Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 616

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 616

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/616

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel!

You asked about names sounding like <Else> and <Marta> that would be suitable for an Old Norse persona in the 10th or 11th century.

The names <Else> and <Marta> don't seem to go back that far in Scandinavia. <Else> first appears in Swedish and Danish records in the 14th century, and in Norway it isn't found until even later. <Marta> appears in Denmark around 1400, and we haven't found it in period Norwegian sources. [1, 2, 3]

We didn't find any early names much like <Marta>, but we did find one Old Norse name that sounds a bit like <Else>. It's <Ellisif>, which was used as early as the 10th century. [2] It's not very common in the Society: it's been registered only about six times so far.

You'll probably also want to have a byname, a second name that distinguishes you from others with the same given name. (If you choose to register your SCA name with the College of Arms, you'll have to have one.) Family ties were very important, and the most common kind of Norse byname was the patronymic, which tells who your father was; <Ellisif Ormsdóttir> 'Ellisif Orm's daughter' would be a typical example. (The slash indicates an acute accent over the preceding vowel.)

In your period descriptive nicknames were also common. You mentioned that you have red hair; this feature was always worthy of note, so your persona might well have been known as <Ellisif hin Rau{dh}a> 'Ellisif the Red'. (For an explanation of the '{dh}' please see note [5].) You also said that you were heavy. This suggests the Old Norse byname <hin Mikla> 'the Great, the Large'. For a more exotic expression of the idea there's <Knarrarbringa>, which is known to have been borne by several women in your period. [4] It's a bit odd by current standards, and you may want nothing to do with it: its literal meaning is 'merchantship-bosom'! We don't know whether it was intended as a compliment or merely as a physical description.

Lindorm Eriksson, Arval Benicoeur, and Evan da Collaureo also contributed to this letter. We hope that it has been useful and that we can continue to assist you.

For the Academy,

Talan Gwynek


[1] _Danmarks Gamle Personnavne_, Vol. I: Fornavne (Kopenhagen: 1936-40).

[2] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala: 1905-1915). (Here <a:> represents a-umlaut, and <a*> stands for a-ring, and <a> with a small circle directly over it.)

[3] _Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn_ (Uppsala: 1967-95).

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

[5] The symbol '{dh}' represents the letter 'edh', which is pronounced like the <th> in modern English <they>. To form this letter, make an ordinary <d> with the ascender curled over a bit to the left, like a backwards <6>. Then make a small horizontal stroke through the curled-over ascender.