Føroyanavnið eina ferð enn

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Published Jan 1, 1959
Christian Matras

Abstract

In ancient times the geographical name Føroyar (pronounced: førjar forms with ø first from 15C) was always written Færey(j)ar. In a document from c. 1200, the soscalled »Historia Norwegiæ« (first printed 1850 from a 15C Orkney ms.) the name is translated »Insulae Ovium«. The same interpretation is found — independently — in the works of the Icelanders Arngrímur Jónsson (1593, 1609) and Th. Torfæus (1695). On the other hand the Norwegian Abs. Pedersøn Beyer (1569) who had heard of this interpretation — from where is unknown — expresses some doubt as to its correctness, while Peder Claussøn Friis (c. 1600), Th. Tarnovius (1669) and Lucas Debes (1673) reject it outright. At that time a word corresponding to Danish and Swedish fir 'sheep' was unknown in West Norse, it having been replaced by sau6(u)r (norw. sau(d), far. seyður). But the corresponding West Norse word fær (vowel change á to æ by R»umlaut) was known as a simplex in 12C Iceland since it occurs in the first grammatical treatise (in one ms. of the »Snorra Edda«) and as a compound in færsauíír 'sheep' in Norw.«Icel. legal language and in biblical texts. In addition we have the names of certain islets: Norw. Færoy, Orkney Faray or Fara, Hebridean Fiaray, which all seem to mean 'Sheep Island', cf. the common Hebridean island name Soay, an original Saufcey (cf. Icel. Saubeyar), having the same meaning.

Finally Icel færilus and Far. førilus (change from æ to ø as in Føroyar from Færey(j)ar 'sheepstick' presuppose a neuter ia=stem færi as a de« rivative of fær.

Debes considered it inconceivable that sheep were present in the Faroes when these were discovered by the Norsemen. To this Torfæus rejoins: »poterant autem ovibus abundare antequam Norvegi eas ins venerunt, impositis forte a piratis, qui illuc receptum habuerunt, ad se, quoties eas transirent, recentibus carnibus recreandos, quæ in magnum numerum e paucis subitó poterant excrescere«. Proof that there were many sheep in the Faroes about 800 was forthcoming in 1807 on the publication of »Dicuili Liber De Mensura Orbis Terrae« (from 825) and Letronne's demonstration in 1814 that the group of islands mentioned in the work and where Irish monks had been settled for a hundred years must be identified as the Faroes. Dicuil says that now
(825) these islands were »causa latronum Nor(t)mannorum vacuæ anas choritis, plenae innumerabilibus ovibus«-. Hence historically as well as linguistically the interpretation of Færey(j)ar as 'Sheep Islands' is so appopriate that the suggestion of a presNorse element in the name (Brøgger 1930) — as in Orkneyjar and possibly Hjaltland (Shetland) — seems uncalled for.

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Section
Linguistics