The Mountain Passes in Norðradalur

Abstract

The article deals with the names of two mountain passes used by people travelling to or from Norðradalur. The passes exhibit a wide variety of names in written and oral sources. The more northerly one is called Norðaraskarð, Norðaraskarð í Norðradali, Norð­ara Norðradalsskarð, Neytaskarð, Norðradals­ skarð, Skarðið, while its neighbour to the south goes under the names Sunnaraskarð, Sunnara­ or Syðraskarð í Norðradali, Sunn­ ara Norðradalsskarð, Lýðarssonarskarð, Lýsna­ skarð, Lyderssens skahr, Fólkaskarð, Uppi á Skarði. An attempt is made to show what factors have determined this variety: time, place, circumstances or particular events. One of the passes was, for example, connected with the death of a priest in the Reformation period and named after him. It is also suggested that Fólkaskarð ‘people's pass' is unlikely to have been a name that was ever actually in use. More probably, it was proposed by place­name collectors as a contrast to Neytaskarð ‘cattle pass’. Finally an explanation is offered for why Norðradalsskarð is rapidly becoming the sole name of the more northerly pass.