Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1970, Síða 156

164
On legal terms in Færeyinga saga
legal ofíice, and it may be thought unlikely that Snorri would
use the term IggsQgumaðr without some warrant for it. Al-
though the possibility that it is his alteration cannot be dis-
missed, the explanation that lies nearest to hand is that he
found it in his source, and Finnur Jónsson and Ólafur Hall-
dórsson, the most recent editors of the saga, have acted on
the assumption that he did. See further p. 174 below.
(7) The word landbúi appears to have been normally used
in Iceland in a technical sense, »Nabobonde til en Jordeien-
dom«, who functioned in the legal process as »Vurderings-
mand« or »Kvidmand«14. In Snorri’s text the word evidently
has its common East Norse and Norwegian sense of »tenant«15.
Although this was obviously intelligible in Iceland, we can
hardly regard it here as an Icelandic term transferred to
Faroese conditions. It seems rather to reflect a realisation that
the Faroes were foreign, but again, whether this is Snorri’s
realisation or the first author’s we cannot tell. It may be
noted that Snorri uses land(s)búar of tenants in Norway else-
where in Óláfs saga helga16.
(8) The word áverki in Norwegian legal use retained a
general sense of »effect, result of action« and it is found in
various contexts, including some less commonly where it means
»voldsomhed .... mod person«, as in the saga here17. In Ice-
landic, on the other hand, the special sense of »wound, injury«
for áverk(i) is predominant though not exclusively so18. Here
it seems more natural as an Icelandic than as a Norwegian
expression, but it is only a question of degree and we should
14 Gg III 636; cf. Fritzner, Ordbog, s. v.
15 The word is used alongside leiglendingr in Norwegian, and this latter
is usual in Iceland, where landseti is also found. (According to Den store
Saga, 418/8, note ad loc., two manuscripts have landsetar for landbúar
at this point in the text from Færeyinga saga.) KL X (1965) has a separate
article, Landbo, for Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and another, Leiglending,
for Norway, Iceland.
16 Den store Saga, 7/20, 60/1.
17 NgL V s. v.
Gg III 587—8.
18