Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1968, Side 97

More on Faroese Bird Names
105
Fulkobbi
We are now in a position to comment on the name of the
little auk, provisionally analysed in FBN, 66, as follows:
fulkobbi lit. (if jul- is for fugl-) ‘bird cob’.
Fa. kobbi means, of course, ‘seal’. But I hesitated to find
this sense in a bird name and therefore put the less precise
‘cob’ whiah, as tihe etymological equivalent of the Faroese,
easily suggested itself. But this equation obscures tlhe semantics.
It would have been preferable to have put ‘seal’, for this is
the specific meaning attested in Faroese, as elsewihere in West
Norse (Ic. kobbi, No. kobbe). Moreover, we have at once a
most striking semantic parallel to imbrimil (above).
We have thus to reckon, theoretically at least, with the
possibility tihat fulkobbi has replaced an older form of the
name, as in the case of imbrimil. However, no such form
has come down to us, nor is the name to be found in the
cognate languages. ’Fhe probability is, therefore, that fulkobbi
has always been a purely Faroese word, so that one tends to
thimk in terms of a development of the post-medieval period.
The first element, however, still remains essentially intract-
able. Whatever it is, it appears to be corrupt and so not
amenable to regular philological analysis. As it stands, ful-
kobbi could mean ‘full seal’, though this gives no apparent
sense. It could be ‘bird seal’ (as above). Another conjecture
would perhaps be ‘foul seal’ (ful- irregularly for /«/-). It seems
certain that such designations, bizarre as they may sound, must
nevertheless be seriously considered.
Svabo records fulkobbi in Indberetninger, 13, and notes
that the bird was looked upon as a harbinger of bad weather.
M'e observe, furthermore, that the little auk was sometimes
confused with the stormy petrel, that other diminutive sea-
bird of evil repute: (Suðuroy) bárafjertur ‘auk’, (Fugloy, noa
name) bárufjertur ‘petrel’, cf. also Ic. haftyrðill ‘auk’, Fa. hav-
tyrðil ‘petrel’. We may, indeed, have no doubts about the
milieu and can hardly avoid the conclusion that the old-time
8