Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1999, Page 138

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ON THE OLDEST TERRITORIAL DIVISION OF THE FAEROE ISLANDS
with an / in the middle, instead of an r, as it
is written and pronounced in Faeroese to-
day. The other place-names are rather well
reproduced by Baine in a kind of phonetic
transcription, so it must be assumed that the
place-name at that time, some 200 years
ago, was pronounced Hundsalabotnur, with
an l. Later on, this has changed by a con-
sonant shift or analogy to an r or l>r. The
analogy influence could stem from the end-
ings in words like okkara (ours), hansara
(his), ovara (upper), niðara (lower). It
could also derive from the compositional
fuga used in place-names like Skinnara-
sker, Norðaraskarð, Slættaratindur, Heim-
aranes. Otherwise, the consonant shift r>l
is common. Jakobsen (1907, xliii) men-
tions Norsoy>Nólsoy. In other cases, there
is an ambivalence between rxl. Weyhe
(1996a) gave me some examples: Herdals-
tindur>Heldarstindur, where both kinds of
consonant shift have taken place: the first
r>l and the second l>r.
Over the cirque, Hundsarabotnur, there
is a rock protrusion or knoll called Hunds-
enni, and in the cirque you find the river
Hundsá. The first part of Hundsarabotnur,
Hundsenni and Hundsá is usually ex-
plained as the genitive hunds-, from hundur
(dog, hound), so Hundsarabotnur can be
explained as a distortion of the hypothetical
*Hundsáarbotnur. The question is, howev-
er, which name is the original one and
which are derivates. If Hundsá is the origi-
nal name and *Hundsáarbotnur a derivate,
then it would be difficult to explain the oth-
er derivate: Hundsenni, then it ought to be
Hundsáarenni or perhaps Hundsarenni.
If we take the older form *Hundsala-
botnur seriously, we can look for an expla-
nation of this name. In Nielsen (1966), un-
der the reference, alter (in English: altar):
“In Gothic the designation hunslastaps was
used for the word ‘altar’ actually a heathen
term “offering place”, where the first part is
hunsl ‘sacrifice’ (in Danish: offer), that is
also preserved in Old English husl, but it is
of uncertain origin.” Heggstad (1958) men-
tions the meaning in Old Norwegian of húsl
or hunsl, a neutrum, as Kristi likam or Cor-
pus Christi in the Eucharist (the Lord’s
Supper). In Old Icelandic, Zoega (1910)
mentions: húsl (n.) as “housel” in English
(in Danish: Alterhrød) and húsla (v.) “to
housel” or administer the Eucharist to
someone: “Hann var húslaðr og dó síðan”
(He was houseled and then died). The fol-
lowing development is then reasonable:
*Hunslabotnur > Hunsalabotnur > Huns-
arabotnur.
The latest form is written Hundsarabot-
nur, but the d is never pronounced in any of
the three place-names today. My hypothe-
sis is now that somewhere in the vicinity of
the mountain projection, Hundsenni, there
was a sacred place or temple (Old Norse:
hov), which must have been the *Hunsl that
gave name to Hundsenni, Hundsá and also
Hundsarabotnur.
The Mountain, Stallur
Nielsen (1966) continues his explanation
above in this remarkable way: “In Old
Norse, yet another old word for ‘altar’ is
handed down: stallr, meaning scaffolding,
staging (in Danish: stillads) on which idols
are placed.” It is remarkable because the
mountain that Baine called Hundselebund