Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1958, Side 95

Atlantssiðir — Atlantsorð
101
The present paper demonstrates the already mentioned connections
as regards the use of edible algae. The names of two algae point
towards Shetland and Orkney, but also towards the Gaelic speaking
countries: Far. slávak (Icel. slafak) and Far. mkkjalli (Icel. mari(n)kjarni,
murukjarni, myrikjarni). During the viking period the Gaelic noun
slabhac was introduced into the Atlantic branches of Norse in the
form slafak, and the origin of mirkjalli is no doubt to be found in
the same areas. However, it is a very complicated task to explain the
relations between the differing Norse forms and the not less differing
Gaelic forms (in the Scotch and Irish branches). The origin of *myr(i)-
kjalli, the probable form of the Viking Age (from which Far. mirkjalli,
and Orc., Shetl. mirkyals), seems to be a Gaelic form, lurking behind
the forms given by Macalpine (1832): muirichlinn and muirlinn, i. e.
forms with an —1— in the second component. Besides myr(i)kjalli (Far.
Orc., Shetl.) a form *myr(i)kjanni seems to have existed, preserved in
the Faroese place«name Mirkjanoyri and in Gael. mircean (Lewis). The
word *myr(i)kianni, proposed here, is probably the origin of the Ice*
landic forms mentioned above The first component has been changed
in different ways due to the influence of words such as marr ‘sea’
María, mura ‘silversweed’ etc., while the second component has been
influenced by kjarni 'seed, core’.