Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2005, Page 60

58 GREAT NORTHERN DIVER (GAVIA ÍMMER) IN CIRCUMPOLAR FOLK ORNITHOLOGY
(Bernstróm, 1965: 688). That goes also
for the word’s meaning, but speculations
are numerous. Some think it is corrupt, a
scribal error for himbrimi, while others
strive to find another way to solve this
great enigma (Lockwood, 1984: 58).
As to the meaning of the word himbrin
or the name himbrimi, which is the pres-
ently accepted form in most books on
birds in Iceland, no-one knows for sure,
but according to Magnússon (1989: 326-
327) it could be related to the female verb
híma, cf. the Faroese hím ‘vague light’,
coming from the feminine noun or ad-
jective *himra- ‘light, pale colour’, with
the suffix -ina-\ *himrina- > *himrin >
himbrin, and thus giving the meaning ‘the
pale bird’ or ‘the one in the mist’ or some-
thing like that.
But we should also bear in mind that the
Latin noun imber means ‘rain’, and the
Latin verb immergo ‘to dive’, which could
give us ‘the rainbird’ or ‘the diver’ and
so on. For a more thorough investigation
and other etymologies see Gróndal, 1887:
596; Grðndal, 1895: 52-54; Lockwood,
1971: 54-56; and Ægisson, 1996: 51.
Jens Christian Svabo writes in the 1780s
that the locals differed between havgás
and the imbrimil (Svabo, 1959: 14). He
assumes that the latter was a young, not
full-coloured bird of the same species.
According to Lockwood (1961: 64) this
was a correct differentiation. This diver
is a common winter visitor, but a rather
scarce non-breeding summer visitor to the
islands. British ornithologist Kenneth Wil-
liamson assumes that it could have been
breeding in earlier periods, such as still in
the end of 18th century. No proof for that
exists though (Williamson, 1970: 328).
The contemporary form in Faroese dic-
tionaries is imbrimil (Jacobsen and Mat-
ras, 1961: 193; FO, 1998: 528). Accord-
ing to Lockwood the name must be placed
with Old Norse himbrin, but at the same
time distinct in that all have been influ-
enced by brimil ‘male seal’. The imbrim-
il exists in several 17th century records
(Salomonsen, 1934: 88). Carolus Clusius
(1605: 367) uses Ildbrimel, Lucas Debes
(1673: 127) gives Imbrim, while Thomas
Tarnovius (1950: 59) renders Indbrimel.
Clusius’lldbrimel as a name is interesting,
because if it is genuine, it could be in-
terpreted as ‘male seal of bad omen’ and
accordingly emphasize its use as a taboo
name (Lockwood, 1966: 104).
Males begin to appear along the Norwe-
gian coast already during the summer and
the species is rather common during the
winter season along the northern coasts.
Here also the Nordic name immer, alter-
natively imber, emmer, ommer, ymmer,
hymber and hav-hymber are used by the
locals (Jensøn, 1646: 58; Strøm, 1762:
236; Leem, 1767: 269; Nilsson, 1835:
497; Solberg, 1942: 199; Falk and Torp,
1960: 462; Haftorn, 1971: 5).
The Old Norse name has survived in the
areas of the British Isles once inhabited by
Norse people. First record of ember goose
is from Sir Robert Sibbald in Scotia Illus-
trata 1684. This is of course a remnant of
the Orkney Norn language. On the Orkney
Islands it was known as immer or ember.
It is first recorded from the Orkneys in
1693. Marwick gives its contemporary