ÆTHELMEARC COLLEGE OF HERALDS - commentary archive
Letter of Intent #88
Gunnvör silfrahárr

Greetings from Gunnvor in Ansteorra!  I have a few comments on submissions from AE88 (http://www.aeheralds.net/Letters/AE88/iloi.html)

42. Skjaldv{o,}r Vikarsdöttir - New name, New device

Checking in:

 E.H. Lind, Norsk-Isländska Dopnamn
 ock Fingerade Namn från Medeltiden_  Uppsala &
 Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and
 Kobenhavn: 1931. Cols. 914-915 s.n. <Skialdvo,r>.

Lind gives examples as:

 <Sk[ialdvo,r] Bryniólfs d[óttir]> FMS
 <Skíallðvo,r> SRP
 <Skíalldvo,r> SRP
 <Skialldvoru> HKR
 <Nikolás Skialdvarar s.> died 1176
 <Sk[ialdvo,r] Nikolás d[óttir]> HKR, FMS

 FMS (Förnmanna Sögur) is a collection of lives of the
 kings of Norway from the end of the 9th c. to 1263,
 with other materials such as Jómsvíkings saga.

 MKS (Morkinskinna) contains the lives of king
 Harald Harðráði (1046-1066) and the following kings.

 HKR (Heimskringla) was written ca. 1220-1230 and
 chronicles the lives of Norwegian kings from the
 9th c. to 1177.

The letter <j> wasn't used in writing the Scandinavian languages until the 18th century, when Danish linguist Rasmus Rask proposed using it to replace the use of consonantal <i>, so <Skialdvo,r> is the best period spelling. However, modern scholars often use <j> to represent that use of <i> as a consonant, and that's allowable in SCA name submissions as well.

The <o,> above represents the letter o-ogonek, which looks like an <o> with a little backwards comma attached at the bottom.

In the patronymic there are two typos: the <i> in <Víkars> should be an i-acute, and the <ö> in <-dóttir> should be <ó>, an o-acute.

Lind cols. 1104-1105 s.n. <Víkarr> has:

 <V[íkarr]> died 1031
 <Vikarr Þorkels s[on]>
 <V[íkarr] Gríms s[on]> BS
 <V[íkarr] Hrómundar s[on]> BS
 <Grimr Vikarzson>
 <Vikars skeid> (Icelandic placename) also
   written <Vikrars skeid>, <Víkrar skeid> (LN)
 <Vikarr> died 1190, Norway
 etc.

 BS (Biskupa sögur) chronicle the lives of saints
 and bishops ca. 11th-14th c., and were written
 ca. 13th-14th c.

 LN (Landnámabok), five redactions, the earliest
 are Sturlubók (before 1284) and Hauksbók
 (1306-1308). Chronicles the settlement of Iceland
 from the late 9th c.


The submitter will accept minor changes only, cares most about language/culture and requests authenticity for early period Norse.

<Skialdvo,r Víkarz dóttir> would be the most accurate form for the name and the formation of the genitive with the <-z> ending and in two words reflects usage in the earliest manuscripts. The basis for spelling the genitive form of the name with a <z> is the forms actually found in period manuscripts.  In these documents, the genitive case ending <z> occurs mostly after <d> and <n>.

A normalized version of <Skialdvo,r Víkarsdóttir> would also be fine.

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45. Þorfinna hrogn Jósepsdottir - New name

Lind cols. 1157-1158 s.n. <Þorfinna> says that the earliest instances are around 1000:

 <Þ[orfinna] móðir Þóreyiar> FL
 <Þ[orfinna>] frændkona Niáls> died 1010
 <Þorfinna skalld kona>
 <Þ[orfinna] Vermundar d[óttir] ens miova> LN
 <Þ[orfinna] at Hofi> ca. 1100s.

 FL (Flateyjarbók) was written ca. 1387-1390 and
 chronicles the Norwegian kings.

Cleasby, Richard and Guðbrandr Vigfusson. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon. 1957, p. 286 s.v. <hrogn> (http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/germanic/oi_cleasbyvigfusson_about.html) agrees that the word means "spawn, roe" and says that it occurs in Landnámabók and was common as a byname.

Lind cols 654-655 s.n. <Iósepr> shows this name starting to occur in Scandinavia after the end of the Viking Age:

 <Iosehp Grettis s[on]> 1160s Iceland
 <Oddr Ioseps s[on]> Iceland
 <Illvgi Ioseps s[on]> 1100s Iceland
 <I[ósepr] í Súðavík> BS Iceland
 <Ellingr Ioseps s[on]> 1322 Norway
 <Sigurdr Ioseps s[on]> 1322-1333 Norway
 <Ioseppr Botolfsson> 1333 Norway
 <Sighrid Iosefs d[óttir]> 1364 Norway
 <Ioseph Magnusson> 1433 Iceland
 etc.

This isn't a Viking name, but if the patronymic has the spelling corrected to use <-dóttir> with an acute accent on the <o>, then <Þorfinna hrogn Jósepsdóttir> is a reasonable normalized name for early medieval Iceland or Norway.

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47. Ulric Wulfricson - New name, New device

I don't find <Ulric> anywhere in the Anglo-Saxon charters.  Charter S556 (951 AD) has <Wulric> (http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=charter&id=556).  Since <Ulric> is really a form of <Wulfric>, I think it's highly unlikely that we'd see two different forms like this in the same Anglo-Saxon name.

The Anglo-Saxon charters have dozens of examples of the name <Wulfric> (See http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=seek&query=Wulfric).

Charter S870 (998 AD) has the genitive form <Wulfriches> (http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=charter&id=870).

Charter S1352 (985 AD) has the genitive form <Wulfrices> (http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=charter&id=1352).

Charter S886 (995 AD) has <Wulfric Wulfrune sunu> demonstrating the correct Anglo-Saxon form of the patronymic (http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=charter&id=886).

For an Anglo-Saxon man in the 10th century, I'd expect to see this name as <Wulfric Wulfrices sunu> or maybe <Wulric Wulfrices sunu>.

I don't have the resources to look at later period spellings for this name, but it may be possible to document his form in the 13th c. or later.