Um Frísar, Føroyingar og Frísalandsfólkini

Abstract

Three things seem to indicate that Frisians have lived in the Faroe Islands in the past.

1. The Legends about the Frisians. In Indberetninger 6 J. C. Svabo (1746 —1824) reports that settlement traces which are said to stem from Frisian colonists are to be found east of Sunnbøur. In cwo letters (Landsbókasavnið, Tórshavn) J. H. Schrøter (1771—1851) writes that the Frisians have resided in the Faroe Islands at the same time as Irish hermits, that is to say, before the Norwegians came to the islands in 825. J. G. Forchhammer's Dagbok (1821) has a legend according to which the first settlers on Suðuroy were Frisian pirates at Akrabyrgi. In Antiquarisk Tidsskrift 1849—1851 it is said (by Schrøter) that these
Frisians came to the Faroe Islands a long time after the Norwegian landnam, and (by V. U. Hammershaimb) that after the plague (1349—1350) the farmer at Akrabyrgi led the southern Faroemen against the bishop of Kirkjubøur, who demanded too much money for a new church. A. W. Brøgger, in Løgtingssøga Føroya, 1. bók (1937), supposes that the name Frisian came in after the Norwegian invasion. Does this mean that Frisians came to the Faroe Islands on several occasions? In Seggjasøgur úr Sumba I (1963) P. F. Joensens thinks of the northern Frisians as being driven away by the Danish King Abel (t 1252). He
identifies the farmer at Akrabyrgi as Hergeir, the adversary of Bishop Erlendur (t 1308). Thus we have a chronological difference in relation to the statement by Hammershaimb.

2. Frislanda. The Frisian chroniclers Suffridus Petri and Martinus Hamconius (17th century) place the island of Frislanda north of Britannia in the period following the Germanic invasion. The name Frisland(a) and variants appear on maps from the 14th century (by Ranulfus de Hyggeden, Alberto Cantino, Martin Waldseemiiller, Petrus de Nobilibus Formis, Andrea Bianco, Juan de la Cosa). In 1558 a book by Nicoló Zeno Jr.: De i commentarii I . . . . / della scoprimento dell' Isole Frislanda, was published in Venice. According to this book the Venetians Nicolo Sr. and Antonio have visited Frislanda in the 14th century. Zichmni, the adversary of the Norwegian king on the island, sailed together with Antonio to the west in the wake of the Frislanda fishermen
who reached even more distant coasts, which must refer to the American continent. A map, which is said to go back to an original from the 14th century, is added to the book. In The Annals of I . . . . I the brothers /..../ Zeno (1898) F. W. Lucas asserts that all this is pure fabrication. He had not read an article by E. Beauvois in Le Museon 1890 which connects the name of the island with the Legends about the Frisians. The name Frislanda for (part of) the Faroe Islands disappeared in time in favour of the present name. Thuse arose the theory of the drowned island of Frislanda.

3. Frísa vísa. There is a game to which a ballad was sung about Frisian pirates who kidnapped a girl. She is not set free until her bethrothed has paid the ransom. The Faroese variants were written down only at the beginning of the 19th century, the Icelandic ones at the beginning of the 18th century. Both groups mention the Frisian nationality of the pirates. In all other European variants, treated by Erich Pohl in Die deutsche Volksballade von der »Losgekauften« (1934), this feature is missing. Probably the original Danish model for the Faroese and Icelandic variants had this name, because in 1370 young girls were kidnapped by pirates in the Frisian Westerhever, which belonged to Denmark at that time. The oldest Icelandic variants place the event in Denmark, because they call the girl a 'Danamasr'. Instead of the route Denmark—the Faroe Islands—Iceland (Pohl), the ballad might as well have followed the route Denmark—Iceland—the Faroe Islands, or two routes independent of each other: Denmark—Iceland and Denmark— the Faroe Islands. Frísavísa in itself does not necessarily refer to Frisian settlement in the Faroe Islands, but it becomes interesting in connection with the above points 1 and 2.