At 1:50:46 PM on Sunday, April 19, 2009, Patti (Wilson)
wrote:

> What would this mean Brian - would it mean the owner
> Þorgeir cut notches in his spear to count the number of
> "kills" he had made - it seems a strange name

I've done a bit more research since I posted. Landnámabók
says:

Þorgeirr inn hörzki, sonr Bárðar blönduhorns, fór ór
Viggjum ór Þrándheimi til Íslands. Hann keypti land at
Ásgeiri kneif milli Lambafellsár ok Írár ok bjó í Holti.
Fám vetrum síðar fekk hann Ásgerðar, dóttur Asks ins
ómálga, ok váru þeira synir Þorgrímr inn mikli ok
Holta-Þórir, faðir Þorleifs kráks ok Skorar-Geirs.

The last-named is the same person as the Þorgeirr
skorargeirr Holta-Þóris son of Njála. It now appears to me
that <-geirr> in <skorargeirr> (or <Skorar-Geirr>) is not
the common noun 'spear', but rather a shortened form of his
name <Þorgeirr>, to which a nickname <Skorar-> has been
preposed. And just as his father's nickname <Holta-> is
derived from the place-name <Holt>, I suspect that <Skorar->
is derived from a place-name (or topographical description)
<Skor> 'a notch; a rift in a rock or precipice'. In other
words, he's probably '(Þor)Geirr who is associated with a
place called Skor'.

Brian