Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2005, Page 59

GREAT NORTHERN DIVER (GAVIA IMMER) IN CIRCUMPOLAR FOLK ORNITHOLOGY 57
name. The herdsmen used to call the cat-
tle. Its name is motivated by “the plump-
ness of the bird and stentorian herdsman’s
call” (Lockwood, 1971: 58). Lockwood
regards it as a taboo name used by seamen
(Lockwood, 1984: 37). In Manx Gaelic
the great northern diver is called arrag
vooar ‘big pullet’, which probably is a
kind of taboo name used by the fishermen
of the island (Lockwood, 1966: 103).
Other names for the species in Scotland
were gunner, naak (nauk, nack), astra-
cannet and cobble (Swainson, 1886: 213;
Swann, 1913: 197). Gunner means ‘noisy
talker, blusterer’ and is recorded from
Ayrshire. It is first noted in 1837 (Lock-
wood, 1971: 53). Naak is a name in use on
the Northumberland and Berwich coasts,
also nauk or nack (Holy Island), and is a
representation of its loud call (Lockwood,
1984: 107; Swann, 1913: 165). In North-
umberland the word astracannet was used
for this bird, and for the velvet scoter too
(Swann, 1913: 8). Cobble is a name first
noted in 1802. According to Lockwood,
cobble is a round stone and the bird name
is a “reference to the rotundity of these
plump birds” (Lockwood, 1971: 54).
From Ayrshire and Argyll and from
the Irish coast opposite this diver was
known as Arran hawk, an Anglicization
of a Gaelic word. It appears also in the
corrupted forms Allan hawk and Holland
hawk. The latter is known from Ballan-
trae in Scotland (Lockwood, 1984: 23,
84). The name ring-necked loon was also
used for the great northern diver in East
Lothian, Scotland, and Cork Harbour, Ire-
land (Swann, 1913: 197).
In Yorkshire, Northern England, the
great northern diver and red-throated div-
er were called Leean. And in North-Wales
the great northern had the name trochydd
mawr ‘great diver’ (Swann, 1913: 140,
241).
Also the coast dwelling Sami in north-
ern Norway were familiar with this diver
species. Curiously enough, the Sami did
not assimilate the Old Norse name. Instead
the great northern diver has been catego-
rized according to the Sami own native
bird taxonomy and identified as a diver.
The northern Sami of Karlsø and Gulles-
fjord give the name áhpedovtta ‘sea-diver’
(Sommerfelt, 1861: 75). Qvigstad (1902:
269) also mentions the Luli Sami name
áhpedavek ‘sea-diver’. Both are genuine
folk names reflecting the fact that Sami re-
garded it as a separate diver species found
at sea. A Swedish folk name recorded
from Blekinge province is rutlom, which
probably refer to the great northern diver
(Carlsson, 2000).
Norse himbrimi and its
contemporary forms
The breeding area of the great northern
diver also includes Iceland, as previously
mentioned. There are many names for this
species in Icelandic, the oldest written
probably being himbrin (of unknown gen-
der), an obscure word found in a rigma-
role associated with the Snorra-Edda; the
latter is usually dated around 1220, but
the rigmaroles - i.e. listing of narnes for
different things, e.g. dwarfs, worms, trees,
sky, weather, fire etc. - are somewhat lat-
er and no-one knows who compiled them