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Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!
You asked for our opinion of "Jorgund Ska:r" as a period Swedish name. Here is what we have found.
To start, let me welcome you to the Society. I think you're going to have a lot of fun here. But please don't draw any conclusions based on what you've seen on the internet. rec.org.sca does not present an accurate picture of the Society as a whole. Before you make any decisions about persona, name, or arms, you should attend a few events and see what the game is really like. You would also probably enjoy reading some history of Scandinavia. For the Viking period (roughly 750 to 1050), you can use these bibliographies available on the web:
http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/barbarian.html
This bibliography was prepared by Mistress Thora Sharptooth and is intended for Society use. Any of the books recommended in it is likely to have pictures of Viking art that you may find useful.
http://orb.rhodes.edu/bibliographies/VIKING.html
http://orb.rhodes.edu/encyclop/early/pre1000/scanbib3.html
Unfortunately, we can't recommend any references on Sweden in the medieval period (1050 to 1523). You might want to check your library, read some encyclopedia articles, and perhaps watch the following web page for articles that might be posted:
http://www.luth.se/luth/present/sweden/history/
Your concern about matching your armor to your persona is admirable. Most Societyfolk aren't that true to their personas. My advice is that you start by trying out various Society activities and develop your persona as far as you find comfortable.
We were not able to find the name <Jorgund> in our sources. Can you tell us where you found it? We did find a couple similar names.
<Jo:rundr> is an Old West Norse name. Old West Norse was the language spoken in Norway and Iceland during the Viking period. The cognate names in Old East Norse are <J{ae}rund>, <Jarund>, and <Jorund> [1]. Old East Norse was spoken in Sweden and Denmark in the 12th to early 14th centuries. ("o:" represents an 'o' with an umlaut, i.e. two dots over it. {ae} represents the letter 'aesc', usually written as an 'a' connected to an 'e'.) There is no way that a 'g' could be introduced into this name, but perhaps you may be interested in it anyway.
<Jórghen> or <Iorgen> are medieval Danish forms of <Georgius>, the Latin form of <George>. They are recorded in the 12th century and 1429, respectively. The name also appears as <J{ó}rien> 1475 and <Jwrjen> 1403-1540 [1]. Although these are Danish names, contemporary Swedish was very similar. We believe that this name is appropriate for a medieval Swedish persona, but not for a Viking persona.
The surname <Ska:r> could derive from several differnt sources: It is a topographical word meaning "skerry; a small, rocky island", an adjective meaning "clean, pure", and a verb meaning "cut, shear". In Old Norse, the second meaning was conveyed by the word <sk{ae}rr> [2], and that form could be used as a descriptive byname in a Norse name, e.g. <Jo:rundr Sk{ae}rr>. We found several descriptive bynames based on the word <ska:r> in use in later-period Swedish [3]:
Ska:riokarl (1454, 1456), skerryman, a man who lives on a small island
Ska:rare (c.1462-1467), cutter
Yferska:rara (1409) over-cutter; possibly a head shearer
Overska:rare (1437) ditto
Ouerska:re (1471) ditto
Bardskere (1496, 1504) beard-cutter, barber
In modern Swedish, <ska:r> usually means "cut" or the color "pink".
Heraldic arms appeared in Sweden during the medieval period. There are occasional examples of personal insignia in Viking culture [4], but there is no evidence of Viking shields decorated with personal insignia [5]. The idea of personal insignia is generally foreign to Viking culture. Among the earliest examples of heraldry in Scandinavia are the arms of Norway, recorded in 1280 [6]. If you settle on a Viking persona, then arms are not historically appropriate for your persona. You might decide to use them anyway; we have a short article on this question on the web at:
http://www.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/faq/nonheraldic.html
The sea serpent (by which we assume you mean a wingless dragon-like monster) is found in late Viking art in the Mammen style, which began in the last third of the 10th century, and the Urnes style, late 11th century [7]. We know no example of it in medieval heraldic arms, though various kinds of dragons and wyverns were used. If you are interested in designing arms in the medieval style, we can suggest some books you can look at to see examples. However, it is generally a good idea to wait until after your first few events before thinking seriously about designing your arms.
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 Lindorm Eriksson, Talan Gwynek, Rouland Carre and Thora Sharptooth.
For the Academy,
Arval Benicoeur
References
[1] Danmarks Gamle Personnavne, Vol. I: Fornavne (Kopenhagen: 1936-40).
[2] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames (Oxford
University Press, 1995).
[3] So:derwall, K. F., _Ordbok o:fver Svenska Medeltidsspraket"_ (Lund
1884-1918, sup. Lund 1925-1973).
[4] For example, Njal's Saga and the Orkneyinga Saga describe Sigurd Jarl
of the Orkney Islands using a battle standard.
[5] Mistress Thora Sharptooth, personal correspondance, November 1997.
[6] Brault, Gerard J., Eight Thirteenth-Century Rolls of Arms in French and
Anglo-Norman Blazon (University Park, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1973).
[7] Fuglesang, Signe Horn. "Art," pp. 176-182 in _From Viking to Crusader:
The Scandinavians and Europe 800-1200_, ed. Else Roesdahl and David M. Wilson (New York: Rizzoli, 1992).