Seyðalitir og gásalitir í Øravfk: A shepherd's Colour Structure for the Identification of Sheep (and Geese)

Abstract

The overwhelming importance sheep breeding has had in the Faroes over the centuries has resulted in the shepherds having perfected local or individual ways of identifying each and every sheep. The reason for this exact identification is due to the shepherds' interest in their stock, but also due to economic consideration. The extremely great number of sheep colours is a telling story to the interest the Faroese shepherds have had in knowing their stock intimately. Sheep colours still form an integral part of the description and identification of the sheep.

This article is based on the knowledge which the informant Dánjal Jákup Mortensen, born at Øravík in 1921, has on the subjeet, and he is a reliable source with tremendous experience, because he has been a shepherd for more than fifty years in the village of Øravík, Suðuroy. The colours described in this article are his colours, i. e. the colours used in his village and which he has got from his forefathers who were also shepherds in the same village. Other shepherds in other villages have their own separate colour structures, names, and definitions which differ slightly or widely from the colour structure described in this article. Even within the vicinity of the village of Øravík the colour structures differ if only slightly.

In this survey all the colour combinations have been included which cover a reasonable and workable colour structure. It would be wrong to conclude, however, that colours are the only system applied to the description and identification of the sheep. Other charateristics are being used, e. g. the shapes of the horns, the build of the sheep, and the character of the wool. In order to show the reader how the outfield stock is actually being described we have included a survey of the colour structure used in
the village of Øravík where the informant was a shepherd and where his colour structure has been applied.

As an appendix the colour structure for the identification of geese has been added the way it has been used in Øravík. The colour structure of geese is also based on information supplied by Dánjal Jákup Mortensen.