ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 967 http://www.s-gabriel.org/967 *********************************** ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports * * contain errors that we haven't yet * * corrected. Please use it with caution. * * * ************************************************* 25 Aug 1998 From: Diana Slivinska Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel! You asked us for help in choosing a Danish surname to use with the given name "Edvard." You told us that you would prefer it if the name could be related to your mundane name, "Buzzard," or to vultures, which you use on your SCA arms. Words for birds as bynames are not rare in Scandinavia during the middle ages. For example, we have seen "Fughel" (bird), "Falk" (falcon), "Gase" (male goose), "Hane" (cock), "Ho|k" (hawk), "Korp" and "Korpe" (raven), "Kraka" (crow), "Morakulla" (woodcock), "Orre" (black grouse), "Spa:rring" (sparrow-hawk), and "Stare" (starling).(1) In these examples "o|" means an "o" with a diagonal slash through it and "a:" means an "a" with two horizontal dots above it. These names were probably originally used as individual nicknames, e.g. "Edvard Raven", to describe some physical or behavioral characteristic. , for example, might have had very black hair. We are not entirely certain of the medieval Danish word for "buzzard". The modern Swedish word for "buzzard" is (here, "a*" means an "a" with a small ring above it).(2) We have found the word in medieval Swedish and in Icelandic for a bird that may be the buzzard or a closely related bird. Danish is very similar to these languages, so we feel that this is enough historical evidence for using or as byname for a medieval Danish persona. It would, however, be better to use a byname that actually can be found in medieval Danish. The modern Swedish word for "vulture" is "gam." We have found two examples of "gammr" (the Old Norse version of "gam") as a byname for "Eyiolfr Brandzson gammr" (1339) and "{AE}yiulfr gammuR Biarnarson" (1402).(3) It appears that they are grandfather and grandson. However, we strongly doubt that these names actually derive from the word for "vulture." Lindorm Eriksson, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Talan Gwynek, Teceangl Bach and Arval d'Espas Nord contributed to this letter. In service, Giulietta da Venezia Academy of S. Gabriel 1. Modeer, _Svenska personnamn_, ch. 14, p. 102. 2. Hellquist, Elof: _Svensk etymologisk ordbok_, 3rd ed, Gleerups for:rlag, Malmo: 1993, ISBN 91-40-01978-0, v. 2, p. 1369, under '1. Vra*k 3. Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Personbinamn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala: 1920-21).