Old Norse orthography

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The orthography of the Old Norse language since the introduction of the Latin alphabet in Iceland was varied historically. In modern times, scholars established a standardized spelling for the language. When Old Norse names are used in texts in other languages, modifications to this spelling are often made. In particular, the names of Old Norse mythological characters often have several different spellings.

Contents

[edit] Manuscript spelling

The original Icelandic manuscripts which are the source of our knowledge of Norse mythology did not employ a unified system of spelling. Thus the same name might be spelled several different ways even in the original manuscripts. In particular, the length of vowels was only sporadically marked and various umlauted vowels were often not distinguished from others. Another complication is that several shortcut forms for common words and grammatical endings developed. One example is the use of the rune named maðr (man) for the word maðr. Another is the use of a special glyph for the various r-endings so common in Old Norse. A modified version of the letter Wynn called Vend was used briefly for the sounds /u/, /v/, and /w/.

[edit] Standardized spelling

For various reasons 19th century scholars came up with a standardized spelling of Old Norse which remains in use. It is primarily based on the so called First Grammatical Treatise. This spelling is designed to be phonemically precise rather than representative of the manuscripts. Vowel length is marked and umlauted vowels are unambiguously represented.

The standardized spelling employs a few characters that are not available in the most common electronic character sets. Replacements are often used, particularly in electronic formats, the most important is to use ö instead of o-with-tail (ogonek) ǫ.

[edit] Spelling of Danish and Swedish runestone inscriptions

When transcribing Old Norse texts from Danish and Swedish runestones, many scholars,[1] but not all,[2] use an orthography that is adapted to represent Old East Norse, the dialect of Old Norse in Denmark and Sweden. The main differences are the difthong æi instead of ei as in stæinn ("stone") and i instead of the glide j as in giald ("payment"). In this standard, the u-umlauted a represented by ǫ is not usually considered, but rendered as the underlying a, as in the name AnundR. Another difference is the representation of the phoneme R, instead of simply r as in West Norse, where the R phoneme merged with r earlier. However, even if they render the transcription according to the local pronunciation, the Rundata project presents personal names according to the previously mentioned standardized spelling in English translations. Here follows an example from the Orkesta Runestone (U 344):

Standardized spelling:

  • En Ulfr hefir á Englandi þrjú gjald tekit. Þat var fyrsta þat's Tosti ga[l]t. Þá [galt] Þorketill. Þá galt Knútr.

The rendering of Old East Norse:

  • En UlfR hafiR a Ænglandi þry giald takit. Þet vas fyrsta þet's Tosti ga[l]t. Þa [galt] Þorkætill. Þa galt Knutr.

But when translating into English, the standardized spelling is used:

[edit] Icelandic spelling

In many modern Icelandic publications of Old Norse works, the modern Icelandic spelling is used. Since it is based on the same basic system the difference is not great. One notable difference is probably the insertion of u before r in many names. Thus the Old Norse name Baldr comes out as Baldur in modern Icelandic. Other differences include vowel-shifts, whereby old Norse ǫ became Icelandic ö, and old Norse œ became Icelandic æ.

One of the advantages of using Icelandic spelling is that all the relevant characters are available in the most common character sets and most fonts. In fact, if it weren't for Icelandic, characters like þ would not be as easily available for writing Old Norse and Old English.[citation needed]

[edit] Anglicized spelling

For the convenience of English writers and readers the Old Norse characters not used in English are commonly replaced with English ones. This can lead to ambiguity and confusion. Here is a sample conversion table:

  • á → a
  • é → e
  • í → i
  • ú → u
  • ó → o
  • ö → o
  • ø → o
  • œ → o, oe
  • æ → ae
  • þ → th
  • ð → th, d, dh

Another common convention in English is to drop consonant nominative endings:

  • Egill → Egil
  • Yggdrasill → Yggdrasil
  • Gunnarr → Gunnar
  • Sveinn → Svein
  • Freyr → Frey
  • Hildr → Hild

When a name ends with r which is not an ending it is often changed to er or (Modern Icelandic) ur to facilitate pronunciation.

  • Baldr → Balder, Baldur

One more convention is to use i instead of j.

  • Njáll → Nial
  • Freyja → Freyia

Sometimes the j is simply dropped.

  • Freyja → Freya

Sometimes the ending i is spelled e (supported by manuscript spelling and mainland Scandinavian custom).

  • Loki → Loke
  • Bragi → Brage

Other quirks sometimes seen include adding a to the names of goddesses.

  • Frigg → Frigga
  • Iðunn → Iduna

Obviously the various permutations allow for many possible spellings for a given name.

Some authors, for example, replace þ with th and ð with th, dh or d but keep the accents; others may not replace ǫ with ö but prefer o.

Thus, in addition to the various versions below, the name of Hǫðr could come out as:

  • Hoðr, Hödhr, Hödr, Höd, Höð, Hoð

[edit] List of names

A list of some commonly encountered Old Norse names with some of their English versions follows.

[edit] Gods

[edit] Goddesses

[edit] Giants

[edit] Giantesses

[edit] Animals

[edit] Places

[edit] Other

[edit] References

  1. ^ See the Rundata transcriptions.
  2. ^ See e.g. the Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages project.

[edit] See also

v • d • e
Norse Paganism and Mythology
The Æsir
Baldr • Frigg • Heimdall • Hel • Hermóðr • Höðr • Hœnir • Idunn • Loki • Mímir • Odin • Thor • Týr • Ullr • Váli • Viðarr • Vili and Vé
The Vanir
Other races
Locations
Sources
Origins
Society
See also:
Languages