ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3098 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3098 ************************************ 28 Nov 2005 From: Gunnvor Silfraharr Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked us to help you find Irish and Norse names for a woman with both Irish and Norse ancestry in the 9th century. You mentioned that you liked the names (Old Irish) and (Old Norse), and that you'd prefer a byname of Old Irish or Old Norse , meaning "horse". Here is what we found. As we explained in earlier correspondence, your period is only very shortly after the first Viking settlements were established in Ireland. By the 850's, the Scandinavian settlements in Ireland had started to be more than just armed encampments of Viking warriors. It is unlikely that women from Scandinavia were emigrating to Ireland this early, especially as the Vikings in Ireland appear to have been taking Irish wives, as attested to by the number of second-generation Norsemen with Celtic names [1]. The 9th c. is just possible for a Norse immigrant woman with a Norse name, but still unlikely; an early woman of Hiberno-Norse ancestry is probably much more likely to have a fully Irish name. There are examples of the same person mentioned in both Old Irish (OIr) and Old Norse (ON) sources that show us how the name of the same person might be represented in the two languages. One example is the king of the Norse kingdom in Dublin, , who was known in Irish as "Amlai/b or O/laib hua Inscoa king of Lochlann", whose byname is OIr "shoe, slipper": is a rendering of ON "the shoe" [2]. Another Norse king of Dublin, , whose forename originated as a byname meaning "iron knee", had his name translated into OIr as [2]. While we don't have examples of a woman whose name appears with a byname this way in both languages, it does show that such a thing was possible. In these names, we've used a slash to indicate that the letter preceding it has an acute accent. The feminine names you selected, (Old Irish) and (Old Norse), are good choices for your period [3]. A byname meaning "horse" is a fine choice in a Norse context. We have documented examples of the bynames and , both meaning "horse", from Landna/mabo/k, the Icelandic Book of Settlements [4]. The Old Irish word "a horse, esp. a draft horse" was borrowed into Old Norse as "a packhorse, a hack", and this appears reasonable for use as a byname [5, 6]. In summary, Old Irish or Old Norse would be fine names for a 9th century woman of mixed Norse-irish ancestry. 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, and Arval Benicoeur. For the Academy, Gunnvor Silfraharr 28 November 2005 ----------------------------------------------------- References [1] Roesdahl, Else. _The Vikings_. (New York: Allen Lane/Penguin. 1987). P. 225. [2] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in. "The Vikings in Scotland and Ireland in the Ninth Century". Chronicon 2:3 (1998). pp. 1-45. http://web.archive.org/web/20041011211349/http://www.ucc.ie/ucc/chronicon/ocor2fra.htm [3] Academy of St. Gabriel Report #2623 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2623 [4] Uckelman, Sara L. (aka Aryanhwy merch Catmael), "Viking Bynames Names found in the Landna/mabo/k" (WWW: privately published, 1999). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/norse/vikbynames.html [5] De Vries, Jan. _Altnordisches Etymologisches Wo"rterbuch_. 2nd edn. (Boston: Brill, 2000). S.v. . Here <"> stands for an umlaut, or diaresis, over the preceding letter. [6] Zoe"ga, Geir T. _A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic_. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1910. S.v. . http://www.northvegr.org/zoega/index002.php -----------------------------------------------------