Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1964, Side 80

88
Færeyinga saga, chapter forty
of this kind of færikvíar (in which a section may be called
(færi)kvíagrind) is in Iceland not said to go back beyond
the eighteenth century, references in early litterature show
that Icelanders were familiar with grindr used in this way
in Norway.1) Translators have generally tried to make clear
the nature of the construction of the grind: clathri (Torfæus),
Tral-, Sprinkelværker (Rahbek, Rafn, Winther), Gitterwerke,
Holzgitter (Mohnike, Niedner, de Vries), lattices (York
Powell), hurdles(?) (EIlis).
It has also generally been accepted that the four pieces
of fencing were set up in a square. (That the grindr were
laid flat in a square may be conceivable but is contrary to
nature.) The phrase með fjórum hornum (skautum), with
four corners, is well attested in the description of things
with a square or rectangular shape.2) Cf. ferhyrndr, four=
cornered, viereckig. Some people believe that the square of
lattices surrounds the fire,3) but there is nothing in the text
to compel this conclusion. On the contrary, given the
hilastic function of the fire and the fact that Trándr sat on
') According to Magnús Hákonarson’s Landslog (VII 30), a satisfacs
tory gate (grind) on a public road should have »rimar i ok okar tveir
firir endum ok krossband a«; a rimagarðr is built in the same way but
without the krossband (ibid. VII 29); see Norges gamle Love II 122,
V 249 s. v. grind, 523 s. v. rim. For a lot of general information on
types of fencing see KL I (1956), 420, VI (1961), 279-92, IX (1964),
554—6. That portable grindr were used for pens in Sweden is shown
by the famous passage in Áldre Vastgótalagen (Rettlósabalken V 5):
»í>aettæ aru vkvæb'ns orb kono. Iak sa at )>u reet a quiggrindu lósharæh
—«. Pens made of grindr are illustrated in H. Stigum, ‘Grindgang og
grindhus’, By og bygd 6 (1948—9), 4, 7; Jónas Jónasson, op. cit., 174;
Johannes Skar, Gamalt or Sætesdal (samla utg., 1961—3), II 342. Cf.
Egils saga, ch. 57 (íslenzk fornrit II (1933), 167); »vgku ver . . . yfir
fe váru, er byrgt er í grindum«, and other references in Cleasbys
Vigfússon, Icelandic-English Dictionary (1874), and J. Fritzner, Ordbog
over det gamle norske Sprog (1883—96), s. v. grind.
2) Cf. Fritzner, Ordbog, s. v. skaut.
3) Meissner, Press, Rahbek, Rygh, Torfæus, York Powell (cf. his
introduction, xxxviii); Olsen and Lid by inference.