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Book Reviews 27 1
LUCAS DEBES: FlER0ERNES BESKR1VELSE. Edited by J 0RGEN
RISCHEL. I Facsimileudgave. II Indledning og noter. Munksgaard,
Copenhagen, 1963.
The individual with a general as well as a specialised interest in
northern studies is being well served by the Society for the
Publication of Faroese Sources and Studies. In 1950 they did us
all a great service by including in their series an edition by
Hakon Hamre of Thomas Tarnovius's Fer eers Beskrifuelser,
written in the 1660s and now printed for the first time. We
are now indebted to them for a facsimile edition of Lucas Debes,
Fceroce Et Fairoa Reserata. Det er: Fcereernis Oc Fcereeske
Indbyggeris Beskrijvelse, first published in 1673 and again in an
almost identical impression in 1674. It is interesting to note
that, on the initiative of Thomas Henshaw, then English envoy
in Copenhagen, this was translated into English almost at once
(by a Frenchman, J. Sterpin, who is praised for his accuracy),
although Henshaw would have preferred a Latin version. The
translation was presented to the Royal Society in 1675 and
published in London in 1676. It was, of course, Debes's own
predominant concern with the natural history of the islands that
aroused Henshaw's interest. The facsimile reprint is accompanied
by a valuable introduction by jorgen Rischel. He gives an
account of the author's life! and has chapters on Debes as a natural
historian and on the circumstances of the work's composition; in
this last he offers some new material on Debes's sources and makes
a convincing suggestion as to how we are to interpret the relationship
between the work of Debes and the work of Tarnovius. The
main part of the introduction, however, is a consideration of the
contents of the book under separate headings - the author's
treatment of the description and geography of the islands and of
the history, way of life, culture and language of the inhabitants,
to mention some of the chief topics. Since information on
related subjects is often scattered in Debes's volume, this unified
consideration of them makes the introduction a very useful key
to the book as a whole. The value of Mr Rischel's contribution
is further enhanced by a large body of notes to the text and by
indexes which include a list of the Faroese words cited, in some
form or other, by Debes.
PETER FOOTE
'On p. 13 :\Ir Rischel says that J6n Halld6rsson describes the relations
between Debes and the commandant in the Faroes, Claus Becher, but in fact
Jon Halld6rsson's very brief account in his Hirostj6raanndll concerns Debes
and the royal bailiff, Heidemann.