[ANSTHRLD] Re: Grimr name submission

[C. L. Ward]

Bridgid of Kincairn wrote:
>I spoke to this gentle last night at our
>officer meeting. He said that he spoke
>with SNorri and someone else whose name
>he could not recal. He also statyed that
>he has not filed any paperwork for this
>name. So unless you are looking for notes
>you may have taken....there should not be
>a submission (according to him). BTW he
>is now looking into Audun Quickthew. He
>says he found it off one of the links
>from Gunnora's website.....I will be
>helping him to look for more information
>to use as documentation.

Hmm. I'm unclear as to where he found a link on my webpage that led to a
name like <Quickthew>...

Some documentation to start on this name:

<{dh}> = edth (unvoiced "th")
<{th}> = thorn (voiced "th")
<O/> = capital o-slash
<i'> = i-acute
<{oe}> = oe-ligature

<Au{dh}un> or <Au{dh}in> is found in Old Danish as <Othin> or <O/thin>, in
Old Swedish as <O/dhin>, and in OW.Norse as <Au{dh}un>. The first element
<Au{dh}-> is occasionally written <Od-> and is identical to OW.Norse
<au{dh}r> "wealth, riches, abundance; happiness, luck". The second element
is from Germanic <*-winiz> "friend" (related to <-vinr>).

Nordiskt runnamnslexikon shows this name occurring in four runic
inscriptions:

Nominative forms:
au{th}in U505
<Alri'kr had the stone erected and the bridge made in memory of Helgi, his
son; Hultri'kr and Au{dh}in in memory of their brother. Sveinn carved.>

a[u{th}in] Vg92
<Jo,rundr and Au{dh}in raised this stone in memory of O,zurr, their father,
a very good husbandman.>

[u{th}un] So:157+(?)
<Au{dh}un had the stone raised in memory of Gu{dh}-... good husbandman,
made,(?) and Steinbjo,rg in memory of her husbandman.>

Accusative:
...u{th}in So:16A
<... Au{dh}in/Lo{dh}in. He died ... ... Hedeby. May God help (his) spirit.
...>

Lena Peterson. Nordiskt runnamnslexikon. Språk- och folkminnes-institutet.
http://www.dal.lu.se/runlex/index.htm  Accessed 30 May 2003. s.n.
<Au{dh}in/Au{dh}un>, <Au{dh}->

Looking at SMP (Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn,
http://www.dal.lu.se/sofi/smp/smp.htm) it has "Audun see ØDHIN" - the online
version's only A-Holmger right now, so it would need to be checked in a
print version if he's after a later-period Swedish name, for instance.

On <Quickthew>...

The Webster's Collegiate definition
(http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?thew) has:

thew
Pronunciation: 'thü, 'thyü
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, "personal quality, virtue", from Old English
thEaw; akin to Old High German thau "custom"
Date: 15th century
1 a : muscular power or development b : STRENGTH, VITALITY
2 : MUSCLE, SINEW -- usually used in plural

Old Norse has close cognates to English <quick>, but they don't mean "fast,
swift":

<kvika> "the quick (under the nail or under a horse's hoof)"
<kvikr> "quick, alive, living" (cf. English "the quick and the dead")

In fact, Old Norse has a phrase that translates literally as "quick-thew"
and that's <kvikva-vo,{dh}vi>, lit. "quick-muscle; quick-thew") but Old
Norse uses this compound to mean "the calf of the leg" and in
<kvikva-vo,{dh}vi> the <kvikva-> part is from <kvika>, so it's "the muscle
that moves the hoof or toenail" and thus "calf of the leg".

Some Old Norse terms that might make good bynames and have the same general
sense as English <quickthew> would include:

<bra'{dh}fara> "to travel in haste"; from <bra'{dh}> "haste"

<fra'r> (<fra'ri>, <fra'str>) "fleet, swift, fast of foot"
<fra'r a' f{oe}ti> "fleet of foot"

<hvat-la'tr> or <hvat-ligr> "quick, brisk" from <hvatr> "active, brisk,
vigorous"

<hra{dh}-f{oe}rr> "haste-faring; fleet, swift" from the verb <hraða> "to
hasten (towards)"; I'd make a byname as <hra{dh}fari> "haste-farer" after
the pattern of <snarfari> (see below).

Looking at Geirr Bassi (Geirr Bassi Haraldsson. The Old Norse Name. Studia
Marklandica I. Olney, MD: Markland Medieval Militia. 1977.) for documented
bynames with a similar meaning, I find:

<snarfari> "swift-traveller" (GB p. 38). Found in Landna'mabo'k ch. 18 and
90 for <Sigtryggr snarfari>

<inn o,rvi> Geirr Bassi says that this means "speedy" (GB p. 30). Found in
Landna'mabo'k ch. 30 for <Brandr inn o,rvi>, though I note also that in T.
Ellwood, The Book of the Settlement of Iceland (Kendal: T. Wilson. 1898)
this name is translated as "Brand the Bounteous" (see
http://www.northvegr.org/lore/landnamabok/009.php for this translation).
I'm not positive what the translation of <inn o,rvi> should be, since I am
not finding this word in the Cleasby-Vigfusson or Zoega dictionaries.

Hope some of that helps!

::GUNNVOR::