Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1987, Page 22

26
SANDOYARBÓK
December of that year and moved into the
household of his father-in-law out at Skáli
undir Reynum, he seems to have had few
opportunities for collecting. In 1824 and
subsequent years he recorded at most one
or two texts each year before completing in
1831 the fair copy of his collection.
Thus, we can see that roughly eighty-five
percent of the texts in »Sandoyarbók« were
collected during a span of three years. Dur-
ing this period, Clemensen did most of his
recording in the late winter months, when
out-of-doors farmwork had abated and the
annual dance season was in full swing.
However, even though village enthusiasm
for the weekly dances doubtless contrib-
uted to his wintertime interest in ballad
collecting, it is unlikely that Clemensen
recorded texts from their performance in
the hurly-burly of the dance ring. There,
the noise and press of the dancers, as well
as the flexing of the wooden floor under
stamping feet-all these things so desirable
for a successful dance-worked against the
penman struggling with his bothersome
quill and inkpot. It is much more likely that
Clemensen called on his informants (or
they called on him) to record texts from a
solo performance akin to that of the tra-
dition of the household kvøldseta (evening
work period).
Nowhere in »Sandoyarbók« does Clem-
ensen indicate that his texts were anything
but his own painstaking recording of oral
performances in Sandoy parish (compri-
sing the islands of Sandoy, Skúgvoy, and
Dímun). However, it seems certain that
some of his texts were copies of what other
people had recorded; in fact this is proba-
bly true of all the ballads collected from
people who lived outside the parish.
Indeed, these texts were provided to Clem-
ensen by highly literate informants:
»Hábarðs kvæði« (CCF 219), »Ólavur
Trygvason« (CCF 215), and »Finnboga
ríma« (CCF 47) from Jens Christian Djur-
huus, a well-educated farmer of Kolla-
fjørður and the author of the first two of
them; and »Sanda táttur« (CCF 204) from
Clemensen’s second cousin Jakob Nolsøe,
the bookkeeper for the government fran-
chise store in Tórshavn. Nolsøe was proba-
bly responsible for recording all the texts
collected from residents of the Tórshavn
area: his own brother Poul Poulsen Nols-
øe’s ballad »Fugla kvæði« (CCF 190), as
reported by another brother, Hans;
»Grímur á Aksalvølli« (CCF 132) from
Anna Maria Tamburs, the wife of an offic-
er of the garrison;6 and »Guttormur í Hatt-
armóti« (CCF 58) from her mother, Maren
Sybille Augustinidatter.
It seems equally certain that few of the
ballads collected from residents of Sandoy
parish were recorded by anyone but Clem-
ensen himself. Few people there could
write with any facility - there was no re-
gular formal instruction in the parish dur-
ing the early nineteenth century. (In con-
firmation classes conducted by the minist-
er, the children were taught to read and to
recite certain religious texts, but not to
write).7 Children could receive informal in-
struction at home, according to the inter-
ests and abilities of their parents; and some
doubtless learned to write there, just as
Clemensen had done. But it must be said
that the legal and church documents from
Sandoy parish during the years 1810-1830
reflect only six practiced hands - those of
(1) the minister Peder Hentze, (2) his son
Sheriff Johan Michael Hentze, (3) Poul Jo-