Medieval Naming Guides: Notes on NRL

Some Notes on Nordiskt runnamnslexikon

For each name, the dictionary gives the standard form in various medieval Scandinavian languages and the derivation of the name elements. Then it lists runic examples of the name, with the runes transcribed to Roman letters according to a common modern system, and identifies the runestone on which each example was found. Note that the transcriptions of the runic names are not Roman-alphabet spellings that existed in our period; they are simply an ASCII encoding of the runes. The rune-letter correspondances are illustrated in this history of runic alphabets.

Abbreviations in the database include:

mn. = masculine name
fda. = Old Danish
fvn. = Old West Norse
nyno. = Nynorsk
germ. = Germanic
Nom. = nominative
vb. = verb
möjl. = perhaps
m. = masculine

kvn. = feminine name
fsv. = Old Swedish
fgutn. = Old Gutnish
nda. = Modern Danish
Anm. = note
Ack. = accusative
adj. = adjective
jfr. = compare with
f. = feminine

f.l. = first element
fhty. = Old High German
runsv. = Runic Swedish
sv. = Swedish
t.ex. = for example
Gen. = genitive
subst. = noun
Litt. = references
n. = neuter

e.l. = second element
feng. = Old English
fnord. = Old Norse
got. = Gothic
Se även = see also
Dat. = dative
adv. = adverb
myt. = mythological

An arrow indicates that what follows is also an entry in the list; and the abbreviation Sms. "compounds" indicates that the list of elements that follows are all combined with the element under discussion.

Gunnvöra Silfrahárr (aka Gunnora Hallakarva) has published an unauthorized translation of the dictionary, available as a zipped PDF. Ms. Peterson reviewed it and wrote:

Now I have browsed through the translation, and I must say I am quite impressed by our Viking lady's capacity. Her knowledge of Swedish is, however, weak, and there are several misunderstandings in the reasoning parts of my text, even sections that are not translated on the whole. As far as I can see - NB, I have not read but a couple of entries at random - there are no gross mistakes in the dictionary itself. Well, to be honest, I found one minor mistake: In the entry "Á-" she has added "all", which is wrong, but on the other hand you could say that English "all" can function as an intensive prefix. In addition, two misunderstandings of my Swedish: Page 124 left column: "This is the same person as in ..." is wrong for "The same person is referred to in ..."; page 124 right column: "found as a by-name" is wrong for "also found as a by-name". You asked my opinion, and I say: I do not think it would be too dangerous to use it.

The Medieval Names Archive is published by Ursula Georges. It was historically published by the Academy of Saint Gabriel.
Copyright on individual articles belongs to their authors.
http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/nrl.shtml