Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1978, Page 37

Sniolvs kvæði
45
The island of Sandoy appears to have been the center for
the vigorous growth of the Sniolv cycle. None of the texts
collected elsewhere shows the ballad in so expanded a form —
they either reflect the cycle in a more primitive stage (Svabo’s
text and the E and F variants), or they are fragmentary and
clearly derived from Sandoy tradition.
If we could assume that Clemensen’s 1819 text and Svabo’s
1781—1782 text were collected from the same family tradition
of the cycle, then we could argue that the three new tættir
must have been composed in the period between the earlier
and later dates of collection. But we cannot — Svabo’s text
could have been collected anywhere: because he was involved
in writing a description of the Faroes at the time, he must have
travelled extensively. By the same token, we could pinpoint
when the two new tættir in Clemensen’s 1821 text were com-
posed if we could be certain that Clemensen collected both
his 1819 and 1821 texts from the same man. But even that
eludes us! We do know Clemensen’s 1821 text was sung by a
Peder Fukassen of Skálavík, who, according to the common
practice of Faroese ballad communities, would have been the
only man in that village to perform the ballad. But even though
the tættir that are found in both of Clemensen’s texts are quite
similar, there are nonetheless too many differences in numbers
of stanzas, wording, and stanza order to make it possible to
say with confidence that both texts were sung by Peder Fukas-
sen in Skálavík.
It seems more reasonable to suppose that Clemensen, who
had been delegated in 1819 by P. Hentze to collect some bal-
lads, turned first to the nearest singers at hand — his fellow
villagers from Sand. It is not likely that Clemensen would have
gone further afield until he started his own collection in 1821,
and that is indeed when he travelled to Skálavík to collect the
cycle from Fukassen. If this is so, then Clemensen’s 1819 text
is from Sand, and his 1821 text is from Skálavík. But the two
texts do bear a marked similarity to each other that suggests
that they are both ultimately to be derived from the same