ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3316 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3316 ************************************ 26 Apr 2007 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an authentic name for a Norse woman living between 900 and 1100. Here is what we have found. appears to be an error for the name , where <{dh}> is the letter edh, which looks like a backwards '6' with a cross-bar. is the name of one of the Norns, and it is strictly mythological. We have no examples of real people being named , or indeed after any of the Norns. This is therefore not an authentic choice for a Viking woman of any period. We recommend that you chose a different given name. The masculine name is almost exclusively Danish. [1,2] If you'd like to place your persona in Denmark, then is a fine choice for your father's name; king Gorm the Old lived in the 10th century, and we find his name recorded in rune-stones as . [3,4] For your period, the correct byname meaning 'daughter of Gormr' is , where the / represents an acute accent over the previous letter. If you are interested in feminine names which were used in 10th-century or 11th-century Denmark, please write us again and we will be happy to create a list for you. We hope that this letter has been useful to 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 Adelaide de Beaumont and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 26 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. Gormr. [2] Kruken, Kristoffer, ed. _Norsk personnamnleksikon_, 2nd ed. (Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, 1995), s.n. Gorm. [3] "Jelling stones" (WWW: Wikipedia.org, 6 April 2007) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jelling_stones [4] In your period, the Norse wrote in runes. You can find several versions of the Danish futhark, or runic alphabet, on the web: http://www.arild-hauge.com/edruner.htm The futhark labeled Danish Runes From Ca. 900 AD is typical for your period. Notice that these tables identify each rune with a Roman letter; we used that labeling above to give the runic spelling of . We should stress that this is a modern scholarly convention, not a notation that would have been used in our period. From: "Lisa and Ken Theriot" 26 Apr 2007 Sorry I missed this before: [ appears to be an error for the name , where <{dh}> is the letter edh, which looks like a backwards '6' with a cross-bar.] I really think you need to add "and is pronounced like in the words and " or similar examples. For this client, who clearly uses the nickname Dandi, I think it's important to be explicit that you can't get that pronunciation out of Ver{dh}andi. Adelaide