represents an a-e ligature, which looks like the letters and pushed together. auer DRM26 (2 ggr) coin from Denmark c.1065-1075 ouaiR DR190 (same person as DR192) Fyn, Denmark c.750-900 [ouAiR] DR192 (same person as DR190) Fyn, Denmark c.750-900 [ayi] O"l74{41}+(?) (doubtful; acc.) O"land, Sweden, 1050-a generation forward [3] Samnordisk runtextdatabas. http://home.swipnet.se/~w-61277/rundata/1.htm [4] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla"ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ [see note 1, above], s.n. <{AE}varr>. [5] It's possible that the pronunciation of <{AE}varr> was still more like \EH-bhar\, where \bh\ is the voiced bilabial fricative used in Spanish "wolf" and "grape". It is the sound made by positioning your lips to say a \b\, but relaxing them slightly so that the air escapes. This sound does not occur in English. [6] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla"ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ [see note 1, above], s.n. . [7] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla"ndska Personbinamn fra*n Medeltiden_. (Uppsala: 1920-21). S.n. . [8] received his byname because he arrived in Iceland with an ship, i.e., one lined with shields from stem to stern, probably indicating that he had a strong complement of warriors with him. [9] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla"ndska Personbinamn fra*n Medeltiden_ [see note 7, above], s.n. . The 10th c. shows that the final <-a> is not required to drop before a personal name beginning with a vowel. [10] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla"ndska Personbinamn fra*n Medeltiden_ [see note 7, above], s.n. . [11] The runic spelling we've suggested for <{AE}varr> is more speculative than usual, since it's based partly on our conjectures about the name's etymology. The spelling we've provided takes into account what is known about the possible etymology of the name, and how that etymology would have effected pronunciation over time as the language developed and changed.