Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2004, Qupperneq 210

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A VIKING-AGE SHIELING IN SKARÐSVÍK, FUGLOY, FAROE ISLANDS
way, and he proposes that this may have
forced them to introduce a somewhat differ-
ent shieling model than the one they were
used to. He suggests that they found this in
the Celtic-speaking regions to the south and
hence the adoplion of the term ærgi into
Faroese (Mahler, 1993: 495).
Fellows-Jensen has recently re-stated
her views on the origins of the term ærgi:
“Although the word is recorded in Old Irish
sources....it would not seem to have been
used there as a place-name element denot-
ing a shieling and it is thus very unlikely
that the Norse can have adopted the ele-
ment from the Irish. It is probabie then, that
they became acquainted with the word in a
sense such as ‘summer grazing land’ in the
areas which are known to have had a Gael-
ic-speaking population in the period of the
Norse settlement, that is the Western Isles,
the western seaboard of Scotland or the Isle
ofMan”. She states, furthermore: “The Isle
of Man might seem a likely place for the
Norse form to have developed because the
inhabitants were Gaelic-speaking before
the arrival of the Norse” (Fellows-Jensen,
2002: 92). In her 1980 paper she explained
why she excluded Ireland as the source of
the term: “Although there are a few possible
occurrences of the element áirge in place-
names in Kerry, it seems hardly likely that
the Vikings adopted the generic in the sense
‘summer milking-place’ in Ireland. The
Viking settlements in that country were
small and rather urbanised and practically
restricted to the areas surrounding Dublin,
Wexford, Waterford, Cork and Limerick”
(Fellows-Jensen, 1980: 68-69).
In the authors’ opinion it seems strange
that Fellows-Jensen does not accept that
the Old Irish term áirge, as it was used in
Ireland in the Early Medieval period, was
used in place-names to denote a shieling. It
seems clear that it must have been used, to
the extenl that the Irish historical and liter-
ary sources indicate what the meaning of
the term actually was. Kelly, for instance,
based on his study of these sources, notes
that: “In summer, cows were milked away
from the farm at a contemporary milking-
place (áirge)” (Kelly, 1998: 40). Clearly,
one can argue that if a term is used in lit-
erary and historical sources to describe a
specific activity then this term is very like-
ly to have been used as an element in the
names of places connected to this type of
activity. In the authors’ view the opposite
argument, which appears to form Fellows-
Jensen’s viewpoint, cannot be supported:
- if an activity-specific term does not exist
as a place-name element, then this means
that the concept behind the term was not
practised. This is arguing on the basis of
negative evidence.
The basis for Fellows-Jensen’s belief,
that the Scandinavian settlers did not adopt
the term áirge in Ireland, is clear. She states:
“The Viking settlements in that country
were small and rather urbanised and prac-
tically restricted to the areas surrounding
Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork and
Limerick” (Fellows-Jensen, 1980: 68-69).
This statement does not stand up to exami-
nation, however, and is incorrect on several
grounds. The traditional view of the char-
acter of Scandinavian settlement in Ireland
and of the interaction of the Scandinavians
with native Irish society has been trans-