SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Land Tenure in a Faroese Village 33
outfield it is possible to learn the limits of the earliest
cultivation. Every mark of the 48 has a distinctive
name for the stretch of infield originally appertaining to
it, and in 1957, by questioning a few older men, I was
rapidly able to collect names accounting for over half
of the 48, sufficient to delineate the original beur of the
island. The Faroese Land Registry Office has since
supplied me with a full set of maps, which indicate a
position as shown roughly in Map C.
As might be expected, the names refer either to the
position or some other characteristic of the mark, or to
some owner in times past (see Table 1).1 9 Thus one finds
Uttan Fyri Hus, beyond the houses (i.e. the Korndalur
village); Horn, the corner; Mikkjalsbour, Michael's
infield; and Kirkjumork, the church's mark. The area
covered by these old names was probably already under
cultivation by 1600.
It is locally believed that the little hill to the east of
Korndalur was enclosed during the eighteenth century;
more land by Eggjargertiisnov was brought under cultivation,
and within the ancient infield, the lower, marshy
parts of the Korndalur valley were drained by means of
deep ditches, with the technical help of some Dutch
sailors from a ship wrecked in the Faroe Islands in 1742.20
The outfield gives more information about the early
history of N6lsoy. In former times, the area now known
as Noroarahelvt was called Ognarhagi (the farmers'
outfield). The southern part of the island was divided
into two parts, Junkershagi (the nobleman's outfield) and
Kongshagi (the king's outfield). The first-named was
rated at 24 marks, the other two being 12 each.
The Faroese clergyman, J. H. Schreter (1771-1851), in
19 E. A. Bjerk has made a short study of Faroese infield names in his article
'Lidt om benavne', Fr6iJskaparrit 13 (r964), 185-92. Names of all the infield
marks in Faroe are to be found in Forhandlingsprotokot for den i H enhold til
Lov angaaende en ny Skyldsatning at [orderne paa Eareerne af 29. Marts 1869
§2 nedsatte Taxationskommission (r872-3).
•• VariJin X (r930), 175-6.