[Heralds] German/Norse name for Destiny

[Richard Culver]

>What I meant is that 'luck' may be as close as you are going to find in a
>human name. There is of course a cultural difference between luck and
>destiny,
>but I have no evidence Destiny was used in the naming of human beings,
>while
>there is evidence 'luck' and 'bad luck' were used.

   Actually I am sure there is a least one really loong word for it
somewhere. :)


>My argument is that the meanings of the names did not matter in a literal
>translative manner.

  A good number probably were literally understood.  Cyneweard meaning
"kin-ward" was probably an expressed hope.

To name someone Ulfgeirr would be to imply bravery and
>stalwartness and masculine characteristics expected in that society. It
>would
>not be used because it literally meant wolf-spear and the bearer was
>expected
>to grow up to kill lots of wolves with spears explicitely, but that if his
>family were threatened by wolves (or anything else), he would be capable of
>dealing with it. I actually think we are agreeing here more then we are
>disagreeing.

   Yes we are, but people in the SCA need to realize, and I mean more so the
unstudied, the elder people were much more metaphorical.  So the
translations are literal to the extent they represent really solid cultural
metaphors.


>Going from Rolfr to Thórolfr is expressing a trait aquired after birth,
>though
>certainly he could have been named so from birth. I should have added being
>named with a god-element to my list. Which brings me to the possibility of
>a
>name composed using the name of a Norn as one of the elements. There must
>be proof
>that these goddesses' names were used, in my opinion. I honestly do not
>believe
>that one will find any names showing this evidence, but feel more then free
>to prove me utterly wrong. :)

  I have never seen any.  However, the "-dis" does mean "goddess" to a
degree, it becoming in the plural disir used to reference female ancestors
and goddesses both.  Freyja is called Vanadis "goddess of the Vanir" in the
Eddas.
   Most of the women's name I have read are also high on metaphor
"sword-dis" as an example (I cannot find that particular name right now.

>There are titles which mean 'Prophetess' that could be used as nicknames.
>Specifically sp{a'}kona and V{o:}lu-. This, however, may or may not be
>something the client wishes to explore. Sp{a'}kona is also used to indicate
>a
>practioner of sp{a'}-craft, a sort of magic oriented towards Wyrd and
>Orlog.
>There is a good article on such at
>http://www.vikinganswerlady.org/seidhr.htm
>I am not sure of 'prophetess' would be an appropriate or acceptable term to
>register in the Society due to it's magic-religious connotations.


   I think that would at best be odd, though not unlikely (I would
personally like to see some pull that role off well, but doubt I will ever
see it).  There is probably at least one reference in the sagas themselves,
but the problem there is the language and styles of the sagas are outside
the "Viking" time period, generally written down from the 12th to even the
15th centuries.  I realize however they are the best we can deal with with a
large corpus of the immediate time.


Godspeed,
Cyniric
(who was a 19 y/o generic SCA "Ragnarr")

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