ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3360 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3360 ************************************ From: Coblaith Mhuimhneach 23 Oct 2008 23 October 2008 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked us to help you identify a Norse byname appropriate to the Viking Age and meaning "Redrock". You mentioned you thought some form of or or something like might serve. Throughout this letter, "{dh}" represents the Norse letter edh, which resembles a backward 6 with a crossbar on the riser, "{oe}" signifies an o-e ligature (the letter "o" and the letter "e" squashed together to create a single character), "o|" is a letter "o" with a slash through it, "o," stands for o-ogonek (a letter "o" with a backward-comma-shaped hook hanging from the bottom), and "a*" represents the Swedish a-with-circle. A slash indicates an acute accent on the letter it follows. looks like an error for , a modern Danish compound meaning 'red rock'; this is definitely not suitable for the Viking period. As you discovered, the usual Old Norse word for 'red' is . It appears as the first element of a number of Icelandic and Norwegian place-names. In Iceland, for instance, we find: [1] Rau{dh}amy/rr 'red bog' Rau{dh}a/ 'red river' Rau{dh}ignu/pr 'red peak' Rau{dh}afell 'red fell or hill' Rau{dh}imelr 'red dune, sand-bank, or gravel-bank' Rau{dh}il{oe}kr 'red stream or rivulet' Rau{dh}isandr 'red sand' Rau{dh}askri{dh}a 'red avalanche' (presumably referring to the debris) Rau{dh}avatn 'red water, red lake' In Norway we find (among many others) , which is from Old Norse 'red sand', and , which is from Old Norwegian 'red island'. We also find (now spelled ), from Old Norse 'red slab of rock', and various place-names derived from Old Norse , including , , and probably . is ambiguous, but in at least some instances the first element is the 'red' word, and the second indicates either rocky ground or an elevation with bare rock. [2, 3, 4] For the second element of the name you suggested <-skar>. However, Old Norse means 'the snuff of a candle or lamp', so we suspect that you may have had in mind 'a rock in the sea, a skerry'. Note that this is not a generic term for a rock: it refers specifically to a skerry, a rocky reef or island, and would be suitable only if you want that specific meaning. English suggests that you probably want a more generic term, so we'll discuss that possibility first. The most generic Old Norse term for a rock or stone is , which does appear as the second element of some place-names. An early Icelandic source mentions in Iceland and in Sweden; the former means 'mare's stone', and in the latter may refer to the sound of water splashing on the rock. [5, 6] In Norway we found the following place-names. [2] Though we cannot say just how old they are, all are recorded before 1600, and all are readily derivable from unattested Old Norse (ON) place-names having <-steinn> as second element: , from ON 'mound rock' or 'cairn rock'; , from ON 'Ni{dh}'s rock', where is the name of a river; , from ON 'seal('s) rock' ( refers to a type of large seal); , from ON 'birds' rock'; and , from ON 'white rock'. All in all, the evidence indicates that 'red rock' is a plausible Old Norse minor place-name. A place-name with the more specific meaning 'red skerry' is also possible, if that's what you want: the word was used as the second element of minor place-names. In early Iceland sources, for instance, we find the following place-names: [6] 'farmstead's skerry'; , from 'excrement, especially of birds; dirt'; 'Einarr's skerry'; 'Gunnbjo,rn's skerry'; and 'Helgi's skerry'. The evidence is limited, but it does appear to support 'red skerry' as a plausible Old Norse minor place-name. [[7]] We question whether anyone would have been described as living at or coming from such a place, however: skerries are not in general suitable for human habitation, and we have not seen any references to people settling on a skerry. Thus, although is a reasonably plausible name for a skerry, it probably isn't very plausible as the place-name in a locative byname, i.e., a byname referring to the bearer's place of residence or origin, and we cannot recommend it for such use. A little more work is required to turn into an authentic Viking age byname, since the Vikings do not appear to have used unmodified place-names as bynames. By far the most common type of locative byname was the prepositional phrase, analogous to such medieval English bynames as 'at the bridge' and 'of Audley' (a place in Staffordshire). [8, 9, 10] The first step in constructing such a byname is choosing an idiomatic preposition. This choice depends primarily on the meaning of the second element of the place-name, in this case <-steinn>. If the name refers to one or more free-standing boulders or menhirs, the most idiomatic choice is probably the preposition , which suggests a location near or beside its object. If, on the other hand, it refers to a holm or island, the preposition , related to English , is probably the best choice: islands were thought of as having interiors. Both prepositions require their object to be in the dative case, which for this place-name is . The byname in full is therefore or , depending on the intended sense of . 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 Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Juliana de Luna, Talan Gwynek, Ursula Georges, and Arval Benicoeur. For the Academy, Coblaith Mhuimhneach -------------------------------------------------------------- Notes and References [1] Cleasby, R., G. Vigfusson, & W. Craigie, _An Icelandic-English Dictionary_ (Oxford: At the University Press, 1975); s.v. . [2] Rygh, Olaf, _Norske Gaardnavne_ (WWW: Dokumentasjons-prosjektet, 1999) http://www.dokpro.uio.no/rygh_ng/rygh_felt.html The specific referenced sections of this resource might be difficult to locate; they will be revealed if you use the following URLs, eliminating all intervening spaces: http://www.dokpro.uio.no/perl/navnegransking/rygh_ng/ rygh_visetekst.prl?s=n&Vise=Vise&KRYSS126503%4028744=on &KRYSS43730%409913=on &KRYSS146292%4033030=on &KRYSS197691%4044049=on &KRYSS270270%4059884=on &KRYSS109543%4024902=on http://www.dokpro.uio.no/perl/navnegransking/rygh_ng/ rygh_visetekst.prl?s=n&Vise=Vise&KRYSS136029%4030801=on &KRYSS11697%402671=on &KRYSS161846%4036402=on &KRYSS159252%4035850=on &KRYSS176287%4039508=on [3] Sandnes, J{o|}rn, and Ola Stemshaug, _Norsk Stadnamnleksikon_, 4th ed. (Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, Oslo); s.v. , s.nn. , . [4] In some cases the first element of may be from Old Norse 'bog iron', rather than from 'red'; the implications are similar, however, because 'bog iron' is closely related to 'red' and refers to the reddish color of the ore. [5] Arno/rsson, Einar, ed. _Landna/mabo/k I/slands_ (Reykjavi/k: Helgafell, 1948). [6] Scott, Brian M. 'Place-Names in _Landna/mabo/k_ (Incomplete)' (WWW: Self-published, 2008) http://my.stratos.net/~bmscott/Landnamabok_Place-Names.html [7] The difference between , with , and , with , is a consequence of Old Norse grammar. Specifically, is a masculine noun, and is a neuter noun, so the adjective requires different endings in the two compounds. [8] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995); s.n. . [9] A is named in a 1258 proclamation of Henry III that is available as the fourth Middle English text in the collection at http://www.hf.ntnu.no/engelsk/staff/johannesson/!oe/texts/imed/ me_menu.htm, part of the 'Middle English at NTNU' site, http://www.hf.ntnu.no/engelsk/staff/johannesson/!oe/me_ntnu.htm>, of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. [10] Since is the genitive (possessive) case of the masculine and neuter definite article, we suspect that with and you were trying for a meaning along the lines of 'of the Red Rock'. A name like (where we've substituted a well-formed noun of the desired meaning) would actually have meant something like 'the red rock's Nja/ll'; this is semantically very implausible, so it's not surprising that we've seen no Old Norse bynames of this form.