Noregr

Meaning of Old Norse word "noregr"

As defined by the Cleasby & Vigfusson Old Norse to English dictionary:

noregr

m., gen. Noregs; a later Noregis also occurs in Laur. S.; ‘Nurviag’ on the Jellinge stone; [mod. Norse Norge, sounded Norre]:—Norway, passim; that the word was sounded Nóregr with a long vowel is seen from rhymes in Vellekla (10th century), Nóregr, fóru; as also Nóregs, stórum, Sighvat (in a poem of 1038 A. D.); the full form Norð-vegr (with ð and w) never occurs in vernacular writers, but only in the Latinised form, Northwagia, which was used by foreign writers (North Germans and Saxons); even the v (Nor-vegr) is hardly found in good vellums, and is never sounded. The etymology of the latter part = vegr is subject to no doubt, and the former part nór is prob. from norðr, qs. the north way; yet another derivation, from nór = a sea-loch, is possible, and is supported by the pronunciation and by the shape of the country, a strip of land between sea and mountains, with many winding fjordS. The popular but false etymology of the ancients is from a king Nór (Orkn. ch. 12), as Rome from Romulus:—Noregs-höfðingi, -konungr, -menn, -ríki, -veldi, the ruler, king, men, kingdom of Norway, Grág. ii. 401, FmS. vii. 293, BS. i. 720, Sturl. ii. 55, Nj. 8, Ísl. ii. 234, passim.

Possible runic inscription in Younger Futhark:ᚾᚢᚱᛁᚴᚱ
Younger Futhark runes were used from 8th to 12th centuries in Scandinavia and their overseas settlements