Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1999, Page 143

UM ELSTA FØROYSKA JARÐARBÝTIÐ
147
Hundabrævið, or the Dog Letter
An old ordinance called Hundabrævið, or
the Dog Letter, about the keeping of dogs in
the villages stems from the second half of
the 14th century. Helgason (1951) has deci-
phered the text. Several villages are men-
tioned in every sýsla, except for the south-
em part of Streymoy. In this area, dogs
were prohibited. The original formulation
is: »en engi (hundr) suðr frá f>orisgotu«
(111). In this passage, the place-name Hór-
isgøta is used as if it was a commonly
known and recognised boundary or divisi-
on line. It is still today common usage in
the Faeroes to say “south of Hórisgøtu”
when speaking of the southem part of
Streymoy.
The Saga of the Faeroese about a Divi-
sion of the Faeroes into Two Chiefdoms
The Saga of the Faeroese must be read with
the utmost care and a critical eye when we
try to extract historical facts from it. It was
written by a Christian clergyman with the
purpose of explaining and defending the
seizure of power over the Faeroes by the
Roman Catholic Church. It was an apolo-
gia.
In the Saga, we read about sýslumnen
and the different divisions of chiefdoms.
(Chp. 4): “Havgrímur was chief over one
half of the islands and had it in fief \í len\
from King Harald Gráfeld”. Further on
(Chp. 4): “Brestir and Beinir were
renowned men and were chiefs over half-
part of the islands and had it in fief from
Earl Hákun Sigurdsson”. Brestir and Bein-
ir, as well as Havgrímur, are referred to as
sýslumenn, though it is unlikely that there
was a consolidated administrative division
of the land into sýslur at that time. The des-
ignation must refer to their function as the
King’s officials or tax collectors. Later,
when all these individuals were killed in
different conflicts, the famous Frand from
Gøta alone takes power over the islands and
frees them from Norwegian supremacy. He
divides the power with his foster son, Ossur
Havgrimsson, and the islands are again di-
vided into two chiefdoms.
When Sigmundur Brestisson, who is the
hero of the Saga, retums to the Faeroe Is-
lands with the support of the Norwegian
King after a long and involuntary joumey
in Norway, he has converted to a new reli-
gion. He gets the islands in fief, however,
from Hákun Sigurdsson and later from Olaf
Tryggvason (Chp. 25 & 30). Nowadays,
such an act would be regarded as high trea-
son, but the Saga presents him as a hero.
He introduced Roman Catholicism. Ac-
cording to the chronology in different edi-
tions of the Saga, it happened in the year
999 or 1000. Mortensen (1998) has recent-
ly argued for the interpretation that the cor-
rect year was 998. For a time, Sigmundur
is chief over one-half of the islands, but at
the same time he has the whole archipelago
in fief (í len). After further conflicts, Sig-
mundur Brestisson is killed and Frand once
more organises a division, this time into
thirds (Chp. 48). He takes one part for him-
self, Leif Ossurson gets one and the sons of
Sigmundur get another. Perhaps the divi-
sion could be interpreted to mean: one-half
to Frand, one-quarter to Leif and the other
quarter to Sigmundur’s sons. Regardless,
this arrangement lasted just about 5 years.