Jakob Jakobsens folkeminnetekster pá norn

Abstract

Jakob Jakobsen's pioneer work on Shetland Norn has been of lasting value, not only to linguistic research, but also to the science of folklore. It is in keeping with the quality of his fieldwork, the completeness of his collections, and the systematization of the cultural historical back» ground material for the sphere of linguistics. His precise information has made it possible to place a number of folklore fragments in Norn, which would have been difficult or impossible to identify if they had been
left scattered. Among these are a Nordic medieval ballad, known in Norwegian as "Hustru kan deile med sin bonde", in Faroese as "Hústrú og bóndi", and the legend of the death of the great Pan. At the same time, Jakobsen's evidence that the sources of Shetland Norn are strongly represented in dialects of southwestern Norway (Agder—Rogaland) has been of great help in fixing the provenience of certain nursery rhymes in a highly corrupt Norn. These rhymes are easily recognizable when we compare them with Norwegian variants. And the Norwegian variants are markedly associated with the geograps hical area in which the dialects have linguistic connection with Shetland Nom. These folklore texts thus confirm Jakobsen's theory.