Eureka Reporter | 1905-12-29 | Page 6 | The Name of Norway's King

THE NAME OF NORWAY S KING original meaning was the high one of the kin As to the uncertainty of the spelling of the new king 0 norway s new name a norwegian authority writes the genuine form ot the name Is hakan such variations as hakun hakvin latin I 1 leave out ol 01 consideration the name Is made up ot two elements ha the root 0 har high and kon for conr like son for conr the older form 0 conr was junr he of the kyn kuni ot the family the noble race according to the elder edda poem conr was the youngest son of jarl earl who himself was the son of the god heimdall Helm dall mun dl conr jungr the young kon swung himself by deeds of arms into the position of a king which though the old poet knew it not sim ply meant the kon ing he of the kin jungr being a suffix indicative of des cent accordingly the name hakon meant originally the high one of the kin and must have been a title for a prince a king before it assumed the exclusive character of a proper personal name the old norwegian pronunciation of the a in ha seems to have come close to the sound of the english ow in know but in the course of time it has broadened into a sound as nearly as possible didenti cal with the english aw in hawk the in kon Is very nearly equal to the english in on the accent falls on the first syllable in modern norwegian the spelling of the name is haakan aa equals aw but to judge from the telegrams it would seem that his majesty Is going to adopt the ancient spelling of the name dropping the accent over the a and desires to be known as hakon haco Is only a Latini zed form of the name