Um örnefnaskýringar

Abstract

In the introduction to the article, place-names and their study are discussed in a general way, and then there is a discussion of some basic concerns and prerequisites in the interpretation of place-names. Examples are given of some early place-name explanations in Icelandic writings along with a discussion of the earliest scholarly publications on Icelandic place-names, an article on Undirfell by Björn M. Ólsen (from 1881) and Eggert Ó. Briem’s monograph on farm-names ending in -staðir (written sometime before 1893), and the debate of three scholars in the 1920’s about the meaning of various farm-names. A special chapter concerns various problems in place-name interpretation, inter alia Þórhallur Vilmundarson’s ‘nature-name theory’ (ísl. náttúrunafnakenningin) and the identification of Celtic words in Icelandic place-names. Finally, there is a discussion of how place-name interpretations are presented to the public via the Internet, for example in the column ‘Place-name of the Month’ on the home-page of The Árni Magnússon Institute in Icelandic Studies. Mention is also made of the projected edition of a place-name handbook on which the author has worked for the past decade and how access to Icelandic place-names for research purposes is limited owing to insufficient documentation of name-forms in older sources, published or not.