[ANSTHRLD] Question on my King's College clss for the heralds...

[Kathleen O'Brien]

At 09:24 PM 6/6/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>Greetings to the knowledgable heralds from Gunnvor!
>
>Mistress Mari roped me into doing a class on Old Norse names for King's
>College.  I've obtained a stack of Geirr Bassi Haraldsson's _The Old Norse
>Name_ pamphlets from the publisher. I've put together a CD-ROM containing
>local copies of some of the best ON name resources on the web, suitable for
>use at fighter practices or consultation tables at events where there may be
>no Internet connection, plus a bunch of other materials I have available.
>
>What I don't have is any idea what to talk about for an hour.  What about
>Old Norse names would it be useful for me to discourse upon?  What would
>people like to know more about in this topic?  Any suggestions on how to
>structure the class istelf?
>
>I'm stumped...
>
>Many thanks in advance of your wise advice!
>
>::GUNNVOR::


[This is all stream of consciousness...  So I have no idea if any of it
makes any sense.  Please ask me to clarify anything that doesn't make sense.[

The folks here will be able to give you a good idea of points to hit.

I'd recommend putting an overview of Old Norse vs. later Scandinavian
languages somewhere in the class.  (To give an idea of where and when the
topics covered in the class apply to.)

While teaching my Period Name Construction class, I've run across a number
of questions that are commonly asked.

For the most part, these points fall into two categories:
- what WAS done 
- what was NOT done

Some topics I commonly cover in some of the classes I've taught include:

- basic construction examples of "typical" names
- two given names (not used in Old Norse, right?)
- married names?  Did they occur?  If so, when?  (incl. literal "wife of"
names versus assuming husband's surname)
- matronymic bynames (rare, but existed, in Old Norse? - if I remember
correctly)
- locative bynames - how common?  What constructions?  (some languages use
adjectival forms for large areas and locative forms for small areas like
towns)
- descriptive bynames - basic types (from the little I've seen, they seem
to follow a slightly different pattern than "typical" English descriptive
bynames)
- did the naming pool change dramatically over time?  (names come into,
fall out of, use?)

Another point I've sometimes covered is easy ways to clear conflicts.
(Like adding a second generation patronymic or a descriptive byname.)

It looks like you've already covered the "good sources" versus "bad
sources" issue.  You may want to make sure to give a quick explanation of
why names we see in modern English translations of sagas are not Old Norse
- they're modern English translations.  It seems obvious, but you would not
believe how often I've seen people cite a modern translation and then
wonder why it's not authentic for 7th C Norse...

Given this is Old Norse, you probably want to cover runes versus Roman
alphabet.

If, after planning out your class, you don't think it will cover an hour,
you could add a small section about how Old Norse names were rendered in
other languages.  Fellows-Jensen could be used for English and I've got
data pulled for Irish Gaelic, if you want it.

Hope this helps,

Mari
[who is now annoyed that she can't attend King's College - I'd love to take
this class]