ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3232 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3232 ************************************ 12 Dec 2006 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an authentic name for an Old Norse woman living in Iceland around 980. (In this letter we will use {dh} to represent the letter edh.) You also asked about the arms "Gyronny vert and argent, a bordure sanguine." Here is what we have found. is a period written variant of the name whose standard scholarly form is . Here a slash represents an acute accent over the preceding vowel and indicates that the vowel was long in Old Norse. These accents, though very often omitted in period sources, are already found in the 12th century. [1,4] These examples range from _Landna/mabo/k_ to sagas covering 12th and 13th century events. The surviving versions of _Landna/mabo/k_ date from the second half of the 13th century or a little later, though it has been suggested that it was composed in an early form in the late 11th or early 12th century. The initial settlement of Iceland largely took place between 870 and 930, but _Landna/mabo/k definitely mentions descendants significantly later than the actual settlement period, at least into the 11th century. [2] None of our examples of are specifically dated to the second half of the tenth century, but we have no reason to doubt that it's a suitable choice for that period. We found one example of the byname 'shipwright', a man who lived in the 10th century. [3] It's therefore a fine choice for your period, but we do not have any evidence that it's a suitable byname for a woman. The Norse during your period wrote in runes. You can find several versions of the futhark, or runic alphabet, on the web at: http://www.arild-hauge.com/enruner.htm The futhark labelled "Runes from the 900's to CA. 1050 AD" is a good choice. would have been spelled in runes as . As you know, the Norse during the Viking age didn't use heraldry; heraldic arms began appearing in several parts of Western Europe in the early to mid-12th century; by the last quarter of the century they were widely used, especially in England, NW France, and the Low Countries. Since your persona is earlier than that, you obviously would not have used armory. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use arms in the Society: Many Societyfolk use arms even though their personas would not have done so. Whether you use arms or not depends on how you think about authenticity and your persona. You can find a few thoughts on this issue in an article we've posted on the web: "What Do I Use for Arms if my Persona Wouldn't Have Used Arms?" http://www.s-gabriel.org/faq/nonheraldic.html A number of people do what you've done, and that's design arms which are similar to armorial depictions in Viking tapestries and other art work. For more information on pre-heraldic Viking display, we recommend these articles: "Personal Display for Viking Age Personae: A Primer for Use in the SCA" http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/display.html "The Raven Banner and Other Viking Banners" http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/banners.shtml "The 'Viking Shield' from Archaeology" http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisandpeter/shield/shield.html Overall your design is in keeping with typical Viking era shield motifs. However, we recommend that you do not use sanguine: This tincture first came into use sometime in the late 16th or 17th century. Instead, we recommend that you use gules (red). 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 Eleyne de Comnocke. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 12 December 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. A/sny/ [2] Uckelman, Sara L., "Viking Names found in the Landna/mabo/k" (WWW: privately published, 2005-2006). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/norse/landnamabok.html [3] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla"ndska Personbinamn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala: 1920-21), s.n. askasmi{dh}r [4] They are found in the so-called First Grammatical Treatise, whose unknown author quite possibly belonged to only the second generation to write Old Norse in the Latin alphabet; he was specifically concerned with how that alphabet could best be adapted to Old Norse phonology. Many of his recommendations went by the board, but the accents were used at least sporadically. [5] [5] Haugen, Einar, "First Grammatical Treatise. The Earliest Germanic Phonology", Language, Vol. 26, No. 4, Monograph No. 25. (Oct. - Dec., 1950), pp. 4-64