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Hygelac
So my question deals with the name "Hygelac". In Beowulf it's given to a male figure. I've heard that Anglo-Saxons of noble birth usually took two-word compounds for their names and that the last element had to be of masculine gender if they were male or feminine gender if they were female. Hygelac seems a lot like "Mind Play" or something similar. The only catch is that its last element +lac is either feminine or neuter in gender - not masculine. So how could it have been given to a male figure? It'd be like naming this guy Pauline instead of Paul.I'm also wondering if the last element in an Anglo-Saxon male's name can be neuter if the first is masculine. That would potentially explain this discrepancy away.
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Hygelac  ·  Visitor  ·  5/2/2011, 2:25 PM
Re: Hygelac  ·  Pie  ·  5/3/2011, 2:41 PM
Re: Hygelac  ·  Pie  ·  5/3/2011, 4:56 PM
Re: Hygelac  ·  Cleveland Kent Evans  ·  5/3/2011, 8:08 AM