Atlantssiðir — Atlantsorð

Abstract

The introduction of the present paper mentions that a close study of Gaelic loanwords in Faroese (and the closely related languages as well) will lead to results which conveniently may be explained thus: From the Scots Gaelic areas through Orkney, Shetland, and the Faroes to Iceland we may draw a line from which another line may be drawn to some place on the western coast of Norway. The former line (south/north) is clear enough, though in rare cases ít is impossible to decide whether i( starts from Ireland or perhaps from Western England (where e. g. a component in place»names corresponding to Far. ærgi 'shieling' is to be found quite frequently). A picture of the same kind emerges from a thorough study of a number of seemingly Scandinavian words, e. g. gjó (Icel. gjá, Scots geo) and stakkr (Scots stack): Both words are known and used from the Isle of Man to Northern Iceland. The archeologists have shown us that the relations of the Faroes with the Hebrides and Northern Scotland are closer than with Norway. A study of the old peasant culture of the Faroes points to a close connection in the Viking Age with settlements in the Gaelic speaking areas, this is e. g. shown in the use of tormentil roots as tanning material.

The present paper demonstrates the already mentioned connections as regards the use of edible algae. The names of two algae point towards Shetland and Orkney, but also towards the Gaelic speaking countries: Far. slavak vlcel. slafak) and Far. mirkjalli (Icel. mari(n)kjarni, murukjarni, myrikjarni). During the viking period the Gaelic noun slabhac was introduced into the Atlantic branches of Norse in the form slafak, and the origin of mirkjalli is no doubt to be found in the same areas. However, it is a very complicated task to explain the relations between the differing Norse forms and the not less differing Gaelic forms (in the Scotch and Irish branches). The origin of *myr(i)kjalli, the probable form of the Viking Age (from which Far. mirkjalli, and Orc, Shetl. mirkyals), seems to be a Gaelic form, lurking behind the forms given by Macalpine (1832): muirichlinn and muirlinn, i. e. forms with an —1— in the second component. Besides myr(i)kjalli (Far. Orc, Shetl.) a form *myr(i)kjanní seems to have exísted, preserved in the Faroese placesname Mirkjanoyri and in Gael. mircean (Lewis). The word *myr(i)A:/anní, proposed here, is probably the origin of the Icelandic forms mentioned above The first component has been changed in different ways due to the influence of words snch as marr 'sea' María, mura 'silversweed' etc, vvhile the second component has been influenced by kjarni 'seed, core'.