Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1978, Page 14

Faroese Bird-Name Origins
VII
W. B. Lockwood
Jaðra- or ]arða(r)kona?
This, the current name for the water rail, is treated in
Faroese Bird Names, 22ff., and seen to 'be allied to ON (f>ula)
jaðrakárn and Icel. jaðraki, jaðreka, jarðreki, etc., etc. ‘(black-
tailed) godwit’, and further to a (presumed) Norw. jordkone
quoted from Bj. Sæmundsson, Fuglarnir (1936), 415. Mean-
while, two further studies have been concerned with this name,
and we accordingly begin by reporting on these.
The first, by H. GuSmundsson, ‘FuglsheitiS jaSrakan’, Af-
mælisrit Jóns Helgasonar (1969), 264-84, examines the multi-
farious Icelandic varieties of this name. It is shown that jað-
rakan, the usual literary form today, is spurious, final n being
in the last analysis a misunderstood suffix article. The form
first appeared in 1848, gaining currency thanks to its adoption
by Ben. Grondal from 1874 onwards, who believed that this
form best reflected a supposed affiliation with Gael. adkarcán
‘lapwing’ mooted by S. Egilsson, Lexicon Poeticum (1860),
‘Vox dicitur Hibernica esse’. Genuine forms of the name go
back to the early 17th century, the oldest being jaðraka f.,
which may be envisaged as descending from the medieval
prototype as follows: ON jaðrakárn (c. 1300) i>*jaðrakarn
J>*jaðrakanJ>jaðraka (c. 1600), whence the medley of secon-
dary variants, including those with jarð- as the first element.
In the case of the Faroese, however, the likely descent of the