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. Diacritics may be removed (á → a, ö → o). The following character conversions also take place:
- 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
Sometimes a j is dropped after ey.
- Freyja → Freya
Other quirks sometimes seen include adding a Latin -a suffix 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
Read more about this topic: Old Norse Orthography
Famous quotes containing the word spelling:
“The old saying of Buffon’s that style is the man himself is as near the truth as we can get—but then most men mistake grammar for style, as they mistake correct spelling for words or schooling for education.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)