ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2778 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2778 ************************************ 15 Nov 2003 From: "Brian M. Scott" Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked whether the name <{AE}sa inn kyrri> was historically accurate for a Viking woman living sometime between 700 CE and 1000 CE. If so, you wanted to know in what parts of the Viking world it might have been used, and if not, you wanted to know how it could be modified to make it authentic. Finally, you wanted to know how the name would have been pronounced. (Here <{AE}> stands for the A-E-ligature, which is made by squashing together an and an so that the righthand upright of the coincides with the upright of the .) <{AE}sa> is a variant of the Old Norse feminine name . (The slash stands for an acute accent over the preceding letter.) is a short form of feminine names in , like and . [1] It was used in Norway by the end of the 8th century and remained in use there throughout the Middle Ages. The name was less common in Iceland, but there are examples from the 10th, 11th, and 12th centuries and possibly from the 9th century as well. [2] It was also used in both Sweden and Denmark from an early date. [3, 4] The form <{AE}sa> is particularly characteristic of Iceland, and several of the earliest Icelandic bearers of the name are said to have borne it in this form. [2] Unfortunately, our information about these early Icelanders comes from sources that weren't written down until the 12th century at the earliest, and there were some significant changes in the language between the 10th and 12th centuries. [5, 6] Thus, it's possible that the recorded form <{AE}sa> actually represents a pronunciation that did not arise until after the 10th century, when these women are supposed to have lived, and that they were actually known by the pronunciation represented by the older form ; though we know how the variant <{AE}sa> probably arose, we don't know when. [7] In short, we are confident that is good historical re-creation for a 10th century woman in Iceland or Norway and probably in Denmark and Sweden as well; it was pronounced roughly \AH-sah\. [8] There is reason to think that the variant <{AE}sa> was used in 10th century Iceland; if so, it would have been pronounced roughly \AA-sah\, where \AA\ represents a longer, more drawn-out version of the vowel in . However, it's also possible that it only arose a bit later, so it's not quite as safe a re-creation. The byname is from the Old Norse adjective 'still, quiet, calm, peaceful' and means 'the quiet, the calm, the peaceful'; it was borne by a Norwegian king who died in 1093 and, somewhat earlier, by the son of one of the early settlers in Iceland. [9] We have no evidence that it was used in Denmark or Sweden. However, is a masculine form; the corresponding feminine form is . More accurately, and are the masculine and feminine forms in the standardized scholarly spelling of Old Norse. This spelling is based primarily on the written language of 13th century Iceland, which in this case we know isn't quite right for your period. The older form of is , which is still found in some of the earliest manuscripts. [10] The definite article also has an older form, masculine and feminine . [11] (Indeed, the Icelander mentioned above is called in one source , where is apparently a scribal abbreviation for . [9]) Thus, the form of the feminine byname appropriate to the 10th century is , pronounced approximately \hin KVEER-rah\. [12] In your period your name would have been written in runes. You can find pictures of several appropriate types of runes on the web at http://www.arild-hauge.com/enruner.htm Although we have little or no evidence of just what sorts of runes were used in Iceland, it's likely that any of the types labelled 'Norwegian-Danish Runes from the 800's', 'Norwegian-Swedish Ro"krunes (ca. 800-900)', and 'Runes from the 900's to ca. 1050 AD' would be suitable, given the very close linguistic and cultural ties between Iceland and Norway. Using the same labels for the runes as are used at the web site, your name would be written . Here stands for an with a reversed comma hanging from its lower edge and represents the fourth rune; plain represents the tenth rune. Note that you should use this spelling only when writing your name in runes. To put all the pieces together, is a fine name for a 10th century Icelandic or Norwegian woman. <{AE}sa in kvirra> may also be suitable for an Icelander, but we are not certain that the variant <{AE}sa> was in use quite that early. Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Juliana de Luna, Adelaide de Beaumont, and Richenda de Jardin also contributed to this letter. We hope that it has been useful and that you'll not hesitate to write again if you have any further questions. For the Academy, Talan Gwynek 15 November 2003 ===== References and Notes: [1] The in stands for a letter that is no longer used and is usually represented in print as an with a reversed comma hanging from its lower edge. [2] 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. . (Here stands for a-umlaut, and stands for an with a small circle directly above it.) [3] Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn. Vol. 1- (Uppsala: 1967-. bd. 1, h. 2; Bloms Boktryckeri AB: Lund 1973); s.n. . [4] Knudsen, Gunnar, Marius Kristiansen, & Rikard Hornby. Danmarks Gamle Personnavne. Vol. I: Fornavne (Copenhagen: 1936-48); s.n. . [5] Gordon, E.V. Introduction to Old Norse, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1957); p. xlix. [6] Some idea of the historical changes in Old Norse can be gleaned from Gordon, op. cit., pp. 270-282, but this is just a short summary and very technical to boot. A couple of simple examples are probably much more informative. We know, for instance, that the names and , both of which are found very early in Iceland (Lind, op. cit. s.nn. , ), were actually still and in the 10th century. The changes between 700 and 1000 were even greater: the name , as it would have been written in a good 13th century text, appears in a runic inscription ca. 700 as [13]. (Here <{th}> stands for the thorn rune, which looks like a

and a superimposed so that their loops coincide, and stands for a rune representing some kind of -like sound whose exact nature is uncertain.) [7] Certain sounds occurring in the second element of a name beginning with had a tendency to change the to <{AE}s->; among these sounds was the \y\ sound of English . In the name , for instance, this sound is represented by the . It appears that this phenomenon must have become quite general in Iceland, to the point at which it affected even the detached name . [8] The standard scholarly spelling for the Old Swedish and Old Danish name is rather than , but the pronunciation is the same. [9] Lind, E.H. Norsk-Isla"ndska Personbinamn fra*n Medeltiden (Uppsala: 1920-21); s.v. . [10] Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson, and William A. Craigie. An Icelandic-English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957); s.v. . [11] De Vries, Jan. Altnordisches Etymologisches Wo"rterbuch, 2nd edn. (Boston: Brill, 2000); s.v. . [12] The in actually represents a sound a bit different from the ordinary \v\ sound of English. It's the sound of the in Spanish 'wolf', made by shaping the lips to say \b\ but relaxing them enough to let the air escape. To put it a little differently, ordinary \v\ is made by letting the air escape between the upper teeth and lower lip; the Old Norse sound is made by letting it escape between the two lips. [13] Gutenbrunner, Siegfried. Historische Laut- und Formenlehre des Altisla"ndischen (Heidelberg: Carl Winter Unita"tsverlag, 1951); pp. 13, 15.