Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1975, Side 49

How old is the Faroese grannastevna?
57
lution of regulative power away from Tórshavn, which took
place in stages through the nineteenth century, providing the
people with the machinery for settling their own difficulties.
The need to provide such local machinery arose from the large
increase in the number of óðalsmenn (private holders of land)
and the decrease in the average size of their holdings. In 1816,
23 óðalsmenn shared the 18 marks of óðalsjórð in Nólsoy’s
NorSara helvt; in 1843 there were 42, and in 1900 there were
52. If the resident óðalsmenn only are considered, the frag-
mentation process is even more remarkable; the figures are
then respectively about 8, 18 and 48.29 Centralised arbitration
of disputes could never have stood up to the strain. Only
through a decentralised system was it possible to adapt joint
ownership to the fragmentation of óðal holdings, and to con-
serve such resources as the puffins of Nólsoy and the guille-
mots of Skúvoy. How the grannastevna first came into exi-
stence may be still an open question; but there can be no doubt
about the pressures which turned it into an institution of
importance.
Acknowledgement
The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the
Social Science Research Council, State House, High Holborn,
London, W.C.I., in making possible the field work and archive
study in the Faroe Islands on which this article is based.
REFERENCES
1. Lagtingstidende 1883, page 4; Tillæg til Forslag og Bctænkninger af-
givne af den fxróiske Landbokommission, Copenhagen 1911, page 595;
Bruun, Fra de færóske bygder, Copenhagen 1929, page 178; Bonnevie,
»Oversigt over nogle hovedtræk af ejendomsrettens udvikling paa Fær-
oerne«, furisten, 1940; Petersen, Ein fóroysk bygd, Tórshavn 1968,
page 258.
2. E. A. Bjðrk, Færósk bygderet I, Tórshavn 1956—7, page 20.
3. Hallager & Brandt, ed., Kong Christian den Fjerdes Norske Lovbog
af 1604, Christiania 1855, cap. XXVIIÍ, page 130 and footnote; J. C.
Svabo, lndberetninger, Copenhagen 1959, page 142.
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