Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1975, Page 16

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Faroese Bird-Name Origins
sounding noa terms. If we still cannot give a detailed ex-
planation, we do at least know that the bird has for long en-
joyed an excellent reputation in the Faroes, FBN, 62. The
reputation appears to have been widespread and the purpose
of this note is to draw attention to one of the bird’s Gaelic
names: Irish giolla Brighde, Sc. Gael. gille Brighde (often spelt
Brlde) lit. ‘Bride’s (Bridget’s) servant’, further Sc. Gael. bndeun
‘Bride’s bird’, Bridget being, as they say, the Mary of the Gael.
Here in principle is the same link with mythology and religion
as implied in the Norse names which ultimately go back to
Odin. A large number of Norse bird names survive as loans
in Gaelic, especially Scots Gaelic, but surprisingly there is no
trace of such an important name as tjaldr. As like as not it
fell victim to the tabooing process.
Groddi ‘puffin’
This puffin name was referred to in FBN, 17, as follows:
»J. Jakobsen noted down from an unknown source . . . groddi
m., so spelt on the assumption that it is identical with groddi
‘stump’.« That this assumption is without doubt correct may
be illustrated from a remarkable parallel recently noticed. An
isolated Cornish puffin name nath finds its etymological ex-
planation in cognate Welsh nadd ‘something hewn or chipped’
from naddu ‘hew, chip’. The basic concepts ‘stump’ and ‘chip’
are, of course, to all intents and purposes identical, see Trans-
actions of the Philological Society, 1974, 29.
Krypils-, Kryplingsont ‘garganey’ — a misnomer
These uniquely Faroese duck names were considered in FBN,
9 f. As explained there, the former variant goes back to Svabo,
índb. (1781—2), the latter to Landt (1800). Reference was
made to difficulties of identification; at the same time, it was
noticed that these now (so it appears) purely bookish words
are today understood as denoting the garganey.
It is obvious that the names are meaningful, i. e. ‘cripple
duck’, but to which species do they properly apply? Although