Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1975, Page 64

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ÁRBÓK FORNLEIFAFÉLAGSINS
Hvað sem líður upprunalegri merkingu orðsins vökustaur, og hvort
sem augnteprur hafa í reynd nokkru sinni verið brúkaðar, svo að
orð sé á gerandi (sem rekst á skoðanir lækna), álít ég sennilegast,
að vökustaur í merkingunni augnklemma sé tiltölulega ung alþýðu-
skýring (folkemytologi) á orði, sem menn skildu ekki lengur eða
ekki hafði þekkzt um vesturhluta landsins öldum saman. Þjóðsögur
Jóns Árnasonar og Þjóðhættir Jónasar frá Hrafnagili festa þessa
skýringu síðan í sessi. Mín ályktun er hinsvegar sú, að meira mark
sé takandi á þeim skýringum, sem ganga í berhögg við þessar bækur
heldur en hinum sem samsinna.
SUMMARY
In Jón Árnason’s „Icelandic Folk Tales“, first published in 1864, as well
as in Jónas Jónasson’s “Icelandic Folk Customs”, first published in 1934, the
term “vökustaur” is explained as a simple device consisting of a small piece of
wood or bone, intended to be fastened on to people’s eyelids in order to keep
them awake during excessively long working hours, such as for instance before
Christmas, when as much knitting work as possible was produced for sale.
This explanation has become more or less universally accepted because of the
great authority of the two famous collectors.
However, several sources, some older and some later than the two above-
mentioned ones, offer an entirely different meaning of the term, namely
that of an extra meal as a prize when people for some reason or other had
worked exceptionally long into the night. This is the explanation given in most
sources older than Jón Árnason’s Folk Tales.
It seems that a clear regional distribution of the two varieties can be estab-
lished. “Vökustaur” in the first sense seems to be predominant in the western
parts of Iceland, whereas in the latter sense it is much more frequent in the
eastern and southern parts of the country.
It is quite possible that the first-mentioned explanation somehow has come
into existence through popular etymology, after the original and truly correct
meaning, i. e. an extra meal in some form, had become obscure.