Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1970, Page 197

Um slafak og marinkjarna
205
PaS er forvitnilegt, að porungar skuli hafa veriS notaSir
til manneldis í Færeyjum og á Islandi meS gelískum nofnum,
en í Labrador, á meginlandi Ameríku, meS norrænu nafni.
SUMMARY
I. The present paper deals with some Icelandic words of Gaelic origin,
all previously dealt with by Chr. Matras in an important paper published
in 1958. II. Icel. slafak has several meanings, but closest to the Gaelic
is ‘green seaweed’, still found in North-Eastern Iceland, see Map 1.
III. The Icelandic word for ‘Alaria esculenta’, an edible seaweed, shows
a number of different forms. The authenticity of one 18th century example
of Myri-kiarni was discussed by Chr. Matras, and his conclusion is borne
out by the occurrence of mýrikjarni in Northem Iceland, see Map 2.
IV. According to Chr. Matras Icel. solvamæður ‘a kind of seaweed’ is
in all probability a loan translation of Scottish Gaelic mathair an duilisg
‘carrageen, Irish moss’. The sources do not agree as to the meaning of
the word, but still it is quite possible that Chr. Matras’ hypothesis is right.
V. In Icelandic annals a skin-boat is mentioned in the year 1666 on
Hvítá, a major salmon river. This river is comparable to e.g. the Severn,
the Shannon or the Boyne, where the use of currachs persisted into the
20th century. But nothing further is known about skin-boats in Iceland
and Celtic influence cannot be proved. But several well-documented
instances of cultural traits borrowed by the Norse from the Celts have
been discussed by Chr. Matras. Amongst these is the use of seaweed for
food. But whereas Gaelic has contributed words for edible seaweed in
the Faroes and in Iceland, a Norse loan word kvanneq occurs, according
to Thalbitzer, as a word for a kind of edible seaweed in Labrador Eskimo,
on the continent of Native America.
í William Thalbitzer, ed., The Ammassalik Eskimo I (Meddelelser om
Grønland XXXIX; København 1914), 710.