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On 15 Dec 2012, at 05:58 , [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Now then, as they say in Yorkshire, S 659, though apparently genuine, is only preserved in a 14th-century copy and the boundary clause shows some traces of modernization, so we cannot regard Keith's example as in any way definitive evidence one way or the other. The personal name *Scyld is paralleled by ON skiöldr (byname) and note also the compound personal name Skiöldulfr. I'm not sure about Keith's "intentional symbolic meaning", or did Martians settle in the vicinity? ON skjǫldr is found as an element in personal names (as noted), but as a simplex it is about as uncommon as OE Scyld (outside the example of the legendary personage). Indeed, however we look at the OE place-name evidence, I think it has to be said there is probably more evidence in favour of a personal name "Scyld" in OE than there is for "Skjǫldr" "(or cognates) in Scandinavian place-names. This really goes back to the heart of my query though: to what extent is there strong evidence for a real personal name (or reference to a legendary figure) "Scyld" in OE place-names, and to what extent have earlier scholars -- perhaps led too readily by the Romantic inclinations of their day -- been prepared to accept without due criticism apparent cases of "Scyld" as a name in OE place-names, especially as evidence of knowledge of the legendary figure of that name? Clearly, my starting hypothesis has been that earlier scholars were perhaps a little to ready to see "Scyldas", especially legendary ones, in English place-names -- though the number of similar forms with either similar or different meanings, as well as the fluctuations in grammatical treatment, continue to make the issue complex. And I would not want to be guilty of going too far the other way, and pushing overly elaborately constructed alternatives to simple cases of some tree or well, etc. having genuinely been associated with some person with the slightly unusual name (or byname?) of "Scyld/Sceld/etc.". Cheers, Carl -- Carl Edlund Anderson mailto:[log in to unmask] mailto:[log in to unmask] http://unisabana.academia.edu/CarlAnderson Department of Languages & Cultures Universidad de La Sabana Chía, Colombia