Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 311

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 311

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/311

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings,

Here's the information we found on your 9th-century Norse name.

We should mention that the Vikings came from a variety of Scandinavian countries and spoke different languages. We've researched Old Norse, which is the language of the sagas and what most people think of when they're talking about "Viking names."

"Durin" is the name of a dwarf in the Edda (1), but we have no evidence that "Durin" was used by any real human beings. The reference from 1978 isn't reliable; at that time the standards for research were much lower and many non-historical names were registered.

We found other names which are similar to "Darrin." In these names, a letter followed by a slash is accented. "á" is an accented "a." {dh} stands for the letter "thorn," which is pronounced like "th" in "the."

The closest name we found was "Darri," which is documented in several places as an Old Norse name. (1,2) We also found the Old Norse name "Dy/ri." If your lord might be interested in other cultures, we found the Old French name "Durand" (3) and the Old German name "During" (4), both of which were used during the 9th century. "During" was eventually adopted into Swedish, but we didn't find any examples until the 12th century, after the end of the Viking era. (5)

We didn't find any examples of names like "wise hunter" in Norse names. You mentioned that you knew this name followed period patterns, and we were wondering whether you had seen period names like this. If so, please let us know--we're always looking for new sources.

In Norse descriptive names with two elements, we found that the elements were almost always closely connected--if you seperated them, they wouldn't make much sense. For example, "Bjorn Long-neck" wouldn't be called "Bjorn Long" or "Bjorn Neck." While there are some examples of names which include two elements, it's very unusual. We recommend that you use either "wise" or "hunter."

"viss," meaning "wise," and "jagger," meaning "hunter," are modern Norse words. We were able to track down some Old Norse names which meant "wise" and "hunter."

For "wise," we found the following names ("inn" is the Old Norse for "the") (2)

Spak- (prefix byname--you would be called "Spak-Darri.")

We didn't find a word for "hunter," but we found similar words. We're fairly sure that there are several Old Norse ways to say "hunter." (2)

These words are all based on the Old Norse "vei{dh}r," which meant "hunting" and "fishing--" basically any activity which involved tracking animals of any kind. The "Jagger" that you found is borrowed from the German "Jaeger," and wasn't used until much later.

We also wanted to mention that almost everyone in the sagas is identified by a patronymic (a name identifying their father, such as "Bjornsson." A person of any significant social status (as SCA members are assumed to be) would know their patronymic name. For your persona, even if you're usually called "Vei{dh}inn-Darri" you would still know your patronymic and use it on occassion. You could register whichever form you used most often.

To sum up: we didn't find examples of "Durin" used by humans, but we did find the name "Darri" and some other names which are similar to "Darrin." We found a number of names which mean "wise" and "hunter," but we think it would be most appropriate to use a single term. "vei{dh}inn" is a one-word descriptive that means roughly what you're looking for. Finally, we recommend that you also choose a patronymic, even if you decide not to use or register it.

Lindorm Eriksson, Arval D'Espas Nord, Talan Gwynek, Tangwstyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, and Hartmann Rogge contributed to this letter.

We hope this has been helpful.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel

(1) "Lind, E. H. Norsk-Islandska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namm fran Medeltiden." Uppsala: 1905-1915.

(2) Geirr Bassi Haraldsson (Fleck, B.) "The Old Norse Name."

(3) Withycombe, E. "Dictionary of English Christian Names."

(4) Morlet, M. "Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de L'Ancienne Gaule du VI au XII Siecle."

(5) Sveriges Medeltide Personnamn.