ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3279 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3279 ************************************ 5 Jun 2008 From: Elizabeth Turner de Carlisle Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked about the structure of Old Norse or Icelandic household names between the 8th and 12th centuries, and whether or not a translation of would be possible. Here is what we found. First of all, we'd like to apologize for how long it has taken us to complete this report. We hope that the information is still useful to you. You described your household as a 'mead hall'; unfortunately, the only examples of named halls we can find are either literary fiction or mythological. Of the first type, there is the hall in 'Beowulf', called [1]. Of the second type, we have of course (here the 'o' followed by a comma represents the Icelandic o-ogonek, an o with a backward-comma-shaped hook hanging from the bottom), which in English is [2]. Several other lesser-known halls are mentioned in 'Gylfaginning', but these all refer to halls of gods rather than halls used by ordinary people [3]. One of the words for "hall" in Old Norse is , and this does appear as a second element in place names. However, we have not seen it in combination with a first element referring to an animal. There are quite a few places in Norway whose Old Norse names were , meaning either 'halls, dwellings, farms on a height' or 'upper halls, dwellings, farms', and the other names that we've seen have as first elements the names or epithets of gods. Based on this evidence we would not expect to find a place-name like 'eagle's hall'. [4] Most of the places where people lived were farmsteads. In Landna/mabo/k (where the slash represents an acute accent over the preceding letter), the Icelandic Book of Settlement, the most common word we find for these is (here the {dh} represents the letter edh, which can be described as a backward <6> with a crossbar on the riser). A majority of these were named after individuals, for example 'Egill's stead(s)', and far more were named for men than for women [5]. We have found no examples of farms named after animals of any sort in Landna/mabo/k. In Norway we find the element 'homestead, abode, dwelling- place, home' in use for farms. An example of this is 'spruce-home' [6]. Among Norwegian farm names, we have only found one that uses an animal as its first element. is a farm-name recorded in 1394 in the prepositional phrase , representing standard Old Norse 'in/at Geitheimr'. (Here <{ae}> stands for the a-e-ligature, also known as the letter ash.) The first element of this farm-name is Old Norse 'a she-goat'. There are some Norwegian farm-names that contain the names of wild animals and birds, but for the most part they seem to have been named for nearby topographical features that were themselves named for the animals. The farm name , for example, is probably from Old Norse 'eagles' knoll' or 'eagle's knoll'. (Here <{o|}> stands for an with a slash through it.) Similarly, the farm-name in S{o|}r-Tr{o|} ndelag is apparently from Old Norse , which is literally 'nuthatch's house', from 'a nuthatch'; it is likely, however, that the name preserves a lost river-name and means 'house on the river Ig{dh}a'. (The river itself would have been named after the bird.) [7] was a relatively common masculine name at the time of the settlement of Iceland, and it is identical to the word for [8]. Norse grammar requires that change to to become possessive, so the way that 'O,rn's stead' is in Old Norse. is an excellent Icelandic place name, even though in your period it would probably have been interpreted as 'O,rn's stead' rather than 'eagle's stead'. I hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek, Mari neyn Brian, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Adelaide de Beaumont and Ursula Georges. For the Academy, Elizabeth Turner de Carlisle 15 May 2008 ----------------------------------------------------- References [1] "Heorot." (WWW:Wikipedia.org). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heorot [2] Valhalla." (WWW:Wikipedia.org). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valhalla [3] "Gylfaginning." (WWW:Wikipedia.org). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gylfaginning [4] Sandnes, J{o|}rn, and Ola Stemshaug, _Norsk Stadnamnleksikon_, 4th ed. (Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, Oslo), s.v. sal. [5] Ibid. s.v. stad. [6] Olsen, Magnus. _Farms and Fanes of Ancient Norway. The Place- names of a Country Discussed in their Bearings on Social and Religious History_. Instituttet for Sammenlignende Kulturforskning. Oslo 1926, p. 188. [7] Rygh, Olaf. _Norske Gaardnavne_ Oplysninger samlede til brug ved matrikelens revision efter offentlig foranstaltning udgivne med tilfo|iede forklaringer af O. Rygh_, Volume 1-19 (W. C. Fabritius & sonners bogtrikkeri, 1897-1924). http://www.dokpro.uio.no/perl/navnegransking/rygh_ng/rygh_visetekst.pr l?s=n&Vis e=Vise&KRYSS22141%405026=on [8] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931). s.v. O,rn.