So there is a short, informal talk on ON personal names. Lots of bad
English gone uncorrected, and many names overlooked. Still, I hope that
it gives our readers a better idea about how the ON naming-tradition
worked, and what it's fundamentals were. For students of ON, it should
be interesting, especially for those only familiar with the later, ON
Christian naming tradition, in which the situation is radically changed
from heathen times. It because one cannot form any real idea of the
roots, purposes, or functionality of the tradition without trying to
understand its roots in an entirely pre-Chrsitian society that I have
tried to talk about the tradition in the way that I have. I have not
gone into compound-names at all, or only very slightly. That is another
topic, and as the roots of the tradition lay elsewhere, I have tried to
go elsewhere and say some words about what I have seen there. More than
anything else, I hape that my little talk on ON names helps to put the
situation as we see it in the mideaval ON Christian sources into a more
historical perspective, showing some cultural background for the many,
and varied, survivals found there in the form of ON personal names. I
thank my reader for his or her patience. Verid er heil. -Konrad