Thodjildur "Haukadeler" Jörundardóttir - Name spelling

Seems to me we should treat translations like we treat other sourced information.

If we have a source (a published translation of the source material), use it.
If we don't have a source, be very careful about inventing one.

Yes. If we've got inherited translations we need to stand by them. So I'm not in favor of taking "Unready" out of Aethelred's display name, for instance, and I don't think putting "Uncounseled" makes any sense, because only people such as I know it, and I don't need it to find him. BUT I would like his name to be Aethelred Unraed, because that's what the Anglo Saxons knew him as.

That the accepted and well known translation is wrong is irrelevant to being able to find him.

Same principles apply here, I think. If we've got profiles known by certain names in various languages, we should use them. Making sure that we've got the original name, as best we can find it, accessible.

And the we can explain the translations in the About field.

The source used for ""den Barmfagre" http://heimskringla.no/wiki/Landnamabogen_2 is written in danish by a dane, so it is not a translation to modern norwegian of the old norse word.

Here are norwegian online sources: https://nbl.snl.no/Eirik_Torvaldsson_Raude
https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eirik_Raude

Thanks Remi, i thought there was something wrong there.

Justin,

"My point is that there is an established English translation, so the idea of it being understandable shouldn't be a factor."

I am no longer arguing the point but explaining my motivations, therefore you are wrong with your assertion because my motivations are mine and you cannot ascribe your opinions to them. Sorry about that but it is a fact that i asked the question because the established translation makes no sense at first glance.

Thank you for your patient detailed explanation, especially for pointing out yesterday that the sagas are POEMS designed to ENTERTAIN not history text books, that was an important point (yes, yes i know they have more than one purpose).

I shall write up an About for here today in English, unless someone else has already done it, and hopefully someone else can do the other language Abouts.

I am almost afraid to ask, and i am sure the answer is not a simple one, but are there theories about the meaning of the by-name of her father Gils "skeiðarnef" Herfinnsson?
I assume there is no simple interpretation or it would appear in the English translations.

Thorolf Mostur-Beard also caught my imagination, what on earth is a mostur?

Mostur is an island.

Google translate says Skeiðarnef is spoon-nose, but it is also poetically ship-nose. The doubt there might be why it's not translated.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/skei%C3%B0

You might enjoy this paper:
http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/172669/Peterson_u...

So one had a beard like an island, a goatee perhaps? And the other had a big nose like a ship, or a nose like a spoon? What on earth. No wonder they dont translate these things!

Remi, the two links you gave for norwegian sources, one didnt mention her and on the wiki page she is called "Torbjørg Knarrebringe" so is that the typical modern norwegian version?

Alex Moes your last question is easy to answer, he was from Moster, Bømlo, Hordaland, Norway: https://www.google.no/maps/place/Moster/@59.6957668,5.3624218,12z/d...

I'm not going to try to explain Gils nickname, but on page 111 in this book there can be sonething intersting, both about his name and about his daughter's nickname: http://www.academia.edu/6944485/The_early_Viking_ship_types

Yes, I would say Knarrebringe is the nickname she is known by in modern norwegian.

Line 3 int the nbl link, first word!

I need to get more sleep

http://www.academia.edu/6944485/The_early_Viking_ship_types was an interesting read Remi, thank you.

from page 108

"If there was a tradition that Þorbjorg was exceptionally well endowed, the comparison of her father’s nose to a skeið could have motivated her own later comparison with a cargo ship or knorr II once it developed, much like Ásný and presumably other women not mentioned in the sources. This explanation of Þorbjorg’s knarrarbringa byname may look like ‘data massage’, but it is less problematic to doubt the authenticity of the byname than to argue for the ‘cargo-ship’ meaning of knorr already in the ninth century, because that would contradict many independent pieces of evidence."

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/skei%C3%B0

Seems like regardless of the interpretation you choose the meaning remains the same, either his nose was as big as a ship or big enough to sheath your sword in.

From page 214 of http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/172669/Peterson_u...

Nef „beak, nose‟ is most likely used synecdochically as a pars pro toto, and the nickname would then mean „man as large as a longship‟.

I had to use google to even understand this and it's in English!

So perhaps not a big nose but in fact a fat gentleman all around (no pun intended) with possibly an equally portly (to keep the ship jokes going) daughter. Perhaps Erik's mother in law was not so much Dolly Parton more http://www.sideshowtoy.com/mas_assets/jpg/2146_press01-001.jpg

Well the English version of her About is written, hopefully not too many factual errors.

Two quick questions regarding dates, i seem to recall reading that Leif was not the eldest son of Erik?
Also is there an accepted date for when Thorvald and Erik are exiled from Norway?

I think you are off on the years. According to most Eirik is born around 950, came to Iceland between 965-970 and went to Greenland in 982.

Leif is most probably the eldest one (ca. 975), then Torvald (ca. 980) and the youngest Torstein (ca. 981). Eirik also had Frøydis with an unknown woman and she is probably the youngest of the four, but not born later than ca. 985. The profile of Thurid has no foundation in the sagas and should really be deleted, Private User can you look into that?

Alex, you have spelled Leif's name as Lief in the About me!

Remi Trygve Pedersen in which profile's About is Leif spelled wrong?

Erik the Red