While a single name may be enough, I like to do things till they feel done. Therefore as a past Landed Baroness who is now a Court Baroness, I get to play around with alternative titles. I also want a by-name that goes with the whole 'Torvill and Dean' side joke. Finding a first name to go by was easy. Finding a by-name was difficult. The Finnish language now is not the same as the Finnish language in the 10th century. My research suggests that by-names in Finland around this time were standard fare, as were patronymics/matronymics. I want something that represents ice skater, ice traveller...or similar. Finnish is from an entirely different language family, Finno-Ugric, although through political and cultural affiliation Finland is part of Scandinavia. The language of Scandinavia was a form of proto-Germanic that showed up in runic inscriptions which gives a very primitive view of the language structure. The language of Scandinavia in the medieval period is called Old Norsk. Because of the trading/raiding expeditions of the Vikings Old Norsk had some linguistic influence outside of Scandinavia. Remarkably Old Norsk still survives after a millennium as Icelandic. Faroese is also closer to Old Norsk than are modern Danish, Swedish and the two forms of Norwegian. The Scandinavian Languages. Their Histories and Relationships. Thayer Watkins. Cultural influences from a variety of places are visible in the Finnish archaeological finds from the very first settlements onwards. For example, archaeological finds from Finnish Lapland suggest the presence of the Komsa culture from Norway. The Sujala finds, which are equal in age with the earliest Komsa artefacts, may also suggest a connection to the Swiderian culture. Southwestern Finland belonged to the Nordic Bronze Age, which may be associated with Indo-European languages, and according to Finnish Germanist Jorma Koivulehto speakers of Proto- Germanic language in particular. Artefacts found in Kalanti and the province of Satakunta, which have long been monolingually Finnish, and their place names have made several scholars argue for an existence of a proto-Germanic speaking population component a little later, during the Early and Middle Iron Age. Wikipedia. History of Finland. (June 2016). So a map of my 'burial find' reproductions is in order to see what I should be using to choose my by-name. Eura (Grave 56 location) is south west within Finland. According to the information I have obtained, my research suggest that Eura would have been most likely inhabited by Norse speaking/ proto-Germanic linguists as it was during the Nordic Bronze age and before inhabitation of Christians. So Old Norse it is for finding by-names. My first name is from an old Norse saga, so that is good as far as documentation goes. I consulted some texts for examples of old Norse by-names and found the following. skate = skata snow = snjár snow skate = skið bone = bein ski = snjó/r snow shoes = ondurr ice = svell traveller = fara I decided on svell fara (ice traveller) Websites used to determine by-name are: - http://norse.ulver.com/dct/zoega/f.html - http://www.vikingsofbjornstad.com/Old_Norse_Dictionary_E2N.shtm - http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/language/English-Old_Norse.pdf Next: title? Ok, so as I am no longer a Landed Baroness I have the right to use an alternate title. My options are: Finnish options: Baron = Vapaaherra/Paroni Baroness = Vapaaherratar/Paronitar So I will be now known as Paronitar Tórfa svell fara.
0 Comments
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. |
Categories
All
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 |