Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 2015, Qupperneq 121

ÁRBÓK FORNLEIFAFÉLAGSINS120
Summary
Goðf inna and Guðf inna: On the names of two rock formations in
Akrafjall and the elements finna, finni and finnr ( fiðr) in Old Norse
personal names and place-names.
The present study concerns the meaning and age of two place-names on the
mountain Akrafjall by the mouth of Hvalfjörður in south-west Iceland. Goðfinna
is the name of a free-standing pillar of rock high up on a ledge overlooking the
settlement on the south side of Akrafjall; whereas Guðfinna is a pointy crag high
up on a ledge overlooking the settlement on the north side of the mountain. These
name-forms recall the female personal name Guðfinna, which has apparently been
current in Iceland since the tenth century and is assumed to signify originally
‘Sami woman dedicated to the gods’. The elements –finna, Finn–, –finnr (–fiðr)
are all, like the personal names Finna, Finni and Finnr (Fiðr), generally assumed to
refer originally to the Saami (Lapps) in Old (West) Norse personal names – the
so-called Finnar of Old Norse sources.
Numerous place-names in Iceland and Norway consist only of personal names,
but there are reasons to doubt that this is the case with the rocks named Goðfinna
and Guðfinna. The place-name element (-)finn(-) occurs widely in Norway in the
sense ‘pointy, conical landscape feature, peak’ and this landscape term evidently
derives (like the English word fin) from the Indo-European root *(s)pei-.
It is argued here that Goðfinna and Guðfinna are in all likelihood theophoric
place-names from pre-Christian times and that the element -finna had a basic
topographical sense in the region of ‘pointy or conical landscape feature, free-
standing pillar of rock’. This may well be the case in some other place-names in
Iceland where Guðfinna forms the first element in the genitive form Guðfinnu-;
one of these, Guðfinnusteinn, is a free-standing pillar of rock. We maintain that
such a sense is moreover possible in numerous personal names that are assumed
to contain the ethnic term Finnar (-finna, -finnr etc.) since such elements are often
interchangeable with elements meaning ‘stone, rock or cliff ’.
Originally pagan and theophoric personal names containing terms meaning
‘stone, rock or cliff ’ (like Þorsteinn or Freysteinn) appear to have had some ancient
connection with actual sacred stones or rocks in the landscape. This might clearly
have been the case with the name Guðfinna and even commonplace personal
names that are uncompounded like Steinn or Hallr.