ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3130 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3130 ************************************ 28 Jul 2006 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an appropriate name for a Viking-era Old Norse man (where the " represents an umlaut over the previous letter). Here is the information we have found. We have found only one example of this name, spelled in Norway in the 15th century (where the represents a Swedish slashed-o). [1,2] We therefore cannot recommend it as a good choice for the Viking era, but it's a fine 15th-century name. We can recommend a couple of alternatives, however, which are appropriate for your period. The name appears in the Landnamabok twice; the Landnamabok is a record of the settling of Iceland, covering the period from the 9th century to the 11th century. [3] was pronounced roughly \AHL-rek(r)\, where the final \(r)\ is very lightly pronounced. We also found the name , where the slash represents an acute accent over the previous letter, recorded in runic inscriptions from the Viking era. [4,5] This name was pronounced \OOLV-rek(r)\, with \OO\ as in . For information on bynames which would be appropriate with either or , we recommend the following article: "A Simple Guide to Creating Old Norse Names" http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/norse/sg-viking.html In the Viking-era, the Norse wrote in runes. You can find several versions of the futhark, or runic alphabet, on the web: http://www.arild-hauge.com/enruner.htm The futhark labelled "Norwegian-Danish Runes from the 800's" 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. is found in runic inscriptions spelled ; we believe that is also a reasonable runic spelling, where is the transliteration of the fifth rune and that of the last. If you're interested in a runic spelling of , please let us know and we will research this. We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you won't hesitate to write us again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Talan Gwynek and Ari Ansson. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 28 July 2006 -- 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.n. O,lrekr [2] Diplomatarium Norvegicum, vol. I, nr. 905; vol. I, nr. 982; vol. VIII, nr. 412 http://www.dokpro.uio.no/dipl_norv/diplom_field_eng.html [3] Uckelman, Sara L., "Viking Names found in the Landnamabok" (WWW: Self-published, 2005-2006) http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/norse/landnamabok.html [4] Uppsala University Department for Scandinavian Languages, "Samnordisk tuntextdatabas" (WWW: Uppsala universitet, 29 Oct 1997) http://www.nordiska.uu.se/forskn/samnord.htm [5] Gutenbrunner, Siegfried, _Historische Laut- und Formenlehre des Altisla"ndischen_, (Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universita"tsverlag, 1951), Section 47.3.