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Names of Scandinavians in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Ilse Lehiste
Ilse Lehiste*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
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Extract

The Scandinavian names in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle were part of the material collected some forty years ago by Erik Björkman and Johannes Köpke and included in their studies of Scandinavian names in England. The main object of these studies was to establish the Scandinavian origin of a given name, and incidentally to establish certain criteria by which a name might be recognized as Scandinavian. Certain other questions, however, regarding, for instance, the development of a name form over a number of years and the relative frequency of the various name forms, can hardly be answered from the collection of data accumulated by Björkman and Köpke. The purpose of the present paper is to pursue the studies of Björkman and Köpke somewhat further, and to evaluate the results derived from some newly collected data.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 73 , Issue 1 , March 1958 , pp. 6 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1958

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References

1 Nordische Personennamen in England (Halle, 1910); Zur englischen Namensktmde (Halle, 1912); Studien über die Eigennamen im Beowulf (Halle, 1920).

2 Altnordische Personennamen bei den Angelsachsen (Berlin, 1909); see also Danske Studier, xxii (1914), 39.

3 Erik Björkman, Scandinavian Loan-Words in Middle English, Studien zur englischen Philologie, vii and xi (Halle, 1900–02), pp. 263–280.

4 The parallel edition of Benjamin Thorpe has been used throughout: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, i (London, 1861). The various manuscripts of the Chronicle are referred to by capital letters: A—Corpus Christi MS. clxxiii; B—Cottonian MS. Tiberius A. vi; C—Cottonian MS. Tiberius B. i; D—Cottonian MS. Tiberius B. iv; E—Bodleian MS. Laud. 636; F—Cottonian MS. Domitian A. viii 2; G—Cottonian MS. Otho B. xi.

5 Vergleichendes uni Eiymologisches Wörterbuch des Altwestnordischen (Göttingen, 1948).

6 Ernst A. Kock, ed. Den norsk-islandska skaldediktningen (Lund, 1946), i, 44.

7 Andreas Heusler, Altisländisches Elementarbuch, 4th ed. (Heidelberg, 1950), 69 and 108, pp. 22 and 35.

8 Heusler, 69, p. 22; Johs. Br⊘ndum-Nielsen, Gammeldansk Grammalik (K⊘benhavn, 1950), pp. 140–141.

9 Stone from Gressli, in Siegfried Gutenbrunner, Historische Latit- uni Formenlehre des Altisldndischen (Heidelberg, 1951), p. 16.

10 The Ynglingatal is attributed to þjóÐolfr, who was a contemporary of Haraldr inn hârfagri. Snorri Sturluson quotes the poem in the introduction to his Heimskringla. Doubts have been expressed as to the age of the poem; Jan De Vries (Altnordische Literaturgeschichte, Berlin, 1941, i, 96–101) summarizes the arguments and brings good evidence for dating the poem in the 2nd half of the 9th century.

11 W. Hennessy, ed. (Dublin, 1887). The name occurs first in 852 in the form Amhlaim, but over the last m of the name in MSS. A and B of the Annals of Ulster it is suggested that the name should be Amhlaip.

12 John O'Donovan, ed. (Dublin, 1851), annals for the year 852. The spelling in the Annals is amlaoib, which is transliterated by O'Donovan as Amhlaeibh.

13 C. O'Conor, ed. Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores, ii (Buckingham, 1825).

14 C. W. Previté-Orton, The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History (Cambridge, 1952), i, 390–392.

16 Anglo-Saxon Bishops, Kings and Nobles (Cambridge, 1899), genealogies of the kings of Northumbria and the genealogy of the family of Ragnar Lodbrok.

16 Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel (Oxford, 1895).

17 Adolf Noreen, Altisldndische uni altnorwegische Grammatik, 4th ed. (Halle, 1923), p. 105.

18 H. S. Falk and Alf Torp, Norwegisch-dânisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (Heidelberg, 1910).

19 Noreen (Altisl. Gr., p. 87) suggests the following development: e>*ea>ia>i, in oldest literary sources usually spelled and probably pronounced io. If the ON name was heard in one of the intermediate stages, the form Beorn must be due to word substitution, since the form beam or biarn would have a different meaning in OE.

20 According to Noreen (Altisl. Gr., p. 116), the change from rising to falling diphthong took place a little before 1200. The falling diphthong in the name form in the Chronicle would then reflect the form prevalent in the ON of that time.

21 Written t, tt, d between vowels or after a vowel or r in a final position; Carl J. S. Marstrander, Bidrag til del norske sprogs historie i Irland (Videnskapsselskapets Skrifter, ii, Hist.-Filos. Klasse, 1915, No. 5, Kristiania 1915), p. 97.

22 Lis Jacobsen and Erik Moltke, Danmarks Runeindskrifier (K⊘benhavn, 1942), col. 240.

23 According to Noreen (Altisl. Gr., p. 168), the oldest known instance of the loss of h in final position is the ODan. runic form flu, Hæltestad, around 980 (flu 'fled,' past tense of the verb 'to flee'; Go. plauh, OI fló); according to Björkman (Loanwords, p. 303), final Scandinavian Tzwas still present at the introduction of OE poh.

24 Cf. Eduard Sievers and Karl Brunner, Altenglische Grammatik (Halle, 1942), pp. 27 and 149–150; see also Björkman, Loanwords, p. 173.

25 The Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland lists the name as Macca cuind (937), transliterated by O'Donovan as Macca Cuinn. The interpretation Mace Acuind ‘Hakon's son’ is Marstrander's (p. 102).

26 Halfdan is the much more frequent form, although Ealfdanr occurs; the expected form would be *Halfdann. OIrish Albdann seems to indicate that such a form once existed; cf. Noreen, Allisl. Gr., 285, p. 210.

27 There was also a HrÐ & Jótlandi, now called Harsyssel, a district in Denmark. About the connections between these 2 districts resp. their inhabitants see Ernst Schwarz, Goten, Nordgermanen, Angelsachsen (Bern/Miinchen, 1951), pp. 218-0220.

28 In later Northumbrian texts a occurs frequently before r+consonant instead of ea; see Sievers-Brunner, p. 54.

29 In ODan. the h in hr was dropped earlier than in ONorw. and OSw. (Björkman, Loanwords, p. 302); the OE forms with h might indicate Norwegian origin.

30 Ed. C. O'Conor, Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores, ii (Buckingham, 1825).

31 Marstrander (p. 51) assumes that Hingar is another version of the name elsewhere spelled Imar, Iomhar, etc. Imar is a very common name in the Annals; Hingar appears only once (in an entry also containing a reference to Imar), and it seems from the context that the -writer had 2 different names in mind. This makes it doubtful whether Hingar can be considered as a parallel spelling of Imar. The entry in question reads as follows: “dccclxx. Kl. Ionnradh Laighion le h Aodh mc Neill o Athcliath go Gabhrain, iar nimtheacht d' Amhlaoimh 7 d Iomhair le lucht da cead long d' forthin Lochlannaicc na Breatainne um a ttaoisicc Lochlann.i. Hingar 7 Hubba.” (“Depraedatio Lageniae per Aodum filium Nialli, a Dublinio usque Gabhran, postquam profecti fuissent Amlafus et Imarus, cum gente navium 200, ad auxilium praebendum Danis Britanniae, cum suis Ducibus Danis, nempe Hingaro et Hubba”—trans. O'Conor.)

32 Geschichte der nordischen Sprachen (Strassburg, 1913), p. 14.

33 The nasalization is proved for the 8th century by the Solvesborg inscription, āsmut, in which a different rune is used for the nasalized a; the nasalization was still distinguishable in the 12th century, as testified by the first Icelandic grammatical treatise (Gutenbrunner, p. 63). The loss of n in this particular word can be dated as far back as the 6th century: asugisalas on the spear of Kragehul is the earliest instance. Cf. also Schwarz, pp. 252–253.

34 ss, spelled os in the Abecedarium Nordmannicum. See Peter Skautrup, Det danske sprogs historié (K⊘benhavn, 1944), i, 121 and 127; Noreen, Geschichte, 51, p. 85, and Altisl. Gr., 153, p. 134, and 80, pp. 76 ff.

35 The question of u-syncope and u-umlaut has recently been the subject of lively discussion. Br⊘ndum-Nielsen, for example, suggests that the older umlaut and the older syncope were simultaneous and occurred 600–700 (op. cit., 84, p. 137; 78, pp. 114–115, n.; 85, p. 139, n. 3). The latest article on the subject that I was able to consult is by Erik Harding (“Något om omljud och brytning i nordiskan,” Arkiv, lxvii, 1952, 198–210), who also gives a summary of views expressed upon the subject until 1952.

36 Marstrander (p. 102) considers this form a derivative from Asketill. The name appears in the form Asgall in the Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland (1170–71); O'Donovan, however, refers to 2 other chronicles where the same man is called Hasculphus and Herculph, respectively.

37 Alf Torp and Hjalmar Falk, Dansk-N or siens Lydhistoi ie (Kristiania, 1898), p. 208.

38 According to Köpke (p. 45), the form Sidroc was the standard form on the Continent and the spelling here imitates Continental usage.

39 On the other hand, the spellings with -g in OE (Swegen, Eglaf) indicate that the palatal g in OE had definitely lost its consonantal character around 1000. Proofs for that sound change are, of course, abundant; the word pegn (ON pegn, OS OHG thegan, Gr. teknon, Modern German Degen, OIr. takman-, English thane), e.g., already occurs in a gen. pl. form pêna as early as 897 (MS. A).

40 The mutual relationships of the MSS have been analyzed by Charles Plummer in the Introduction to his edition of Two oj the Saxon Chronicles Parallel (Oxford, 1899). Plummer recognizes the independent position of D (ii, p. lxxxi, a.o.) and the close relationship of C and E (p. cxxi, a.o.). He postulates a common origin for B and C and a close relationship between these 2 MSS (p. lxxxvii); however, the differences in the rendering of Scandinavian names in the 2 MSS are significant enough to suggest a somewhat lesser amount of dependence of B upon C. The differences include: 871: Bagsceg B, Bagsecg C; Sicroc B, Sidroc C; 875: Anwend B, Awend C; Guþram B, Godrum C; 876: Half dene B, Healfdene C; 878: Guþram B, Godrum C; Healfdenes B, Heafdenes C; Ingwæres B, Inweres C; 915: þurkytel B, þurcytel C; 943: Anlafes B, Onlafes C; 944: Anlâf B, Anlaf C; 971: Oskytel B, Oskitel C.

41 The Irish form Cailtil (Annals of Ulster, 856) proves that the i-umlaut of a in words of that type had not been carried through till the middle of the 9th century (Marstrander, p. 62).

42 Cf. First Grammatical Treatise, ed. Einar Haugen, with translation and commentary, Language Monograph No. 25 (Baltimore, 1950), pp. 13–14 and 31–33.

43 The spellings Anláf B 911, Anlâf D 937, Anlâf B 944, Anlâf D 994, Olâf C 1030 might indicate a long ā.

44 an>ó over nasalized through combined labial umlaut (Heusler, p. 24); according to Noreen (Altisl. Gr., p. 106), nasalized >ó approximately in 1050.

45 a before l+consonant becomes ea through breaking in WS; a is retained in Anglian (Sievers-Brunner, p. 55); names with the suffix -weald, however, often change this to -wold, -wold (Sievers-Brunner, p. 27).