Editing Leod (section)

===Traditional genealogies reconsidered===
[[File:Leod, relevant pedigrees.svg|thumb|left|The four relevant [[pedigree chart|pedigree]]s concerning the ancestry of Leod<ref name="ref-Sellar"/> (click to enlarge).]]

In recent years, several historians have noted that within the Gaelic-language genealogies and praise-poetry concerning the MacLeods, Leod's great-grandfather's name appears to equate to the Old Norse ''Ölvir'', ''Olvér''; rather than the Old Norse ''Óláfr''.<ref name="ref-APMacLeod"/><ref name="ONMensNames">{{cite web|url=http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/ONMensNames.shtml |title=Old Norse Men's Names |access-date=21 December 2009 |work=vikinganswerlady.com }} This webpage cited: {{cite book |title=The Old Norse Name |series=Studia Marklandica I |last=Haraldsson |first=Geirr Bassi |year=1977 |publisher=[[Markland Medieval Militia]] |location=[[Olney, Maryland]] |page=13 }}; and also {{cite web|url=http://www.sofi.se/servlet/GetDoc?meta_id=1472 |title=Nordiskt runnamnslexikon (Dictionary of Names from Old Norse Runic Inscriptions) |author=Peterson, Lena |publisher=Språk-och folkminnes-institutet (Institute for Dialectology, Onomastics and Folklore Research) |access-date=30 September 2005 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110225031159/http://www.sofi.se/servlet/GetDoc?meta_id=1472 |archive-date=25 February 2011 }}; see also {{cite web|url=http://www.sofi.se/images/runor/pdf/lexikon.pdf |title=lexikon |author=Peterson, Lena |access-date=18 February 2010 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110518034405/http://www.sofi.se/images/runor/pdf/lexikon.pdf |archive-date=18 May 2011 }}</ref> There are considered to be four significant Gaelic-language genealogies which concern Leod's ancestry. These [[pedigree chart|pedigrees]] roughly agree with one another in the three generations after Leod. The greatest similarity between these genealogies are the names of Leod's great-grandfather, variously spelt ''Oilmoir'', ''Olbair Snaige'', ''Olbuir Snaithe'', and ''Olbair Snoice''.<ref name="ref-APMacLeod"/> Taking into account variances in spelling, these names are now considered to represent the literary Gaelic ''Olbhar'', and the [[vernacular]] Gaelic ''Olghair''; both which are in turn forms of ''Ölvir''.<ref name="Matheson1"/>

Matheson proposed that when Camden published his ''Britannia'' which included an account of the kings of Mann, [[genealogist]]s saw the [[Latin]] ''Olavus'' (a [[Latin]] form of the Old Norse ''Óláfr'') and concluded that it represented the Gaelic name ''Olbhar'', ''Olghair''. However, the Scottish Gaelic form of ''Olaf'', ''Olavus'', ''Olaus'', ''Óláfr'', is in fact ''[[Amhlaoibh]]'', and the more modern ''[[Amhlaidh]]''. Matheson further proposed that Leod's father's name also equates to ''Ölvir''.<ref name="Matheson1"/> So in Matheson's opinion, genealogists mistakenly attached Leod's father and great-grandfather to the Manx king Olaf the Black and his own grandfather, Olaf the Red.<ref name="ref-APMacLeod"/> While Matheson's identification of the name of Leod's grandfather is now accepted, Sellar later disagreed with him on the name of Leod's father; proposing instead that it was more likely the Gaelic name ''Gillemuire''—a name which appears on one of the four Gaelic-language genealogies.<ref name="ref-APMacLeod"/><ref name="ref-Sellar">{{cite web|url=http://www.macleodgenealogy.org/Research/Sellar.html |title=The Ancestry of the MacLeods Reconsidered |access-date=8 December 2009 |work=macleodgenealogy.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513072921/http://www.macleodgenealogy.org/Research/Sellar.html |archive-date=13 May 2008 }} This webpage cited: {{cite journal |last=Sellar |first=William David Hamilton |author-link=David Sellar |year=1997–1998 |title=The Ancestry of the MacLeods Reconsidered |journal=Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness |volume=60 |pages=233–258 }}</ref>

[[File:Family tree of Olvir Rosta, and descendants of Moddan.png|thumb|The ancestry and some of the relatives of [[Olvir Rosta]], according to the ''[[Orkneyinga saga]]''.]]

Leod's name is represented in Scottish Gaelic as ''Leòd''. This name is a Gaelic form of the [[Old Norse]] ''Ljótr'',<ref name="Matheson1"/> meaning "ugly".<ref>{{cite book |last=Reaney |first=Percy Hilde |author2=Wilson, Richard Middlewood  |title=A Dictionary of English Surnames |edition=3rd |year=2006 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=London |page=2054 |isbn=0-203-99355-1}}</ref> Matheson stated that this Norse name was rare in both [[Scandinavia]] and [[Iceland]]. He noted that in Scotland it was peculiar to the MacLeods, though it is almost never used within the clan. Matheson speculated that Leod's great-grandfather would have likely flourished at about the same time as [[Olvir Rosta]] was supposedly [[exile]]d to the [[Outer Hebrides]]. Matheson went even further and proposed that Leod's great-grandfather was in fact Olvir Rosta—a character from the mediaeval ''[[Orkneyinga saga]]''.<ref name="ref-Sellar"/><ref name="Matheson1"/> Matheson noted that while the name ''Ljótr'' is rare, Olvir Rosta's maternal grandfather appears in the saga as ''Ljótr níðingr'' ('Ljótr Villain'). In Matheson's opinion, since the Gaelic-language genealogies are inconsistent in the generations further back than Leod's great-grandfather, this may show that the man was a newcomer in the area.<ref name="Matheson1"/> Sellar, however, rejected Matheson's proposal, commenting that such evidence was entirely [[Circumstantial evidence|circumstantial]]. Sellar stated that ''Olvir'' was not such a rare name; also, Olvir Rosta's genealogy and family within the saga (see above right) has no similarity with that recorded in the Gaelic-language genealogies relevant to Leod.<ref name="ref-Sellar"/>

In contrast to Matheson's opinion about the name ''Ljótr'', the 20th-century historian A. Morrison was of the opinion that the name may not be as rare as some people have thought. Morrison noted that the 19th century antiquary [[F. W. L. Thomas|F.W.L. Thomas]] considered another saga character to be an eponymous ancestor of the MacLeods—this character was [[Ljótólfr]], who would have lived on Lewis about a century before Leod's time.<ref name="Morrison"/><ref>{{cite book |editor=Vigfusson, Gudbrand |title=Icelandic sagas and other historical documents relating to the settlements and descents of the Northmen on the British isles |url=https://archive.org/details/icelandicsagasot01stur |year=1887 |location=London |pages=xxxvii–xxxviii |editor-link=Gudbrand Vigfusson }}</ref> Morrison considered it possible that Leod's name could have ultimately originated from that of Ljótólfr's; however, while he considered it possible that Ljótólfr could have been an ancestor of Leod, he did not think it could have been in the male-line.<ref name="Morrison">{{cite web|url=http://www.macleodgenealogy.org/Research/Morrison.html |title=The Origin of Leod |access-date=17 January 2010 |work=macleodgenealogy.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727053820/http://www.macleodgenealogy.org/Research/Morrison.html |archive-date=27 July 2011 }} This webpage cited: {{cite book |title=The Chiefs of Clan MacLeod |last=Morrison |first=Alick |year=1986 |publisher=Associated Clan MacLeod Societies |location=[[Edinburgh]] |pages=1–20 }}</ref>