Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1979, Page 88

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The Case of »Hernilds kvæði«
Sometime prior to 1854 when Hanus Hanusson from
Fugloy compiled his Fugloyarbók, a ballad man, most likely
also from one of the northern islands, was inspired by a local
variant of the widely sung »Hermundur illi« to compose a
new ballad, »Hernilds kvæði.« Even though students of Faroese
heroic ballads rarely can operate with anything more definite
than a terminus ante quem, such as the one above, there is
some reason to believe that »Hernilds kvæði« is of relatively
recent composition. The fact that it is found in only one vari-
ant, although not proof of youth, speaks rather for than
against a short life in tradition. Compare »Hernilds kvæði«
in this respect to its source, »Hermundur illi,« which by virtue
of its close relationship to the Norwegian »Hermoð Ille« is
assumed to belong to the oldest layer of Faroese ballads: this
ballad exists in eight variants from all over the Faroe Islands.28
The language of »Hernilds kvæði« also suggests that it is
young: eight percent of its rhymes are formed with words that
have been borrowed into Faroese from Danish, probably via
the rhymes of Danish ballads which became popular in the
islands with the publication of Peder Syv’s Et hundrede ud-
valde danske viser .... forøgede med det andet hundredc
(1695).27 Again, compare this with the variants of »Hermund-
ur illi,« none of which contains more than four percent of
Danish rhyming words.28 Furthermore, since none of these
Danish rhymes in »Hermundur illi« is found in more than
one of its major variants, it seems likely that they are all later
accretions. The few indices available for assessing the age of
a Faroese heroic ballad point to the first half of the nineteenth
century as the most likely period during which »Hernilds
kvæði« may have been composed.29
There is nothing in »Hernilds kvæði« that sets it apart from
other Faroese heroic ballads. Likewise, there is nothing to
suggest that its composer was anything other than a member,
albeit a very creative one, of some Faroese ballad community
on one of the northern islands. A comparison of his ballad and
the one he used as his model shows him to be quite unlike the