Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1959, Side 49

Føroyanavnið eina ferð enn
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Edda«) and as a compound in fxrsauðr ’sheep’ in Norw.slcel. legal
language and in biblical texts. In addition we have the names of certain
islets: Norw. Færoy, Orkney Faray or Fara, Hebridean Fiaray, which
all seem to mean ’Sheep Island’, cf. the common Hebridean island name
Soay, an original Sauðtey (cf. Icel. Sauðeyar), having the same meaning.
Finally Icel færilus and Far. førilus (change from æ to ø as in Føroyar
from Færey(j)ar ’sheepstick’ presuppose a neuter iasstem færi as a de»
rivative of fær.
Debes considered it inconceivable that sheep were present in the
Faroes when these were discovered by the Norsemen. To this Torfaeus
rejoins: »poterant autem ovibus abundare antequam Norvegi eas ins
venerunt, impositis forte a piratis, qui illuc receptum habuerunt, ad se,
quoties eas transirent, recentibus carnibus recreandos, quæ in magnum
numerum e paucis subitó poterant excrescere«. Proof that there were
many sheep in the Faroes about 800 was forthcoming in 1807 on the
publication of »Dicuili Liber De Mensura Orbis Terrae« (from 825)
and Letronne’s demonstration in 1814 that the group of islands men>
tioned in the work and where Irish monks had been settled for a
hundred years must be identified as the Faroes. Dicuil says that now
(825) these islands were »causa latronum Nor(t)mannorum vacuæ anas
choritis, plenae innumerabilibus ovibus«.
Hence historically as well as linguistically the interpretation of Fær-
ey(j)ar as ’Sheep Islands’ is so appopriate that the suggestion of a
pre»Norse element in the name (Brøgger 1930) — as in Orkneyjar and
possibly Fljaltland (Shetland) — seems uncalled for.
BÓKMENTIR
1. 1 h. Torfæus: Commentatio historica de rebus gestis Færeyensium.
Havniæ 1695.
2. — Historisk Beretning om Indbyggernes Bedrifter paa Færøerne
. . . af det lat. Sprog oversat ved Peter Thorstensen. Khn. 1770.
3. A. W. Brøgger: Den norske bosetningen pá Shetland — Orknøyene.
Oslo 1930.
4. — Hvussu Føroyar vórðu bygdar. Inngongd til løgtingssøgu
Føroya. Tórsh. 1937.
5. Historia Norwegiæ = Breve Chronicon Norwegiæ, í »Symbolæ ad
Historiam Antiquiorem Rerum Norvegicarum. Ed. P. A. Munch.«
Chria. 1850.
6. Sama bók í »Monumenta Historica Norvegiæ«, udg. ved G. Storm.
Kria. 1880.