ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3292
http://www.s-gabriel.org/3292
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2 Apr 2007
From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael 

Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel!

You wanted to know if <arnora inn heppni> is an authentic name for a
Viking woman living before 1066.  Here is what we have found.

With a few minor changes, you've chosen a fine name.

The name <Arnora> is more correctly spelled <Arno/ra>, where the /
represents an acute accent over the previous letter.  <Arno/ra> was
never an extremely common name, but it was used occasionally in
Iceland from about 900 at least through the 12th century.  We have no
record of its use anywhere else, though it may have been used
occasionally in Norway in the ninth century or so. [1,2]  It's a fine
choice for an Icelandic woman.

The byname <inn heppni> means 'lucky, happy'.  This is the masculine
for the byname; for a woman, the appropriate form is <hin heppna>. 
While we haven't found any examples of <hin heppna>, the masculine
form was used by the son of a first generation settler of Iceland (so,
in the early 10th century most likely), and we have another example
from around 1000. [3]  Based on this, it's not impossible that <hin
heppna> was also used at this time.

You can write this name in several ways.  In your period, the Norse
wrote in runes.  You can find several versions of the futhark, or
runic alphabet, on the web:

  http://www.arild-hauge.com/eindex.htm 

On the page for "Norwegian runes", the "Norwegian-Swedish Rokrunes"
are a good choice.  We would expect a runic spelling for <Arno/ra>
such as <arnura>, where the <a> represents the 10th rune in the
futhark above. [4]  Postulating a runic form of <hin heppna> is
slightly more difficult, as there was no e-rune in the futharks most
commonly used during the Viking period.  Usually, words that appear in
the 12th and 13th c. with Latin <e> appear in runic inscriptions with
<i> or <a>.  The adjective <heppna> derives from the word <heppinn>,
which is an adjectival derivative of the word <happ> 'good luck'.  We
therefore believe that the <e> of <heppna> would've been spelled with
an <a> in runes.  We can therefore tentatively offer <hin hapna> as a
runic spelling of <hin heppna>.

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, 02 April 2007

--
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. Arno/ra.  (Here <a"> stands for a-umlaut, and
<a*> stands for an <a> with a small circle directly above it.)

[2] Kruken, Kristoffer, ed.  Norsk personnamnleksikon, 2nd ed. (Oslo:
Det Norske Samlaget, 1995); s.n. Arnor. 

[3] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Personbinamn fra*n Medeltiden_
(Uppsala: 1920-21), s.n. heppni

[4] Academy of S. Gabriel Report #3101
http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/3101