Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1995, Page 66

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A NOTE ON THE DERIVATION OF FAROESE GRIND
its entirety, nor in methods of capture, but
in terms of the behaviour of the whales
when they come together in large groups, to
»løber i Brun eller paa Leeg«.
With Claussøn Friis’s account in mind, it
is useful to tum to Icelandic sources for
comparison, and in particular the second
entry of grind in the Icelandic etymological
dictionary, íslensk Orðsifjabók (Blondal
Magnússon, 1989). The dictionary lists
grind as a separate entry in its meaning of
pilot whales, and also casts doubt on the
common explanation of a school of whales
forming some kind of gate or barrier.
Rather, it is suggested that the word is more
likely to be connected with expressions
such as að vera í grindum or grinda sig,
which refer to the shoaling and mating be-
haviour of groups of whales, known in Ice-
landic as hvalavaða. The expression aðvera
í grindingum also refers with the same
sense to dogs and cats, and in this respect it
is interesting to compare Claussøn Friis’s
expression »løber paa Leeg« (translated as
»coupling« in Sterpin’s English translation
of Lucas Debes (Debes, 1676: 171) with
modem Danish expressions such as løbetid,
such as in hunden er i løbetid - the dog is in
season/on heat. Blondal Magnússon also
points to comparable uses of Icelandic
hlaupa and ganga. Certainly, Claussøn Fri-
is’s description of a Hvalsgrind of large
whales stresses the movement and activity
of the whales, and the potential danger they
pose to seafarers when encountered in large
groups.
The seventeenth century account by the
Icelandic naturalist, Jón Guðmundsson, de-
scribes small whales in a similar manner:
»peir eru mióg vandpecktir á sió, er fjeir
vada sem vódusela vada« (Hermannsson,
1924: 6 - »they are known to be dangerous
at sea, when they congregate in large
groups, as seals do.«) The species dis-
cussed by Guðmundsson seems to be a
blend of killer whales and pilot whales, but
the significant aspect here is his mention of
the way in which they vada (vaða - shoal;
congregate in a large group) like seals. A
similar expression in Faroese, at grindast,
refers to the behaviour of pilot whales when
they are close together in a tight group, at
which time some of the group can be seen
to bob up and down in an upright position.
Muller provides the following description
of this behaviour:
It is an interesting sight to observe, from an
elevated plain on shore, a grind when it
»grinder«. Now and then some of the whales
stand erect in the water, with their heads
above the surface, seeming to spy. Others
float quietly on the surface. The main body
swims around, stowing the herd together, so
that some in the middle find it difficult to get
below water. (Muller, 1882: 7)
Although it is commonly thought that they
are »resting« when they do this, pilot
whales have also been observed to display
such behaviour during the actual driving. In
fact, very little is actually known about the
reasons for this behaviour in this species
(Desportes, pers. comm.).
In his lexical collection from the late
eighteenth century, Svabo also explains
grindast in the sense of a school of pilot
whales swimming at the surface as they rest