Re: Braveheart

Heil Alfta!

> I had someone contact me with an interesting problem and question
> concerning Old Norse that I would like to get the advice of the list on.
> This person had a web site called Braveheart. The Hollywood suits (read
> evil corporate types) have made a bit of a problem for this person due
> to their ownership of trademarks or some such thing to the Mel Gibson
> movie Braveheart.

Evil eaters of words! Orðjötnar!

> She asked if there was an Old Norse equivalent for
> Braveheart that she could name her web site.

To begin with I would check whether or not _the concept itself_
is Norse or not. The idea of a brave men having hearts differing
from those of cowards is certainly present in the ON literature.
My favorite example is the comparison of the hearts of Högni and
Hjalli in Atlakviða.

http://www.fva.is/harpa/malsaga/3hluti/frumnorraen.html

(One of those strophes can be heard recited in reconstructed proto-norse
on the above page.)

Then there are the lines from Krákumál:

Hugblauðum kemr hvergi
hjarta sitt at gagni.

Roughly: The cowardly have useless hearts.

And there's a "lausavísa" by Gísli Illugason that has:

Hverr deyr seggr, en, svarri,
snart's dreng skapat hjarta ;
prúðr skalk enn í óði
eitt sinn á þrek minnask.

Every man dies but, woman, a bold heart was shaped for
the 'drengr'; proud shall I still mention valor in a poem.

Gísli's strophe suggests "snarhjarta" for 'braveheart'.

> Zoëga gives:
>
> hugprúðr, a. stout-hearted, noble.
>
> hugrakkr, a. stout-hearted.
>
> drengr is given as a bold, valiant man.
>
> hjarta is heart
>
> I recall a while back, Haukur's (I think) guidelines for compound words
> which gave that the first word should be in the accus. singular, gen.
> singular or gen. plural, so would "drenghjarta" be a close approximation
> and would that be grammatically correct?

The compound word is correctly formed (compare with, for example, "drengmaðr").
Good work :-)

> Also the first two are adjectives.
> Are there are any rules for converting adjectives into names?

Yes, there are rules. But no simple catch-'em-all solution.
The noun formed from 'hugprúðr' is 'hugprýði' and the one
from 'hugrakkr' is 'hugrekki'. Both nouns are formed by
i-mutation.

Thank you for an interesting question.

Kveðja,
Haukur