Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1995, Page 77

THE FAROESE WHALE NAMES
81
ROVHVALUR ‘Killer Whale’ = BÓG-
HVÍTUHVALUR. Introduced by M.D. á
Ryggi, Varðin III (1923) 59: Bóghvítu-
hvalur ella Rovhvalur, from Dan. rovhval,
itself a neologism, first found in 1899.
ROYÐUR f. Blue Whale (Balaenoptera
musculus). The earliest source is Debes 167
‘Røer’, Svabo’s spelling is ‘Rojur’ e.g.
Fiskakvæði 17, but the name is traditional:
ON reyðr, gen. reyðar. Faroese has innova-
ted with gen. royðrar-; a parallel develop-
ment is Shetland Nom is seen in rodra-
stobbi matching Far. royðrarstabbi ‘back-
bone of a whale used as a seat’.
ON reryðr is an i-stem related to reyðr ‘red’,
its literal meaning therefore ‘redness’, evo-
lution to a whale name being as follows.
The original abstract sense first took on the
concrete meaning ‘(red) meat’ here specifi-
cally the meat of the Blue Whale; this stage
is preserved in ON reyðarhvalr lit. ‘(red)
meat whale’. Subsequently, by a further
shift, it came to designate the whale itself.
Such changes doubtless reflect the working
of name taboo, cf. MM, pp. 33f.
SEIÐHVALUR m. Sei Whale (Balaeno-
ptera borealis). A neologism reflecting
Norw. sejhval (Dýralæra 98). This whale
appears off the Finmark coast of Norway at
the same time as the sej (Far. seiður) ‘coal-
fish’, both attracted by the abundant plank-
ton.
SILDREKI m. Minke Whale (Balaeno-
ptera acutorostrata). First in Resen 73
(corrupt) »Sildrekkel«. Svabo has e.g. Dict.
fær. 709: Silrejki (silreekji, sildrekji) Sild-
hval, Nordkaper. The name is found again
in Icel. sild-síldreki, according to Blóndal
used for either the Fin Whale or for any
large whale pursuing herring. The modern
forms presuppose ON *sildreki lit. ‘herring
driver’, doubtless a collective term. Ir,
Faroese, however, the sense has been nar-
rowed, the Minke Whale being a species
well known in the islands. It was protected
by ancient custom, as it was believed to dri-
ve the herring into the fjords, cf. Indb. 75.
SLÆTTIBØKA. f. Right Whale (Balaena
glacialis). After Resen (below) attestation
goes back to Svabo e.g Fiskakvæði 18 Slat-
tubøka. The name continues ON slettibaka
with generalisation of the umlauted root
vowel occurring in oblique cases, acc. -
bpku etc. The designation ‘smooth back’
alludes to the absence of a fin: Pá heitir enn
hvalakyn eitt slettibaka, ok er ikki hom á
baki (Fritzner III, 429). The name likewise
survives in Icel. slettibaka. A variant ON
slettibakr m. gives Norw. sletbak; Resen 75
»Slettebag« may represent this form.
The much larger, but otherwise very sim-
ilar Bowhead Whale (B. mysticetus), an ex-
clusively arctic species once abundant off
the coasts of Greenland, is termed GRØN-
LANDSSLÆTTIBØKA, an imaginative
neologism (Dýralæra 101) not matched in
Icelandic or Norwegian where the terms are
Grænlandshvalur and Grønlandhval re-
spectively, names arising in connection
with whaling in Greenland waters which
began in eamest in the early years of the
17th century.