Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1999, Page 125

129
The Brother of the Snake and Fish as Kings
Bróðir ormsins og fiskar sum kongar
Ingvar Svanberg
Dep. ofEast European Studies, Box 514, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden, Phone: +46 18 471 16 85,
e-mail: ingvar.svanberg@east.uu.se
Úrtak
I gamlari fólkamentan hevur verið vanligt at bólka fiska-
sløg eftir samfelagsbygnaði og ættarskipan. Eftir hesi
heimsáskoðan var natúrligt, at állur (Anguilla anguilla)
hevði eina államóður, sum var tann, ið førdi ættina víð-
ari. Allurin var so nær skyldur við ormin, at hann segðist
vera bróðir hansara. Allur hevur tí ikki verið etin í Før-
oyum, Noregi og Norðursvøríki.
Løgnir fiskar, eitt nú óvanliga stórir fiskar, fiskar,
sum onkursvegna vóru vanskaptir, og fiskar sum vóru
uppi í veiðini av einhvørjum øðrum fiskaslag, vórðu
nevndir kongar ella herleiðarar. Teir kundu eisini nevn-
ast -styrja, sum í Norðurlondum hevur verið brúkt um
stóran og óvanligan fisk; teir vórðu hildnir at leiða og
verja hinar fiskamar, sum sóust í torvum við Atlants-
strendur. Dømi em laksastyrja (Lampris guttatus), silda-
kongur og sildastyrja (Regalecus glesne) og makel-
styija (Thunnus thynnus).
Um allan heim er kent, at summi dýr hava verið
nevnd kongar. Hetta er ikki bert galdandi fyri fisk, men
eisini um skríðdýr, fuglar og súgdýr.
Abstract
In traditional folk taxonomy, various fish species have
been categorised in accordance with the social stmc-
tures and kinship systems of human beings. According
to this world-view, it was natural that the eel (Anguilla
anguilla) had an Eel-Mother, who was responsible for
reproduction, and that the eel was regarded as a relative
to the snakes and was, therefore, called the Brother of
the Snake. In the Faroe Islands, Norway and northem
Sweden, this belief legitimised local aversion to the eel
as food.
Strange looking fish, either exceptionally large spec-
imens of a certain species or those that were malformed
in one way or other, or even uncommon species caught
together with fish shoals, have been regarded as kings or
leaders of certain fish. They have also been called -styr-
ja in the Scandinavian languages. In Nordic countries,
this term denoted certain large and rare fish species
which were believed to command and protect other fish
species such as herring or mackerel, which appear in
large shoals along the Atlantic coast, e.g. the opah (Lam-
pris guttatus), the oarfish (Regalecus glesne), and the
tuna fish (Thunnus thynnus).
The tradition of regarding certain species or speci-
mens as the king of other fish is widespread, not only in
northem Europe, but also in other parts of the world. It
is also known with regard to reptiles, birds and mam-
mals.
Introduction
The famous Swedish author, August
Strindberg (1987: 30), describes in his late
19th century novel, I havsbandet [‘By the
Open Sea’], how an inspector of fisheries
tries to convince sceptical islanders, with
the help of a water looking-glass, that there
are eels (Anguilla anguilla) on the bottom
of the sea. However, the islanders repudi-
ate the observations, arguing that actually it
must have been snakes they had seen. The
inspector of fisheries was, of course, cor-
Fróðskaparrit 47. bók 1999: 129-138