Re: ON names in folk- ( 8 plus 1 difficult and 1 dubious)

Heill Konráð!

Thanks for posting these; inteersting stuff. I suppose 'folkvaldi'
may not have counted as a name in Old Norse any more than 'fylkir',
though it's used in a kenning for Freyr in Skírnismál (and 'folkvaldr'
also appears as a kenning for a human ruler). On the other hand, the
Old English cognate does appear as a name in Béowulf, as Folcwalda,
the father of Finn.

Folcwig (=ON Folkvér?, cf. Hloþvér : Hlodowech, Ludwig) is attested in
continental Germanic at least as the name of bishop of Worms, but I'm
not sure of the date.

Does 'folk' ever occur as the last element of a name, as 'polk' does
in old Russian names? The Slavonic 'polk' is supped to be a loan from
East Germanic, but I'm not sure if that ever appears as the first
element of compound names, or whether the practice of using it finally
originated in Slavic.

Llama Nom


--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "akoddsson" <konrad_oddsson@...>
wrote:

>
> Using the inscriptional evidence, we get:
>
> folkvé : folkvarþr : folkgeirr : folkuþr : folkbiorn : folkmarr :
> folki : folka
>
> folki and folka are just the short-forms for masc. and fem. names in
> folk, respectively. Folkgeirr is somewhat dubious, as the
> inscription reads fulkir (coulf be fylkir), but name -geirr names
> show -kir, -ker, -kiz, -kez in younger Swedish inscriptions, while
> older ones tend to show -kaiz. Given that a personal name *fylkir is
> otherwise not attested, *folkgeirr is what most scholars would read,
> as it belongs to a known name-category. Folkuþr is just a typical,
> conservative West Norse version of the inscribed fulkaþr (uþr/aþr <
> PN *folkôþuz). The name folkvarþr (or folkvorþr) is alone found
> inscribed in West Norse (one time, against non elsewhere).
>
> Using pre-reformation non-saga sources, we add:
>
> folkviþr : *folkvin(r) : folksteinn : folkarr :
>
> OS folkvidher; folkvinr OS (folkvin 1279-1421) OD(folkwin, folken),
> but also OG folcwin, OE folkwine volken 1371-1687 - thus, the name
> could, but need not be, a Germanic borrowing. folksteinn (OS folsten
> 1446), folkviþr (OS folkvidher, folvit 1283-1520 OGut fullkuiþr),
> and folkarr OS (folkar 1385) OD (folker 1413-1645) OGut (folkar) are
> are normal ON formations.
>
> Using saga-sources, we add nothing, as names in folk- seem to have
> been non-existent (or more probably more correctly, much rarer) in
> West Norse areas. Combining our pre-reformation sources, we get:
>
> folkviþr : folkvé : folkvarþr/vorþr : folkuþr : *folkgeirr :
> folkarr : folksteinn : folkbiorn : folkmarr
>
> 8 names plus *folkgeirr, which while probably not fylkir, could be a
> masc. equivalent to folkvé (*folkvér), even if written fulkir (on
> this compare, for instance, þórir < þórvér beside þórvé, etc.), but
> a resulting West Norse *følkir would be strange, and while fylkir
> could result, it would run into the ON word fylkir, which is not a
> personal name, as far as we can tell. On the other hand, *folkvér
> would avoid having to reconstruct *folkvér, which would be the most
> obvious reconstruction in view of folkvé. Any ideas or references
> here would be appreciated. Lastly, a fem. *folkbiorg is a likely
> reconstruction, based on folksteinn (same meaning) and folkbiorn
> (while not cognate, mascs. in -biorn occur beside fems. in -biorg/
> borg in other categories). I left folkvinr out as dubious, but it
> could be actual for ON (compare auþunn < auþvinr).
>
> -K
>