[ANSTHRLD] RE: Name Consult: Audun Quickthews (Snorri Hallsson)

[C. L. Ward]

Snorri Hallson asked:
>I have a client wishing to try and find
>information for the Norse name Audun
>Quickthews.  I've got Audun in Geirr Bassi
>but I'm coming up short on the
>surname.  Any suggestions?  Thanks in advance.

I actually sent some info to this list already once, but here goes again...

Summary: "quickthew" isn't actually going to be reasonable even as an
English version of an Old Norse by-name, but I can come very close to the
root meaning as an Old Norse byname.  <Audun> is also not the correct Old
Norse spelling of the personal name.  See below for details.

---- Repost ----

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}->

On <Quickthew>...

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

thew
Pronunciation: 'thu:, 'thyu:
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 <hra{dh}a> "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::