val-

Merkingar

[A. S. wealh-], Welsh, foreign, in several compds, see below.

1. II.

   in pr. names, Val-brandr, Val-garðr, Val-gautr, Val-þjófr; Val-þýflingar, m. pl. the descendants of Waltheof, Landn.: and of women, Val-dís, Val-gerðr, Landn.: it is strange that none of these names seem to appear on the old Runic monuments of Sweden and Denmark; they are therefore scarcely to be derived from valr (the slain), but from A. S. wealh = Welsh, foreign; in England such names were frequent; in Icel. they first appear in families connected with the British Isles; Valþjófr in the Landnáma is evidently borrowed from the English. In Sweden a Valgautr appears in the 11th century, Ó. H.