SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

70 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
anglicised. Feilitzen explains the element -fordl-fort as
a development by metathesis from -froo(r) , comparing
purforo < Irorfreor (Birch, Cartularium Saxonicum
(1885-93), II30). Lindkvist (in Middle-English Place­
Names ofScandinavian Origin (1912), 171) had previously
explained the development as being Asferd > Asfeord >
Asford by diphthongisation before -ro and shift of stress,
referring to Birch (loc. cit.) where the three forms PMfero
passim, Purfeort) and Purfort) are found. Feilitzen
objects to this on the grounds of lack of evidence for
diphthongisation of -foro in early sources and explains the
isolated purfeoro as a compromise between purfero and
purforo. He also draws attention to the fact that in
pre-Conquest sources the 0 variant is only found in
Scandinavian names. This would seem to necessitate the
derivation of AsfordlAsfort from an unrecorded *Asfroo(r)
and not from Asfrith. There is, however, just a
possibility that the Asford forms show the introduction of
the 0 variant by analogy, d. in Domesday Book Briford,
Saxford < OE Beorhijrio, Seaxfrio, quoted by Feilitzen,
§ 14·
There is not very much evidence for the existence of a
name Asvart)r/Asward in old Scandinavian sources. Lind
records (from !.Vjalssaga) an Asvaror in Norway in the late
tenth century and an Aswordh in 1520. The name is not
found independently in Denmark but occurs in the placename
Asserbo (Aswarboth, Asworthebode etc., twelfth century,
Danmarks Stednavne II (1929), 66). This sparse
Scandinavian material can be supplemented from English
sources. The form Asward occurs in three English
place-names: 1. Aswardetierne 1086 [Haswertherne u30,
H asewardesthirne u66, Aswardehirnewap U75J (Aswardhum
wapentake L; O. Anderson, The English Hundred­
Names (1934), 59); 2. Asuuardebi, Wardebi 1086
[Assewartheby 1219J (Aswarby, Aswardhurn wap. L;
DEPN); 3. Asuuardebi II96 [Aswardebi 1212J (Aswardby,
Aswardhurn wap. L; DEPN). These three place-names