The orthography of the Old Norse language since the introduction of the Latin alphabet in Iceland is a thorny subject. In particular the names of Old Norse mythological characters often seem to have several different spellings. This article will explain the reasons for some of the confusions.
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2 Standardized spelling 3 Icelandic spelling 4 Anglicized spelling 5 List of names |
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 back then. 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 ending 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
the Old Norse language.
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 commonly
defined, the most important is to use ö instead of o-with-tail.
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. The most 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.
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.
For the convenience of English writers and readers the Old Norse
characters not used in English are commonly replaced with English ones. This, of course, leads to ambiguity and confusion. Here is
a sample conversion table:
Some authors, for example, replace 'þ' with 'th' and
'ð' with 'th', 'dh' or 'd' but keep the accents. Others
may not replace o-with-tail with 'ö' but prefer 'o'.
Thus, in addition to the various versions below, the name
of 'Höðr' could come out as:
A list of some commonly encountered Old Norse names
with some of their English versions follows.
Manuscript spelling
Standardized spelling
Icelandic spelling
Anglicized spelling
Another common convention in English is to drop consonant nominative endings:
When a name ends with r which is not an ending
it is often changed to er or (Modern Icelandic)
ur to facilitate pronunciation.
One more convention is to use i instead of j.
Sometimes the j is simply dropped.
Sometimes the ending i is spelled e
(supported by manuscript spelling and mainland
Scandinavian custom).
Other quirks sometimes seen include adding 'a'
to the names of goddesses.
Obviously the various permutations allow for many
possibile spellings for a given name.List of names
Gods
Goddesses
Giants
Giantesses
Animals
Places
Other