Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1975, Page 40

How old is the Faroese grannastevna?
John F. West, M. A.
Writers on Faroese land tenure have commonly assumed
that the annual village meeting known as the grannastevna is
of ancient origin. Thus H. C. S. Finsen in 1883, Daniel Bruun
in 1904 and 1929, Erik Bonnevie in 1940, and Poul Petersen
in 1968 have all asserted its early origin.1 E. A. Bjork, more
cautiously, said in 1956 that the silence of early writers on the
Faroese grannastevna is not conclusive evidence that in their
days it did not exist, even though the earliest reference he him-
self had discovered was from 1836.2
The basis for this opinion is the undoubted existence of the
grannastevna from early times in mainland Norway. In VII-30
of the Landlov of Magnus Lawmender (1274) stands a provi-
sion that the grannastevna should be held on St. Halvard’s Day
(14 May) so that neighbours could see that their fences were
in proper condition. This measure passed into Christian IV’s
Norwegian Law of 1604, and thence into 3-12-17 of Christian
V’s Norwegian Law of 1687, which last was doubtless why
the word appeared in Sandoens Vedtægt, signed in 1692.3 My
view is, however, that early Faroese occurrences of the word
grannastevna refer to irregular meetings for a variety of pur-
poses, and that only from about 1840 did the institution be-
come of real significance, and the word itself come into regular
use amongst the Faroese villagers. My reasons are: (i) the silence
of early writers and legislators; (ii) the use, before about 1840,
of other machinery for taking decisions which were later natu-
ral to the grannastevna; (iii) the nature of the written ref-