[ANSTHRLD] Re: books

C.L. Ward gunnora at vikinganswerlady.com
Sun Oct 16 18:12:16 PDT 2005


Clare asked:
> Could everyone let me know what your three
> favorite books are in terms of heraldry.
> Like if I were starting out - which books
> would you recommend for the beginner.
> (Names, device or whatever)  I just want
> three from each person -- ack!  no giant
> lists (LOL)

I don't know about for a new herald, but I've got suggestions for Norse
names documentation.

(1) Geirr Bassi Haraldsson. The Old Norse Name. Studia Marklandica I. Olney,
MD: Markland Medieval Militia. 1977.

Geirr Bassi is OK, but lacks dates and a suprising number of the names are
way after the end of the Viking Age and into the 1300's.  It's really
accessible, however at $6 thru the Stock Clerk, and it has a bunch of names
both masculine and feminine, the list of bynames, and some good solid
explanations of a lot of the grammar needed for Old Norse names.

If I were to have a book I could buy for ON names, it would be:

(2) Lind, E.H. Norsk-Islandska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fran Medeltiden.
(Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931).

Lind is looking at names in Western Scandinavia (i.e., the names of Iceland
and Norway and the Viking colonies elsewhere in the Atlantic). Lind gives
medieval spellings, the source each variant comes from, and best of all,
dates. The text is in Norwegian, but isn't too hard to use even if you do
not read Norwegian.  It's expensive!  But a photocopy works well!

However, the beginning herald can get started with online sources only, so
long as it's the right set of online resources.  I'm in the process of
redesigning and updating my website, and updating articles while I'm at
it... and I've just updated the ON names bib info at
http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/test/ONNames.shtml#bibliography  I also can
review with folks how to use some of the Old Norse name resources.

::GUNNVOR::




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