Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1995, Page 76

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THE FAROESE WHALE NAMES
lus (Isl. Hnydingr)’. It requires no demon-
stration that this definition is inapposite; it
reflects uncertainties of identification on
the part of writers who, like Svabo, had
themselves never seen a Killer Whale.
However, there is an earlier citation from
Regenskabsbogen for 1584 ‘Nyuinger’ (H.
Hamre, Færøymalet i Tiden 1584-1780
(1944) 38 — actually plural, cf. Dýralæra
115 ‘í 1584 doyðu 4 nýðingar undir Lítlu
Dímun ’. These have been identified as Pilot
Whales by E.J. Bjørk, see S. Dahl, ‘Hval-
fangst’, Kulturleksikon for nordisk middel-
alder VII (1962) 166, and this will be the
most likely meaning in Fiskakvæði, taking
the record back to c.1500. The present
meaning is thus a narrowing of the original
specific sense.
The Faroese name and its Icelandic
counterpart hnýðingur ‘Delfin’ (Blondal)
continue ON hnýðingr, the meaning of
which was certainly Pilot Whale, as con-
firmed by the etymology. It derives from
hnúðr ‘knob, ball’ (Cleasby-Vigfusson, Ice-
landic-English Dictionary (1874), in allu-
sion to the high, almost spherical forehead
so characteristic of the Pilot Whale, hence
the scientific Globicephala. In the light of
this the Icelandic sense is seen to be a sec-
ondary transference to another species; the
same naturally applies to the local Faroese
meaning. It remains to be said that the un-
certainties of identification, referred to
above, have led to mistakes in some dictio-
naries and a good deal of confusion in ety-
mological literature, as explained in MM
pp. 31 f.
NÝVIL m. A noa name for a whale, used by
men when at sea. Its literal meaning has
been forgotten, but is recoverable from the
etymology, the word corresponding to Icel.
hnýfill, Norw. nyvel ‘small hom’, and at-
tested in ON. hnýfildrykkja ‘drinking bout
where each drinks from his own small
hom ’. The Faroese usage has been promp-
ted by hom, since Old Norse times the usu-
al term for a whale’s (dorsal) fin. There are
many reports that men at sea were much
afraid of whales, in particular the Killer
Whale and the larger sorts. In the case of
the latter, the fin (if present) is not a promi-
nent feature, but the fin of the Killer is un-
mistakable, being larger than that of any
other species. It is the fin which, above all,
announces the presence of this formidable
predator and which has often led to name
giving, see MASTRARFISKUR. We may
conclude that the present noa name applied,
at least in the first place, to the Killer
Whale. This use of the word is confined to
Faroese.
Typologically, the present name recalls
terms for the Killer Whale based on horn
seen in Norw. staurhyming (cf. STEYR-
HVALUR) and Icel. háhymingur (há-
‘high’). The Faroese substitution of nývil
for hom underlines the evasive nature of
the expression.
OND f. A noa name for a whale used by
men when at sea, lit. ‘breath’ i.e. ‘blast,
blow, spout’, descending from ON ønd
‘breath’. The name will most likely have
referred to the large species which were
greatly feared. Such use of the word is
uniquely Faroese. See NÝVIL.