Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1987, Page 23

SANDOYARBÓK
27
Informants from outside The parish
Number of Adult Place of Year of
Ballads Residence Birth Birth
Jens Christian Djurhuus 3 Kollafjørður Nes 1773
Jakob Nolsøe 1 Tórshavn Nólsoy 1776
Hans Poulsen Nolsøe 1 Nólsoy Nólsoy 1763
Anna Maria Tamburs 1 Tórshavn Tórshavn 1798
Maren Sybille Augustinidatter 1 Tórshavn Tórshavn 1775
Joen ... 1 Sandur Sørvágur ?
hannessen Dalsgaard of í Soylu, (4)
Sandur’s church warden Christian Clem-
ensen of undir Skarði, (5) Clemensen’s
father, Clemen Olesen, and (6) Johannes
Clemensen himself. Among these penmen,
only the minister’s son, Johan Michael
Hentze, provided Clemensen with ballad
texts for »Sandoyarbók«\ we can probably
assume that some, if not all, of the ten texts
collected from him may have come to
Clemensen in the form of written records
rather than oral dictation.
»Sandoyarbók« and the Village of Sandur
»Sandoyarbók« reflects first and foremost
the ballad tradition of Clemensen’s own
village of Sandur - a glance at the register
shows that forty-nine percent of his in-
formants were residents of Sandur and that
singers from the six other villages in the
parish are much more sparsely represent-
ed.8 Not only did Clemensen collect from a
relatively greater number of singers in
Sandur, but he also collected more ballads
from each one: he acquired an average of
three to four ballads from each of his fellow
villagers, whereas it was unusual for him to
get more than one ballad apiece from sing-
ers from elsewhere. On the other hand, the
ballads collected from out-of-towners were
predominantly long ones consisting of
several tættir (sub-ballads), precisely the
sort that tend above all others to be the
pride and joy of their singers. This
suggests, of course, that Clemensen was
quite selective when he went outside of his
own village tradition - not only did he
apparently not bother to collect from out-
siders ballads that were also performed by
residents of Sandur, but he was inclined to
go after the choicest pieces.9
When collecting in Sandur, Clemensen
obtained most of his ballads from the upper
crust of village society - from royal lease-
hold farmers and their families. In fact,
singers from as many as half of the nine
royal tenant households (including parson-
age farms) in Sandur are to be found listed
in the »Sandoyarbók« register, whereas
only one-sixth of the village’s twenty-four
freeholder and crofter households are
represented there. The impression given
by »Sandoyarbók« that the well-born
people of Sandur dominated village ballad
tradition is further enhanced by the fact