Eirik

Historical scholarship

Passages quoted verbatim from public-domain reference works. They reflect the scholarship of their time, not current consensus, and may use obsolete spellings.

• 1884From the archives

  EIRIK— “ever king”

  One great name of this derivation is the northern Eirik. The first syllable is that which we call _aye_ to the present day, the word that lies at the root of the Latin _œvum_, the German _ewig_, and our own _ever_. Ei-rik is thus _Ever King_. An ancient Erik was said to have been admitted among the gods, and Earic was the second name of Æsc, the son of Henghist; but it was the northern people who really used Eirik, which comes over and over in the line of succession of all…

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  One great name of this derivation is the northern Eirik. The first syllable is that which we call _aye_ to the present day, the word that lies at the root of the Latin _œvum_, the German _ewig_, and our own _ever_. Ei-rik is thus _Ever King_. An ancient Erik was said to have been admitted among the gods, and Earic was the second name of Æsc, the son of Henghist; but it was the northern people who really used Eirik, which comes over and over in the line of succession of all the Northern sovereignties, figures in their ballads, and, in the person of King Eirik Blödaxe, is connected with their finest poetry. In the present day it is scarcely less popular than in old times, and has the feminine Eirika.

  Yonge, History of Christian Names (1884), Part VI, Chapter V (The Karling Romances), Section V (Richard) · Public domain (Project Gutenberg)