ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2821
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2821
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* NOTE: Later research turned up additional *
* information relevant to this report. *
* See the end of the letter for details. *
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From: "C. L. Ward"
12 Apr 2004
Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!
You asked whether is appropriate as a
Danish feminine name from the 10th century. Here is what we found.
Throughout this letter, we'll use some special notation for letters that we
can't easily include here. The slash following a vowel represents an acute
accent mark on the preceding vowel. The {TH} represents the character
'thorn', which resembles a lower-case p overlapping a lower-case b, so that
they share a single loop. The character {o"} represents an o-umlaut, while
{a"} is an a-umlaut. The notation {dh} represents the character 'edh',
which looks like a backward 6 with a crossbar on the riser, while {o,}
represents o-ogonek, an 'o' with a backward-comma-shaped hook hanging from
the bottom. The character {a*} represents an a-ring, the letter a with a
small circle at the top.
is an earlier form of . In Old East
Scandinavian, the language spoken in Denmark and Sweden, the pronunciation
of the initial vowel changed slightly to yield <{AE}> or instead of
in many cases [1], although we're not certain if this change had already
occurred by the 10th century. Adam of Bremen, for instance, already wrote
in the 11th c. [2].
The name was also in early use in Old West Scandinavian,
spoken in Norway, Iceland, and Scandinavia's Atlantic colonies, being common
in Norway through the whole of the Middle Ages, with a couple of instances
as early as the 9th c. It was also fairly common in Iceland in the 10th and
11th c., though later it became much less common [3].
The masculine name is a later medieval borrowing from
Continental Germanic: most bearers of the name were foreign, though the name
was naturalized in both Iceland and Norway in the later Middle Ages. The
name was borrowed a bit earlier in Denmark, which had closer ties to the
European Continent, and it may have entered Danish use in the 12th c.,
Icelandic in the 13th c., and Norwegian ca.1300 [3].
There are some more or less similar-sounding Old Norse masculine names that
occur earlier in Scandinavia which you might consider. An Old Danish form
of the name appears in a runic inscription ca.750/800-900, but it
appears that the name was already falling into disuse in Denmark in the
Viking period. Old Danish forms of also appear in several runic
inscriptions. The name is found in Denmark by the 12th c. and
corresponds to Old West Scandinavian . This name is related
to the name of King Hrothgar of Denmark in the Old English poem 'Beowulf',
which may represent an adaptation of Old Norse into Old
English [4, 5]. Runic inscriptions from Sweden also have a couple of
similar names, and [6].
Once you've chosen a name for your father, please write us again and we'll
be happy to tell you the correct patronym, as well as give you the
pronunciation of the name.
In the tenth century, Danish names would have been written in runes, not in
Roman letters. If you'd like more information on how to write them
authentically, once you have selected a name for your father, we'll be happy
work out suitable tenth-century runic spellings.
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 Talan Gwynek, Aryanhwy merch Catmael,
and Arval Benicoeur.
For the Academy,
Gunnvor silfraharr
12 April 2004
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References
[1] Knudsen Gunnar, Marius Kristiansen, & Rikard Hornby, _Danmarks Gamle
Personnavne_, Vol. I: Fornavne (Copenhagen: 1936-48). S.n. .
[2] Adam of Bremen. _Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum_.
Scriptores rerum germanicarum in usum scholarum. (Hannoverae et Lipsiae:
1917). [Written ca. 1070. A history of the See of Hamburg and of the
Christian missions in the North from A.D. 788 to 1072.] Adam of Bremen.
_Adam of Bremen's History of the Archbishops of Hamberg-Bremen_. Francis J.
Tschan, trans. (New York, 1959).
[3] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla"ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n
Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn:
1931). S.n. .
[4] Insley, John, _Scandinavian personal names in Norfolk: a survey based on
medieval records and place-names_ (Uppsala: Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy;
Stockholm : Distributor, Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1994). S.nn.
, , .
[5] The Danish King Hrothgar appears once in the Old English poem Widsith
(l. 46, ) and also over 40 times in the Old English epic poem
Beowulf (, ll. 61a, 64a, 235a, 277b, 335b, 339b, 356b, 367b,
371a, 396b, 407a, 417a, 456a, 614a, 653a, 826a, 863a, 925a, 1017a, 1321a,
1399a, 1407a, 1456b, 1483a, 1580a, 1592a, 1646b, 1687a, 1816b, 1840a, 1884b,
1899a, 1990b, 2010b, 2020b, 2129a, 2155b, 2351b. , ll. 152a,
662a, 717a, 1065b, 1236a, 1296a.) See: Beowulf. Labyrinth Library Old
English Texts. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University. 10 December 1994.
http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/library/oe/texts/a4.1.html. Accessed 23
March 2004; Widsith. Labyrinth Library Old English Texts. Washington,
D.C.: Georgetown University. 19 October 1994.
http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/library/oe/texts/a3.11.html. Accessed
23 March 2004.
[6] Peterson, Lena, "Nordiskt runnamnslexikon" (WWW: Institute for
Dialectology, Onomastics and Folklore Research, 2001)
http://www.dal.lu.se/runlex/index.htm S.nn. ,
.
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Correction by Aryanhwy, 23 August 2006:
Corrected the fourth paragraph from to
.