ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3118 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3118 ************************************ 01 Sep 2006 From: Ursula Whitcher Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked how a twelfth- to thirteenth-century Scandinavian woman from the town of might have been identified. (Here represents a letter 'o' with a slash through it.) We'll discuss forms of the town's name, and then consider how a person from that town might have been identified. or is a town on the island of Lolland in Denmark. grew from a thirteenth-century village called . [1] The second element of the town's modern name, <-ko|bing>, derives from Old Norse 'marketplace' and is common in the names of market towns. [2,7] The town gained the legal privileges of a market-town in 1306; thus, we believe it probably would not have been named a market until slightly after your period. [3] We found several examples of used as a byname in the fourteenth century [4]: Swenoni Saxthorp 1353, 1366 Swenoni Saxstorp 1360 Swenonis Saxtorp 1368 Swen Saxtorp 1376 Jone Saxthorp 1353, 1366 Jonas Saxthorp 1368, 1372 Mathias Saxtorp 1380 Matthia Saxthorp 1383 We also found the place-names in 1274 and in 1352; however, these may refer to a town in Sweden with the same name. [4] In Danish, did not change to until around 1300, so we believe that is a more likely spelling in your period. [8] We found the town of used as a byname in the name of in 1429. The place-name was also recorded as in 1349. [5] We found the modern town name spelled in 1334. [9] The standard Old Danish form of the second element in these town names was . [2] Thus, we believe that or is a reasonable fourteenth-century place-name. Bynames of any sort were rare at the beginning of your period. Most of the early thirteenth century Scandinavian bynames that we found were patronymics. By the late thirteenth century, however, locative bynames begin to appear. Most thirteenth-century records were written in Latin and use the Latin preposition to identify the place a person is from. The form of the place-name itself is usually based on Scandinavian rather than Latin grammar: for instance, we found a man from identified as in a 1298 document from Sweden. [6, 10] We did find a few examples of locative bynames with Old Swedish prepositions in documents written in Latin. The most common preposition is . [11] However, the popularity of , instead of the more standard or , may be the result of Latin or German influence. (Here the slash represents an acute accent above the 'i'.) [12] In a document written in Latin, a thirteenth-century woman from Saxthorp might have been described as . (Since our Swedish examples suggest that place-names changed according to the grammar of Scandinavian languages, not of Latin, we've recommended the Old Danish form here.) In a later thirteenth-century Latin document, the same woman might also have been described as . In speech, or in a document written in the vernacular, she would have been . In the fourteenth century, a woman from the same town could have been known as or . We found a few examples of a patronymic byname combined with a locative in Sweden toward the end of the thirteenth century: [10,13] Iwar Andresar son a Laini 1273(?) Oddonj filio Bruddonis de Niudhungia 1278 We also found a couple of examples from Sweden of other sorts of bynames combined with locatives: [14] Gyrth Bo{th}akarl de silua Rawnd 1290 Enar Cleuakalfr de Farardal 1225 However, this type of complex byname was rare until the middle of the fourteenth century. In a single phrase, a woman from your period would probably have been identified just by her father's name or by the place she was from, though she might have been described in different ways at different times. I hope this letter has been useful to you. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to write to us again. Talan Gwynek, Ari Ansson, and Aryanhwy merch Catmael assisted in researching and writing this letter. For the Academy, Ursula Georges 1 September 2006 References: [1] "Saksko|bing ... Byen der smiler" (WWW: Saksko|bing Handelsstandsforening, 1999-2002.) http://www.sakskobing-handel.dk/byen_generelt.htm [2] Svenska Akademiens ordbok (WWW: privately published, 1997) s.v. . http://g3.spraakdata.gu.se/saob/ [3] Saksko|bing Kommune, "Lidt om byva*bnet" (WWW: Saksko|bing Kommune, 2002.) http://www.sakskoebing.dk/info.asp?infoId=1170196 [4] Gunnar Knudsen, Marius Kristiansen, & Rikard Hornby, _Danmarks Gamle Personnavne_, Vol II: Tilnavne (Copenhagen: 1949-64) s.n. . [5] Knudsen et al. s.n. . [6] _Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn_, Vol. 1- (Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1967-. bd. 1, h. 3; bd. 1, h. 4; bd. 1, h. 5; bd. 2, h. 6; bd. 2, h. 7, h. 8; bd. 2, h. 9; bd. 2, h. 10; Lund: Bloms Boktryckeri AB, 1983 bd. 2). [7] R. Cleasby, G. Vigfusson, and W. Craigie, _An Icelandic-English Dictionary_ (Oxford: At the University Press, 1975) s.v. . [8] Einar Haugen, _Scandinavian Language Structures: A Comparative Historical Survey_ (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1982) Section 3.4, (C15)(a). [9] So|ren Madsen, "O|stdanske stednavne i Ska*ne, Halland og Blegind" (WWW: privately published, 2005). http://www.skaanskfremtid.dk/sprog/stednavne.html [10] _Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn_, Vol. 1 s.n. . [11] _Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn_, Vol. 1 s.nn. , ; 2 s.nn. , , ; 3 s.n. ; 4 s.n. ; 7 s.n. ; 10 s.n. . Andrea jn Fro|svndj 1291 Andres aff Forekarl{ae}by 1296 = Andreas af Fo|rekarl{ae}by Iwar Andresar son a Laini 1273(?) Anundo in Vestby 1291 Atti i Ecnabiarghum b. 1200-t. biscup Aszur af Wæxsio 1285 Ascero in Brunnaby 1269 Bero in B{ae}lingh 1275x92 Botildis in Corsta 1257 Brunulfo in Garni 1291 = Bryniulphus de Garn 1298 Gregorius in L{ae}{th}ingi 1303 Haldanum in Raby 1294 All of the forenames except and have been Latinized, and many are not in the nominative case. [12] Adolf Noreen, _Altschwedische Grammatik_ (Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1904, made available by the German Lexicon Project), Section 249, Anm. 5 http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/germanic/oswed_noreen_about.html [13] _Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn_, Vol. 7 s.n. . [14] _Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn_, Vol. 4 s.n. and 5 s.n. .