Heill Llama!

> Haddingr and Haddr and the Vandal cognate Astingi (*Hazdingos),

Hilda Ellis Davidson draws some interesting connections with Tacitus's
mention of the worship of twin gods by the Naharvali, in particular
the detail that their priests were dressed as women (mulieribus
ornatus), and presumably adopted female hair-styles. I don't know if
the root occurs in any Old English names, but it appears in the
compound adjective `bunden-heorde' "with hair bound up" (according to
the usual interpretation) once in Beowulf. Among the descriptive
names, Þrasi recalls the name one of the Vandal kings, Thrasamund
(*Þrasamundus) and the Gothic noun `þrasabalþei' which only occurs
once, apparently meaning something like "quarrelsomeness" (which fits
well with the ON verb `þrasa').

Yes. Also the compound feminine Thraslaug occurs, and, I think, a few
others of the kind. I wonder if the folk in Haddingjadalr didn't have
some practice similar to the Nahavali. The names Haddr and Hodd, and
their compound-names, seem fairly typical in ON. One wonders why the
hair-names compound at all, and if there wasn't some colour-link to
Thorr in particular (red?).

> Among the colour names, Erpr, appropriately enough given its

legendary associations in Old Norse, appears in a tantalising list
given by Jordanes of heroes the Goths sung about. It's often printed
as Eterpamara, but the initial et- is likely just the Latin
conjunction garbled up into the name by scribes who knew no better,
the true name being Erpamara (*Airpamarha), the second element
apparently a weak masculine derivative of the root found in Old Norse
`marr' "horse".

A compound-name of the really logical, strait-forward kind, like
Hvitserkr(long-i)(<*Hwitasarkiz), Whiteshirt: ON *Erpmarr,
Brownhorse. In Swedish runes we find the expected Iarpr, beside weak
Jarpi, showing breaking. I was surprised to find that the feminine
Irpa was attested at all, though only once. It is interesting that
Erpr escaped breaking. Names meaning horse, or compounds with any
word for horse, are very rare in attested ON sources. One finds the
likes of Hrosskell, etc., but often it is hard to tell even then if
the names are truly compounds. If -marha(z) was the typical suffix in
PN, one imagines that it would collide semantically with -marr, fame,
in ON, leading to all compounds in -marr being read one way, fame.

> > **Maer presents semantic problems, as this is another word with a
> wholy unrelated meaning, and already a personal name.
>
> By this, do you mean a potential feminine name "mew/seagull" from

the same root Maevir and Mor(long hooked-o), impossible to distinguish
from Maer "maid(en), girl"?

Yes. If a fem. -iju-stem followed the masc. -ijaz out from *Maihwaz
or *Maiwaz to form a *Mai(h)wiju beside *Mai(h)wijaz, it would end up
as Maer in ON, following the likes of Fridr, Unnr, Gerdr, etc. in
reforming the nom. to -r. This would collide semantically with Maer,
Maiden, and cause any given name Maer, Mewish, to be read Maiden. A
name like Gerdr only works in ON because the stem-vowel (here by its
i-mutation) distinguishes it from the masc., in this case Gardr, and
because the name does not conflict with any established fem. word of
a different meaning, but same spelling and pronunciation.

> > 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 is indeed. I suppose one of the most striking differences is the

transparency of the native names. I suppose most folk would have known
what their own names meant - the literal meaning - without having to
think about it or scurry in search of etymological dictionaries, or
even in the case of ancient names that had grown obscure, they would
stand a good chance of having some inkling at least or associations
from related words to go on.

Yes. Probably also from similar names in a family. But we should not
forget that no Germanic etymological study existed. We see that, for
example, both Ari Thorgilsson and Snorri Sturluson give wrong
etymologies in the only steads that I know of, one each, where they
attempt to explain a name or names (Snorri in the preface to his
vesion of the kings' sagas, and Ari in Islendingabok). Ari relates
the name Gitsurr (written Gizurr) to **Gisrodr(lined-o), meaning
something like Gis-frith would would think, but the real etymolgy is
*Gitiswaruz, with i-mutation of *Geti- to *Giti (compare to get, and
to the name Otsurr, written Ozurr, <*And(a)swaruz). In Swedish runes
we find Andsuar. Snorri relates the name Audun(dh) to Odinn(long-o,
dh), the god, but the etymology is from PN *Audawiniz, Wealthfriend.
No matter how smart, I doubt that anybody really understood the ON
etymologies for such compounds in those times except when they were
clear as day due to both elements being preserved beside the original
meaning of each in the daily speech. If we sent Kaun or On(long
hooked-o), or Thordr, etc., back in time and asked for an explanation
from mideaval men, I doubt that we would get answers in out time-mail
like: *Kathawiniz, *Athawiniz, *Thunrafriduz.

> 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.

> Another tradition, maybe, but also one with ancient roots and

parallels with the naming practices of the other Indo-European
peoples. One for another day perhaps? Many thanks, once again, for
this excellent series of posts!

>
> LN

Welcome art thou, my friend! And, yes, compounds another day. -K