ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3192 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3192 ************************************ 24 Oct 2006 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an authentic name for a man living anywhere in Scandinavia between 700 and 800. (In this letter, we're using the slash to represent an acute accent over the previous letter). Here is what we have found. Both of the given names and can be found in _Landna/mabo/k_ (Book of Settlements). [1] _Landna/mabo/k_ is a record of the principal settlers of Iceland, their holdings, their wives and descendants, some of their feuds, and various other incidents associated with the settlement. The initial settlement of Iceland by the Norsemen, most of whom came from the western coast of Norway, took place between about 870 and 930 CE. [2] _Landna/mabo/k_ was written about 200 years after the settling, though its oldest surviving versions date from the late 13th and early 14th centuries. No one knows how accurate a record it is; scholarly opinion by and large ranges between accepting it as generally pretty reliable for broad detail and dismissing it as a collection of legends. Few if any scholars take it completely at face value, but for all this uncertainty it remains our principal source of information on the names of the early Icelanders. [3] In particular, we've found a mention of a who was among the first settlers in the early 900's, as well as a number of thralls and servants named who also lived in the 10th century. [1] It appears that the name was moderately common among servants, thralls, and other persons lower on the totem pole. The men named that we found include a great-grandson of an original settler, a freedman from the late 10th century, and another man from roughly the same period. [1] The given name was originally a descriptive byname, from an adjective meaning 'dusky; shady (character)'. [1] So, this gives us some evidence for and , but not earlier than the late 9th century. Our lack of earlier examples of the names could either be a result of our general lack of good sources for Norse names before the late 9th century or because the names were not used during that earlier period. We would be surprised if was not used during the 8th century; it is a straightforward descriptive word which was used as a byname before it was used as a given name, and the roots of the word are very old. We're less certain about , and would not want to recommend it for much before the late 9th century or early 10th century. For this period, we can recommend 'Sku/mr, son of Svartr' as a fine name. This name would have been pronounced very roughly \SKOOM(r) SWARTS sohn\, where the \(r)\ is very lightly pronounced. [4] 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, 24 October 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.nn. Sku/mr, Svartr [2] Foote, P.G., & D.M. Wilson. The Viking Achievement (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1980); p. 52. [3] Sverrir Jakobsson. 'What is the source value of Landna/mabo/k? And when is it thought to have been used?' (WWW: Vi/sindavefurinn, 12 February 2005). http://visindavefur.hi.is/?id=5451 [4] A more exact representation of is \SBHARTS\, where \BH\ is a voiced bilabial fricative, found 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, and if you have trouble pronouncing it, \SWARTS\ is a better approximation than \SVARTS\.