[ANSTHRLD] kolbru/narska/ld

[doug bell]

It would appear that another of Gunnvor's  research posts on this name
didn't make it to the list so here it is.

Magnus

Ld. Goldweard of St. Golias asked:

> 1. What is required for documentation of a name I assumed if the name
> appeared in period that was enough documentation even if it only appeared as
> a nickname for one specific person in history. I understand that certain
> nicknames might violate other rules for SCA names. but this doesn't seem to
> do that
> 
> 2. If Kolbr?narsk?ld will be difficult to pass, what is the possibility of
> simply Skaldsson This is the icelandic spelling from what I can gather.


The controlling rules are contained in the Rules for Submission: http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/rfs.html  Every herald, and anyone submitting names or armory, really needs to read this document.

 

As I mentioned before, you have to establish a pattern.  

 

I understood that instead of <kolbru/narska/ld>, "black eyebrow
skald" (here the slashes are representing acute accents over the
preceeding vowel) your client wanted his father's name to mean "cold
eyebrow skald", which would be <ko,ldbru/narska/ld> (the o
followed by the comma is representing the special o-ogonek character. 
The name <kolbru/narska/ld> "black eyebrow skald" is documented,
and if your client wanted to be <Svanr kolbru/narska/ld> we'd
pretty much be done. I would need to scan the pages from E.H. Lind
documenting <Svanr> for you, and <kolbru/narska/ld> is in
Geirr Bassi, which is on the No Photocopy List (http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/admin.html#APPENDIXH).

 

However, when we look at <ko,ldbru/narska/ld> "cold eyebrow skald", we immediately run into a problem. RfS II.3. (http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/rfs.html#2.3)
says, "Name elements may be created following patterns demonstrated to
have been followed in period naming."  One item is an oddity; two is a
coincidence; three is a pattern.  Before you can make other names
similar to <kolbru/narska/ld>, "black eyebrow skald", you have to
show a pattern of naming that supports the substitution you want to
make.

 

If we were to deduce a pattern from <kolbru/narska/ld>, "black
eyebrow skald", it is [bodypart]+[color adjective modifying the
bodypart word]+[occupational title]. With me so far? But your client
wants "cold eyebrow skald", which is [bodypart] +[condition or
nature adjective modifying the bodypart word]+[occupational title].
It's not the same pattern at all.  What you would have to do in order
to support "cold eyebrow skald" is to find other norse bynames that
follow the pattern [bodypart]+[any type of adjective modifying the
bodypart word]+[occupational title].  So you'd go to the Norse byname
resources and try to find nicknames like "blue tooth smith" or "long
arm sailor" and so forth.

 

That's the first problem. 

 

The second problem is that your client wants to use this "cold eyebrow
skald" nickname as a patronymic. Again, we have to go to RfS II.3. and
find a pattern of OTHER documented Norse patronymics created from
bynames. People in Old Norse culture generally did not refer to
themselves by their nicknames. And you do not see patronymics being
formed from nicknames. As I said earlier, there are instances of names
that clearly originated as bynames or nicknames that came to be used as
given names, and you could easily show a pattern of patronymics formed
from diminiuitive names. However, I don't think I have seen an example
of a patronymic formed from a descriptive byname.  In order for you to
document this, then, you must provide at least three documented
examples of patronymics being formed from descriptive bynames.

 

I believe that I can probably document any of the following, which each follow an established naming pattern in Old Norse:

 

Svanr ko,ldbru/nn (Svanr with the cold brow)

Svanr sonr Ska/lda ko,ldbru/nar (Svanr, son of Ska/ldi Cold-brow)

Svanr ska/ld (Svanr the skald)

 

::GUNNVOR::

 

Viking Onomastics Geek