ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3229 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3229 ************************************ 24 Nov 2006 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if the Old Norse name was used after the 12th century, and particular in Sweden. The Scandinavian languages and dialects can be divided roughly into two families, West Scandinavian and East Scandinavian. The West Scandinavian dialects are those of the lands facing the Atlantic Ocean and the East Scandinavian dialects are of those facing the Baltic Sea. The West Scandinavian region comprised Norway together with the now-Swedish provinces of Ja"mtland, Herjedalen, and Bohusla"n, Iceland, Greenland, and the western isles of Shetland, the Faroes, the Orkneys, the Hebrides, and the Isle of Man. The East Scandinavian area included Denmark, the rest of Sweden, parts of Finland, and some of the Baltic coast opposite Finland. (Here, represents an a-umlaut.) [1] While all of the languages are closely related to each other, it is sometimes the case that certain names were used only or primarily in one family of languages, and not the other. The Old Norse name , pronounced roughly \AH-ree\, appears to be one of those names. was brought to Iceland around 900 by the original Norwegian settlers. It remained in common use there throughout the Middle Ages, while in Norway, it fell out of use by the middle of the tenth century and was not revived until about 1300, when it was commonly spelled and pronounced \AH-reh\. [2] We have found only a handful of East Scandinavian examples, a few runic examples which are undated but probably from the 11th century, and one man recorded in the 12th century in Lund (so he is either Swedish or Danish, or even someone originally from further west, but we don't know which). [3,4 during y We can therefore recommend as a fine Norwegian name for the 14th century on, but we cannot recommend either or for a Swedish or Danish after the 12th century. 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. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 24 November 2006 -- References: [1] Talan Gwynek, "A Very Brief History of the Scandinavian Languages" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2002) http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/scandinavianlang.html [2] 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. Ari [3] --, _Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn_, Vol. 1- (Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1967-. bd. 1, h. 3: isbn: 91-7192-123-8; bd. 1, h. 4: isbn: 91-7192-223-7; bd. 1, h. 5: isbn: 91-7402-044-7; bd. 2, h. 6: isbn: 91-7402-104-4; bd. 2, h. 7: isbn: 91-7402-136-2, h. 8: isbn: 91-7402-115-x; bd. 2, h. 9: isbn: 91-88096-00-9; bd. 2, h. 10: isbn: 91-88096-01-7; Lund: Bloms Boktryckeri AB, 1983 bd. 2), the most comprehensive list of medieval Swedish given names available, has an entry for but gives no medieval examples. This is pretty conclusive evidence that the name was not used in Sweden during our period. [4] Knudsen Gunnar, Marius Kristiansen, & Rikard Hornby, _Danmarks Gamle Personnavne_, Vol. I: Fornavne (Copenhagen: 1936-48), s.n. Ari.