SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

24
Saga-Book of the Viking Society
At the time when the Korndalur site was occupied, it is
said that a chapel stood on the headland of Eggjargeroisnov.
There is no visible trace of a church ruin today;
but the site has been under continuous cultivation for
several centuries. The present church stands near the
harbour and was erected in 1863. Apart from Korndalur,
the visible ruins on N6lsoy comprise an early medieval
dwelling (possibly a saten, some two and a half miles
south of the village on the western slopes of the outfield
(the villagers call the site i Kassunum); and a sea-mark
near the summit of the rounded hill on Stongin, which
was built in 1782 to carry a beacon for the guidance of
smuggling vessels resorting to a depot maintained by the
Danish merchant Niels Ryberg in T6rshavn from 1766 to
1788.7 Within the village itself there are old houses and
abandoned sites of others, but since building styles changed
only very slowly over the centuries, only investigation by
an expert can distinguish what is of special antiquity.
Until the end of the eighteenth century the population
of the Faroe Islands probably never exceeded 5,000.
Since then it has risen steadily to the present 38,000.
The population of Nolsoy" has risen as follows:
1801 1850 Ig01 Ig25 Ig57 Ig60 Ig66
100 134 240 277 330 352 345
In 1957 there were 78 households. In 1966 this had risen
to 87.
Infield and outfield on N alsoy
Broadly speaking, the inhabitants recognise three types
of land: almenningur, which comprises the actual village
, ]. P. Trap, op. cit., 197-8, 262; Dansk-Preresk Samfund, op, cit., I 145-7.
8 The population figures for 1801 to 1925 from ]. P. Trap, Danmark IX
(4. udg., 1930),686-7; the 1960 and 1966 figures from ibid., XIII (5. udg., 1968),
262; the 1957 figure from my own count.