Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1957, Page 26

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Drunnur
SUMMARY
By about 1900 Dr. Jakob Jakobsen had discovered that quite a
number of Celtic words, mostly Gaelic, were to be found in Shet«
land Norn (see Shetlandsøernes Stednavne, 1901; English edition The
Place-Names of Shetland, 1936). He likewise showed that traces of this
same influence may be observed in Faroese in his article «Keltisk
Indflydelse paa Færøerne» (see Tingakrossur, nr. 1—2, 1902, and Jakob
Jakobsen: Greinir og Ritgerðir, Tórshavn, 1957). Here he compares
Far. drunnur «end, tailspiece of an animals, otherwise attested in
Scandinavian only in Shetl. dronn, with Gael. dronn which has the
same meaning. Now the Faroese use the drunnur (of sheep or cattle)
at weddings to recite impromtu verses over and Dr. Jakobsen con«
jectured that this custom was introduced to the Faroes from the
south, though nothing was remembered about the custom in Shetland.
The present article refers in detail to the Faroese custom both now
and formerly and adduces the fact that in the Scots Gaelic area
verses were composed over the dronn of sheep or cattle, according
to Dwelly this was also a custom at weddings. Thus what Dr. Jakob=
sen advanced as a conjecture we may now regard as certainty. Finally
mention is made of Icel. drundur in the meaning «hind part of an
animal’s back» which must surely be the same word. Formally it
ressembles Mlrish drond (also written dronn), though it is more
likely that the Icelandic form is due to analogy vith another Ice=
landic word or words with — n d —.
BÓKMENTIR
1. Sigf. Blóndal: Islandsk<Dansk Ordbog. Rvk. 1920—24.
2. Patrick S. Dinneen: An IrishÆnglish Dictionary. New Edition.
Dublin, 1947.
3. Edward Dwelly: The lllustrated Gaelic«English Dictionary. Fifth
Edition.- Glasgow, 1949.
4. H. F. Fejlberg: Bidrag til en Ordbog over det jyske Almuesmál,
I-IV. Kbh. 1886-1914.
5. FFÆ=Jakob Jakobsen: Færøske folkesagn og æventyr. Kbh. 1898
-1901.
6. Carl Julian Graba: Tagebuch, gefiihrt auf einer Reise nach Fáro
im Jahre 1828. Hamburg, 1830.
7. V. U. Hammershaimb: Færøsk Anthologi. Kbh. [1886—J1891.