[ANSTHRLD] Name question: Joe the <color>

Christie Ward val_org at hotmail.com
Tue Aug 9 08:59:36 PDT 2011


Antoine mælti:
> It is indeed Fiacha the Blue. His original explanation had something
> to do with the color of the sea.

 
Colm mælti:
> I believe that combining an Irish given name with a Norse epithet would be
> one weirdness at most--considering how intermarried the Norse and Gaels
> were.
 
Whether or not it is registerable, it's just bad practice. If he was in Scandinavia, they'd Nordicize the whole name.  As it happens, we don't have to guess how this would be done.
 
<Fiak bládjúp> (Fíacha blue-deep)
 
<Fiak> mn. Keltiskt namn, fir, <Fíacc>. Ack <fiak> BrOlsen;193a$ []
Lena Peterson. Nordiskt runnamnslexikon. s.n. <Fiak>(http://www.sofi.se/servlet/GetDoc?meta_id=1472)
Rundata tells us that this inscription comes from the Isle of Man ca. 980-990. Rundata. Link to download and use notes. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rundata).
 
<blákinn> "blue chin" heavy 5-o'clock shadow
<bláskegg> "blue or black beard"
<bláfauskr> "swarthy old man"
<blátǫnn> "blue tooth" someone with a dead, discolored tooth
Aryanhwy merch Catmael. Viking Bynames found in the Landnámabók. http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/norse/vikbynames.html
 
<blár> or <bláheimskr>, "foolish, insipid"
<bládjúp> "the blue deep; the deep sea" (barely possible, in Ary's article above we have <brækir> "brackish water, <drífa> "snowdrift", <hvítaský> "white sky")
Cleasby, Richard and Guðbrandr Vigfusson. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon. 1957. pp. 67-68. (http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/germanic/oi_cleasbyvigfusson_about.html)

 
If he was in Ireland, they'd Gaelify the whole name. 
 

<Fiacha Gorm> "Fiacha the Blue"
 
Early Modern Irish Gaelic (c1200-c1700) given name, nominative form: <Fiacha> (http://www.medievalscotland.org/kmo/AnnalsIndex/Masculine/Fiachu.shtml)
 
Early Modern Irish Gaelic (c1200-c1700) byname, nominative form: <Gorm> "the blue" (http://www.medievalscotland.org/kmo/AnnalsIndex/DescriptiveBynames/Gorm.shtml)
 
karadelph mælti:
> Well as someone who once lived in the NE USA Maine & New Hampshire 
> northern waters aren't "blue" they are more grey. 
 
It depends on where you are. You get up next to glaciers, the water is BLUE. Iceland's Blue Lagoon is intensely blue. And, as noted above, the Norse had at least one term, "the blue deep".  Medieval accounts can use yellow, green, blue, or grey to describe water, depending on when and where you are.
 

karadelph mælti einnig:
> In actuality Eric "the Red" 's real name was Eric Thorvaldson. 
> The Red was a nickname that he earned or was given to him. 
 
<Eiríkr Þórvaldsson>, actually. He was probably called "the red" because he repeatedly killed people in quarrels. Landnámabók in particular tells how Eiríkr kept having to move or hide out because he killed someone. You never see him referred to in the sagas as <Eiríkr Þórvaldsson>, he's <Eiríkr rauðr>, <Eiríkr  inn rauði>, or sometimes <Rauða-Eiríkr>.  There are two places where Eiríkr's father is mentioned:
 
Þórvaldr hét maðr. Hann var son Ásvalds Úlfssonar, Yxna-Þórissonar. Eiríkr rauði hét son hans. (Eiríks saga rauða) [There was a man called Þórvaldr, who was the son of Ásvaldr Úlfsson, who was the son of Ox-Þórir. Eiríkr the red was his son.]
 
Þórvaldr son Ásvalds Úlfssonar, Yxna-Þórissonar, og Eiríkr rauði son hans... (Landnámabók) [Þórvaldr, son of Ásvaldr Úlfsson, who was the son of Yxna-Þórir, and Eiríkr the red, his son...]
 
Everywhere else he's just called Eiríkr the red, including Flóamanna saga, Eyrbyggja saga, and Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar.  This is kind of unusual, but he was apparently known quite famously by that byname.
 
::GUNNVOR:: 		 	   		  


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