SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

28 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
good place for puffin-catching on the east coast, the scree
called Urriin. The privilege of fowling on Urriin is taken
in alternate years by the owners of Norfiarahelvt and
Sunnarahelvt. The common which does not have the
Urbin fowling has the sole right to catch sea-birds in other
parts of the island.P One-third of all puffins or
guillemots caught "belong to the land", in other words,
must be shared out by the catcher among his fellowproprietors
of the common. This demands an encyclopsedic
memory and a mind like a slide-rule, but the
N6lsoyings seem to manage the calculations without
much trouble.t!
Peat-cutting rights are the privilege of all owners and
tenants of both outfield parts. The turbary is in
Sunnarahelvt, near the southernmost point of N6lsoy, the
headland of Boroan. All peat must be cut here, and
special rules must be followed for the conservation of the
turbary and the surrounding pasture. It would seem that
Norl'5arahelvt owners here have an advantage, but this is
counterbalanced by joint use of that portion of the
Noroarahelvt common below the cliff-line, except the
two remotest pastures. This is hushagi, that is, summer
grazing for the 66 cattle of the total outfield stock.
Until 1945 barley of the hardy local strain was grown on
the N6lsoy infield, particularly, as its name implies, in
Korndalur. Seaweed was much used in its cultivation,
and near the isthmus on N6lsoy are some ancient middens
that from time immemorial have been used for storing the
seaweed while it was rotting. There was never enough of
13 Fulmars, being a new bird in Faroe, are however not subject to the
fowling rules, and on N6lsoy may be taken by anyone without obligation. The
rule is different in other villages.
14 One of my N6lsoy informants explained to me that he divided up the
"land's share" of the puffins he caught by grouping together households in
such a way as to create whole numbers of marks - thus making the arithmetic
manageable. In view of the workings of the inheritance system, his method
probably amounted to a genealogical mnemonic, though he did not describe it
as such to me. Such mnemonics, based on condensed genealogies, are
recorded from the village of Oyri on Bori'Joy, where they are used for
calculating the division of the autumn sheep-slaughter among the joint owners
of the common there. See Robert ]oensen, Byta seyCl og fietta (1968), 18-22.