Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1999, Blaðsíða 136

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ON THE OLDEST TERRITORIAL DIVISION OF THE FAEROEISLANDS
Fig. 1. Faeroe Islands with the proposed boundary
between the northem and southem chiefdoms.
Mynd. 1. Føroyakort, har hypotetiska markið millum
norðara og sunnara høvdingadømið er innteknað.
(Skælingsfjall), Snais (Sneis), Sunfelle
(Somfelli) and Nickwand (Núgvan). Was
this a misspelling of Hunđsarabotnur, or
was the place really pronounced as he
wrote it? Let us analyse this question, pre-
suming his spelling to be correct. First,
however, some methodological considera-
tions are needed.
When dealing with the old historical-ge-
ographical situation in the Faeroe Islands,
the investigations always have a touch of
uncertainty or hypothetical thinking. The
Saga of the Faeroese has often been con-
sidered as a “tme” document, but certainly
it does not tell us the full and tme history of
the Faeroe Islands. Several other sciences
have made new contributions, though they
give us but fragmented and dispersed
knowledge. Pollen analyses made by the
late Jóhansen (1978) have moved the peri-
od of the first landnám from around 820
back to 600-650. Matras (1957) concludes
from certain place-names that people from
Rogaland, Hordaland and Sogn in westem
Norway settled in specific villages. Thor-
steinsson (1997) proposes that people from
the westem regions of Britain settled in
Vestmanna. Archaeological findings
(Dahl, 1970; Mahler, 1996) indicate a land-
use system different from what is known to
have been in effect for the last 400 years. In
short, the methodology used in this re-
search can be presented as “observation-
analysis-synthesis”, where the synthesis
perhaps best can be explained as a kind of
inference to best explanation. However, we
cannot take this best explanation in the
strict sense: as natural, scientific explana-
tion. Because of the actual subject matter,
we must add some of the basic principles of
hermeneutic philosophy as discussed in
Pahuus (1995), for instance, and replace in-
terpretation with understanding.
After analysing the first surprising obser-
vations tied to the place-names, Hund-
sarabotnur, Stallur and Hórisgøta, we arrive
at a hermeneutic understanding of the pos-
sibility of something special attached to