Excellent!  Where are these attested?  I am especially

interested in the rules for compounding and in feminine names.

 

Scott Catledge

 


From: norse_course@yahoogroups.com [mailto: norse_course@yahoogroups.com ] On Behalf Of akoddsson
Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2009 1:11 PM
To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [norse_course] ON Occupational Names - Appendage to Previous Post

 

Sorry, I forget to explain a few occupational names, or even mention
them (too busy writing). Bragi and Skaldi are both attested personal
names for men, and they both mean poet (Skaldi from the neut. Skald by
weak suffix, typical in turning a word of a gender other then the
namebearer into a name). Smidr (dh) means smith, Bui (long u) farmer. A
few compounds come to mind: Bufridr (dh, long u and i), a feminine, and
Bufastr (long u), and Smidkell (dh, < *smidket ill ) . These show well, as
do many other compound names, the compounding was not random in heathen
times, and that not any element could be randoming combined with any
other. There were rules, some phonological, some cultural or religious,
some semantic.

-Konrad