> Okay, I don't know a lick of Old Norse, but I love the sagas and read
> them frequently (in English). I am a fantasy writer, and I named one
> of my characters Hamrammir (plural of Hamrammur, I believe). I
> understand this word is supposed to be a warrior who can turn into a
> bear. Any background info on this word would be greatly appreciated.

All right. That's a fun question to answer.

The adjective "hamramr" is made out of the noun 'hamr' and the adjective 'ramr'.

The adjective 'ramr' (Modern Icelandic 'rammur') means 'strong'
or 'powerful'.

The noun 'hamr' means something like 'outermost layer of the body'
or just 'skin'. In some cases 'shape' might be a good translation.

The Völuspá has those two lines:

"tungls tjúgari
í trolls hami"

"a moon-chaser
in the hamr of a troll "

In the Þrymskviða Loki borrows Freyja's feather-'hamr'.
When he dons it he can fly like a bird.

The Völundarkviða mentions that each of the three
maidens had a swan-'hamr' (Þar váru hjá þeim
álftarhamir þeira.)

In the Vafþrúðnismál we find the following strophe:

"Hræsvelgr heitir,
er sitr á himins enda,
jötunn í arnar ham;
af hans vængjum
kveða vind koma
alla menn yfir."

"Hræsvelgr is he called,
who sits at the sky's end,
a giant in the 'hamr' of an eagle;
from his wings
wind is said to come
over all people."

Another eagle-shaped giant is mentioned in the Haustlöng:

"Segjöndum fló sagna
snótar ulfr at móti
í gemlis ham gömlum
glammi ó fyr skömmu."

"An unshort time ago the wolf of the lady flew screaming
against the commanders of hosts in an old 'hamr' of an eagle."

So the 'hamr' is often conceived of as being worn like clothing.
The swan-maidens of Völundarkviða are human but can wear a
swan-'hamr' to be swans. Loki borrows Freyja's feather-'hamr'
as it were any other piece of clothing. It is practical for
a magician or god to be able to change shapes or 'skipta hömum'.
A quote from Ynglingasaga:

"Óðinn skipti hömum. Lá þá búkrinn sem sofinn eða dauðr en hann
var þá fogl eða dýr, fiskr eða ormr ok fór á einni svipstund á
fjarlæg lönd at sínum erindum eða annarra manna."

"Óðinn would change his 'hamr'. Then his body lay as if it were
sleeping or dead but he was then a bird or a land-animal, a fish
or a worm and went in an instant to distant lands on his own errands
or those of other people."

Keeping this in mind we can translate 'hamramr' as something like
'powerful in shapes'; 'able to change shapes'. The word is found
in Egill's saga:

"En dag hvern, er at kveldi leið, þá gerðisk hann styggr, svá at
fáir menn máttu orðum við hann koma; var hann kveldsvæfr. Þat var
mál manna, at hann væri mjög hamramr; hann var kallaðr Kveld-Úlfr."

"But every day, as evening drew near, he became difficult to get
along with, so that few people could talk to him; he slept during
the evening. People said that he was very strong in shapes; he was
called Night-Wolf."

The word 'hamr' has this declension:

sg. pl.
nom. hamr hamir
acc. ham hami
dat. ham(i) hömum
gen. hams hama

The adjective 'hamramr' has those indetermined forms in the
masculine gender:

sg. pl.
nom. hamramr hamramir
acc. hamraman hamrama
dat. hamrömum hamrömum
gen. hamrams hamramra

Finally I might mention Selvaarv's recent observation from
one of Edred Thorsson's books:

"I particularly liked Jung's map of the soul with a name-replacement
of "lík", "hamr", "óðr", "önd", "hugr", "minni", sál" and "fylgja"
in place of body, anima, sensation, emotion, intellect, consciousness,
subconsciousness and collective subconsciousness."

So we have 'hamr' as, let's see, 'anima'. There we go :-)

Kveðja,
Haukur