Ein »rímnaflokkur« í føroyskari tungulist?

Abstract

The dominant stanzaic forms of the Faroese popular songs in oral tradition are the ballad couplet and especially the ballad quatraine. The latter is thus the normal stanzaic meter of the Faroese heroic ballad which also shows a strong affinity regarding its style and its subject matter with Medieval ícelandic literature, i. e. Eddic lays and sagas. In Iceland the heroic ballad is, however, only sparsely represented. Here the rímur poetry which has developed other stanzaic forms combining end rhyme and metrical alliteration, has had a dominating position dating back to late Medieval time. Compared to the heroic ballad the rímur poetry shows much stronger ties regarding its form and content with such Medieval Icelandic literature as scaldic lays and sagas. Outside Iceland traces of Icelandic rímur poetry have only been found in the Faroe Islands where such a poem CCF 111 Koralds kvæði was first recorded as early as 1639. The aim of my paper is to demonstrate that another Faroese popular »heroic ballad«, i. e. CCF 112 Bevusar tattir, originally represents an else lost Icelandic set of rímur (rímnajlokkur) which is supposed to have entered Faroese tradition either through oral og MS transmission before the end of 16th century.