Norsk namnebok av Torleiv Hannaas – boka som aldri kom

Sammendrag

At his death in 1929, Torleiv Hannaas, professor of Norwegian dialectology and folk traditions at Bergens Museum (now University of Bergen), left an unfinished manuscript about Norwegian personal names. The manuscript spans from Agata (Ågot) to Bothild, and is based on an extensive number of excerpts, mainly covering the southwestern parts of Norway in the 16th and 17th century. Hannaas was a leading figure within the New Norwegian language movement (“målrørsla”), and the name book, in combination with two radio lectures, aims at reviving and strengthening the Old Norse onomastic heritage as an essential part of the nation-building ideology of the 19th and early 20th century. Hannaas also em­phasizes the importance of spelling the names correctly, with a special warning against improper Danish forms. The nationalist ideology often comes in conflict with basic scholarly principles, but the documentation of old Norwegian name-giving carries great value in itself.