A persona needs a name. I couldn't wait for Ludwig to begin looking at names for himself so I went ahead and looked at ideas for what I wanted. I liked quite a few, but eventually I settled on Tórfa. First stop: The Academy of Saint Gabriel, the herald's one-stop-shop for all things device and name specific. Their information for this name was: Past reports: 1121: The feminine name <Torfa> is recorded in early medieval Iceland; it is pronounced \TOR-va\ Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931). 1525: <Ska/ld-Hrafn> 'Poet-Hrafn' and <Ska/ld-Torfa> 'Poet-Torfa' both lived about the year 1000, and there are several other examples of the epithet as well. (Here <Hrafn> and <Torfa> are masculine and feminine given names respectively.) Lind, E.H. Norsk-Isla"ndska Personbinamn fra*n Medeltiden (Uppsala: 1920-1921); s.nn. <Ska/ld-Hrafn>, <Ska/ld-Torfa>. 2334: The name <Torfi> was quite common in Iceland and Norway from the 10th century on, but we have found no evidence of the name in Danish or in any of the languages of Britain. <Skagi Torfa son> (in its normalized spelling) would be a fine West Norse name, appropriate for Iceland, Norway, Ireland, the Orkneys, or the Western Isles of Scotland; but we can't recommend it as good re-creation in Denmark or southern England. In your period, of course, the name would have been written with runes. If you are interested in the runic spelling of this name, write us again and we'll be happy to help. Here are some links that I found to begin to give me direction on the name and when and where it may have been found: Nordic names: female form of Torfi - Icelandic and Old Norse. From an Icelandic - English dictionary - torfa, u, f. turf, a green spot; á yztu torfur sinna herbergja, Fbr. 156; þar sem sær mætisk ok græn torfa, N. G. L. i. 13. 2. many farms built together are in Icel. called torfa. II. a slice of sod (if square it is called hnauss, q. v.); þá fellr torfa ór garðinum ok skriðnar hann, Ísl. ii. 357; eyri fyrir torfu hverja (troðu, næfra kimbul, torfu), N. G. L. i. 101, Ld. 58, 60, referring to the ordeal of going under a sod of turf; torfu bugr, the bend of the sod, Ld. l. c.: metaph., höggva torfu, a slice, af höfði, N. G. L. i. 81. torfu-þíðr, adj. thawed, Jb. 302. Torfa, u, f., and Torfi, a, m., pr. names, Landn. (in Skáld torfa). Cool, so now I began to search for it elsewhere. Icelandic and Heathen Names listed Torfa: (Torfu); f. - turf. Nordic Names: female form of Torfi. Norwegian and Old Norse. Old Norse: torf = 'turf/sod'. The sagas are also a great way to document late period names: Skáld Torfa/Tórfa was the mother of 10th -11th century Icelandic Skald, Bersi Skald-Torfusson or Bersi Skald-Tórfuson. The Icelandic Sagas, or also known as family sagas, are prose narratives mostly based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the 9th, 10th, and early 11th centuries, during the so-called Saga Age. They are the best-known specimens of Icelandic literature. - Valla-Ljóts Saga: Torfajokull - Ragnar and Aslaug - Torfaeus - Grettir The Strong Saga - Skald-Torfa or Torfa the Poetess - Landnamabok - Torfa - Bianni Arnissen - Tórfa Tórfa can also be found (apparently, but I cannot as yet get hold of a copy) in the book: Barthi Guthmundsson's The Origin of the Icelanders. trans. Lee M. Hollander. Lincoln: Univ of Nebraska Press. 1967. Library of Congress Catalog Card # 66-19265. pp. 26-31 I really wanted to do Finnish, so off to a map we go. So, most of the sagas are Icelandic, yet Iceland is over to the left all on its own. My next step will be to find out from those in the know if using an Icelandic saga name is suitable for a Finnish persona. If not, I may have to go generic to register it. More research to be done ;-) After such consultation I may look into the migration patterns and raiding parties during the years 900 - 1050, as this could allow some reasoning as to why a girl named Tórfa could have been born in Finland in the later 900's.
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AuthorI love to research....anything. So, faced with time on my hands at the end of a University degree and also stepping down as the Baroness of Mordenvale, what have I done to fill my time. Study of course. Period feasts and the decorating of them. A new persona for after I stepped down (bye Tasia). This blog is a summary and more of the research that lead to this point, and what ever I do there after as Tórfa. Archives |