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Beinta og Peder Arrheboe 27
mussen did originally arise from the trampling of a cow is very
doubtful. The court records do not mention this, but they do
mention a number of other causes of ill-feeling on Peder Arhboe's
part - and this being so, there could well at some time have been
a quarrel about the intrusion of a cow that led to high words
subsequently remembered in the village. The story of the silver
buckles, however, can be rejected out of hand. The ownership of
gold and silver objects was so well known in such a small community
that they were never stolen. It is true that Peder Arhboe
repeatedly called J6gvan a thief, but he never accused him in court
of stealing the buckles. The story is an obvious accretion in order
to explain the quarrel and to blacken Bente still further. The other
obvious accretion is the incident of the apparent death of the
farmer and his suffocation in the coffin. This is plainly a folk-tale
theme, though I do not know of any parallel to it. It is true that
the priest was outrageous in his funeral sermon, but it is doubtful
whether he used the words attributed to him. But in other respects
the legendary account has a close connection with the truth.
The court proceedings in which Peder Arhboe was involved
over the quarrel with J6gvan Rasmussen were: a hjemting (local
sessions) which sat in Miovagur from 4 to 6 September 1715, and
delivered judgement on 18 October 1715 (VV ff. 72-9, 84-5); and
ecclesiastical court sittings on 18 March, 29-30 April, and 10-12
June 1716 (GM ff. 67-71). Consequential ecclesiastical court sittings
followed on 13-14 January and 26-27 May 1717, and 15-18
February 1718 (GM ff. 71-9). The reason for this complexity of
hearings was that the local sessions was empowered to hear
evidence, but could not pass judgement on Peder Arhboe as an
ecclesiastic.
The account of the witnesses called at Miovagur makes it clear
that on 13 July 1715, Peder Arhboe set out from the rectory with
an axe in his hand. Bente followed him and asked him where he
was going. He replied that he was going over to Ryggur to kill
Prest-J6gvan the thief and Heine of Ryggur, the old thief, also
(the latter was J6gvan Rasmussen's father-in-law, Heine Johansen).
There is no report of any reaction by Bente to this threat,
and she appears not to have hindered him from going on his way.
On arrival at Ryggur Farm, Peder Arhboe struck with his axe
on the door of the glasstova (glazed parlour), and shouted: "Open
up, you thief!" J6gvan, however, was out in his fields weeding.
Peder Arhboe now slung his axe over his shoulder, and went in
through an open door into the roykstova (living-room), where