ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2037 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2037 ************************************ 3 Apr 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a Viking man, and you mentioned that you'd previously submitted . This letter is a brief answer to your question. You specified your period as 600-1300. That's a huge span, during which the languages of Scandinavia changed tremendously. It is not possible to suggest a name that would be authentic for that entire period. The Viking Age was roughly 800-1100, and we'll focus on that period. The name was used in later-period Scandinavian languages, but not in the Old Norse of the Viking period. The Old Norse precursor of was . {dh} represents the Norse letter edh, which is written like a backward '6' with a crossbar on the upright, and is pronounced here like the in . The slash represents an acute accent mark on the preceding letter. The name was pronounced \OH-dhahl-reek(r)\, with \dh\ pronounced like the in and the final 'r' pronounced only as a half-voiced roll, not as a separate syllable. The name is recorded c.1150 in various spellings: , , , , and [1]. The other name we found is , recorded in runic inscriptions as early as the 11th century and in 12th century documents as and (where the is just another way to write the \OO\ sound) [1, 2]. This name was pronounced \OOLV-rik(r)\. The Old Norse translation of your byname, "fox", was used in the Viking period. would be a fine Viking name; the byname was pronounced \rev(r)\. You might also be interested in the byname "red fox", pronounced \rowdh-rev(r)\, where \ow\ represents the sound in [3]. In your period, the Vikings wrote in a runic alphabet. If you'd like to know the runic spelling of your name, write us and ask. We hope this brief letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek and Hartmann Rogge. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 3 Apr 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931), s.nn. O{dh}alri/kr, U/lfrekr. [2] Knudsen Gunnar, Marius Kristiansen, & Rikard Hornby, _Danmarks Gamle Personnavne_, Vol. I: Fornavne (Copenhagen: 1936-48), s.n. Ulfrik. [3] Aryanhwy merch Catmael, "Viking Bynames Names found in the Landna/mabo/k" (WWW: privately published, 1999). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/vikbynames.html