ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3388 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3388 ************************************ 15 Jul 2009 From: Gwenlliana Clutterbooke Greetings from the Academy of St Gabriel! First, we'd like to apologize for the time this report has taken. We hope the information is still useful to you. You asked our help in finding a name for a woman of Irish descent living in Viking Dublin during the period of 930 and 1015. You also said that you didn't care whether it was Early Irish or Old Norse, but that you would prefer that it sound something like . We must begin by acknowledging that we cannot provide a really satisfactory answer to the question. The main problem is a lack of suitable sources: we are not aware of any surviving records pertaining specifically to Viking Dublin. What little information we have comes from various Irish annals and from the more historical of the Old Norse writings. Unfortunately, neither gives any kind of picture of life in Viking Dublin (or , as it was called in Old Norse). References [1], [2], and [3] give an overview of Hiberno-Scandinavian relations and the kinds of information and misinformation to be found in these sources. Briefly, it appears that, in your period, Viking Dublin was a cosmopolitan trading center, even issuing its own coinage by 995 CE or so. [4] The dominant Ostmen (i.e., "East-men," a general term for the Hiberno-Vikings) had adopted much of the Irish culture and were probably bilingual. There was a significant amount of intermarriage between the leading Ostmen and Irish families, and by the early 11th century, some of the Ostman leaders bore purely Irish names. [5] Unfortunately, we have no information on how far down the social scale these practices extended. The name comes from Irish mythology. was one of the daughters of Dian Ce/cht, the healer of the Tuatha De/ Danann (where the forward slash represents an accute accent on the preceding letter). Her name is identical to a word meaning 'a measure of grain.' She was also called a , which means 'female physician.' We have not found this name used by humans prior to 1600, so we cannot recommend it as a good recreation. Unfortunately, we haven't found either a historic Early Irish or an Old Norse name that sounds much like any likely pronunciation like pronunciation of the goddess-name (or the standard Old Irish spelling). The actual Early Irish pronunciation was very roughly \AR-m@dh\, where \@\ stands for the sound of in and , and \dh\ represents the sound of in and (but not its sound in and ). Knowing, however, that Early Irish spelling conventions are pretty obscure, we also considered pronunciations, such as \AIR-mid\, more closely based on English spelling rules. The closest we can come on this basis is the relatively uncommon Icelandic name (or ), which is reported to have been used in your period. The here represents an accent grave over the preceding , and the name was pronounced roughly \AIR-nu"\. [6] Here, \u"\ stands for the sound of the u-umlaut in the German word , 'to feel', or of in the French word , 'pure': it's approximately the sound you pronounce by saying of with your lips rounded and pursed as if to say as in . To our ears, this is not a very close phonetic match, but we've found that people can differ greatly in such judgments, so we offer it for whatever it may be worth. Should you decided to stick to a wholly Irish descent and hence an Irish name, we have nothing even remotely similar to offer and can only suggest names that are relatively common in the annals for your period. One excellent choice is the name . (where the period represents a dot over the ). [7] It was among the most common, and was borne by the wife of an Ostmen king of Dublin, and we even know that in Old Norse it was rendered [8] (where is an with an "ogonek", and an with a hook like a reversed comma hanging from the lower edge). [9] From this we can infer that in Old Icelandic it was pronounced roughly \GORM-l@th\, where the \th\ stands for the sound of in and . Here are some of the other Early Irish feminine names that appear in the annals for your period (or at worst the first half of the tenth century) and for which we have Old Norse renderings and hence proof of Scandinavian familiarity: Old Irish Pronounciation Old Norse Pronounciation Eithne \AYTH-n^@\ E{dh}na \EDH-n@\ Muirenn \MOOR-y@n\ My/ru/n \MU"-roon\ Muirgel \MOOR-y@l\ Myrgjo,l \MU"R-gyohl\ Here, stands for the sound of in French ('mountain') or the Italian , or the sound that is spelled n-tilde in Spanish. More Irish feminine names may be found in Mari Elspeth nic Bryan's "Index of Names in Irish Annals" [10]. Since there are names from a wide range of dates, you should be careful to assure you are looking at the ones for your period. If you find a name that you like, we will be happy to help you with the pronunciation. If you decide that you would like to have an Old Norse byname, then , , and are possible choices for your father's name. These Old Norse names appear in Early Irish records as , , and , respectively. [11] If any of these choices interest you, please write again and we will research appropriate Old Norse bynames based on these given names. I hope that this information helps you. If you have any other questions or need further help, please do not hesitate to contact us again. I was assisted in writing this letter by Adelaide de Beaumont, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Coblaith Mhuimhneach, Eleyne de Comnocke, Juliana de Luna, Lillia de Vaux, Mari neyn Brian, Rousel Monk, Talan Gwynek, Ursula Georges, and Brian dorcha ui Chonnail. For the Academy, Bronwyn ferch Gwyn ap Rhys & Gwenlliana Clutterbooke July 15, 2009 NOTES AND REFERENCES [1] 'The Vikings & Ireland' (WWW:CELT, n.d.). http://www.ucc.ie/celt/General%20Vikings%20in%20Ireland.pdf [2] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh. 'Viking Ireland - Afterthoughts', in Clarke, H.B., M. Ni/Mhaonaigh, and R. O/Floinn (eds.), _Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age_ (Dublin: 1998; WWW:CELT). http://www.ucc.ie/celt/Viking%20Ireland%20Afterthoughts.pdf [3] Kennedy, John. 'The I/slendingaso"gur and Ireland'. Preprint of a paper presented at the 13th International Saga Conference, Durham and York, August 6-12, 2006 (WWW: Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Durham University, n.d.). http://www.dur.ac.uk/medieval.www/sagaconf/kennedy.htm [4] Foote, P.G. and D.M. Wilson. _The Viking Achievement._(London: Sedgwick & Jackson, 1980); p. 218. [5] A good example is , whose father ruled Dublin from 980 to 989. In fact, his family illustrates the extent of the ties between the Ostmen and Irish. His name is wholly Irish. , his father's name is, itself, an Old Irish translation of the Old Norse (literally, 'iron-knee'). Glu/n Iairn's father, who was king of Dublin for a while, bore the Old Norse name O/la/fr>, rendered in Old Irish as , but he was so well known by his Old Irish byname ('shoe, slipper') that it appears even in Old Norse sources (as ). Glu/n Iairn's mother was probably a daughter of Muirchertach mac Ne/ill, King of the Northern Ui/Ne/ill, named (or Du/nf.laith>). She wasn't the only daughter of Irish royalty whom O/la/fr married: he subsequently married a daughter (named (or Gormf.laith>) of Murchad mac Finn, King of Leinster. [6] Abrams, Lesley. 'The Conversion of the Scandinavians of Dublin', in Anglo-Norman Studies XX: Proceedings of the Battle Conference_, 1997. Harper-Bill, Christopher, ed. Woodbridge, Soffolk: Boydell Press, 1998, p.20. [7] This dot, called a punctum delens, was later represented as an following the letter, e.g., was written in later period as . [8] O/ Corra/in, 'Viking Ireland -- Afterthoughts', p. 17. [9] Ibid. [10] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan. 'Index of Names in Irish Annals' (WWW:Medieval Scotland), http://www.medievalscotland.org/kmo/AnnalsIndex/. [11] Ibid.