Jakob Jakobsen

“ The introductory word “vallilu” is L.Sc. balow, hush-a-bye, in an extended form with a change of initial b to v. This must be a later addition, as the rhyme is of Norn origin, and has commenced with some Norn equivalent of balow. That Norn equivalent is probably seen in suro [soəro] , which doubtless is the same word as No. (south-west Norw.) “su-ru”, a word with which children are hushed asleep. After balow one might expect a pet name for a little child, and siggalin suggests such a word. ”

“ Most of the versions have ala as the last word in the line, but one version (also from Fetlar, acc. to J. Irvine) has jala. If we take this version as the basis for the last line, there is a clear connection with the preceding three lines. rude can then be accepted as rowed, past tense of *ru, vb., to row (a boat) , O.N. róa; kringe (de) as: “í kring um”, about, around; and the last word then becomes the old name for the isle of Yell, viz.: Jala, which lies to the west and south-west of Unst and Fetlar respectively. ”

“ Shetlandic handed down from Norn (with the exception of the irrelevant sense here: forward in the boat) .
The verb vog, properly to be awake, be watchful, means in Mod. Shetl. (U.) to remain at rest, or remain lying at the same fishing-ground. Both these words give countenance to the idea that the third line refers to deep-sea fishing: seeking out the fishing-ground at the haaf by day, and remaining there at rest by night. It was formerly the custom among Shetland fishermen, going out to the haaf-fishing, to take cooking utensils with them and stay away for several days and nights. ”

“ Hageda might, if necessary, be thought to be the place-name “Hagdale”, preserved in the combination Hagdaleness in Westing, west of Valafjel. But o hala must then be left unexplained. “Hafatu was o hala”, on the other hand, can be explained as a *haftó vor áharða, there the damp sea-wind was violent. No. havto, f., moist weather with wind from the sea (Aa.) , and No. aahard, adj., of wind: very strong; violent. The connective vowel in hafatu, and the change r (rd) > l in ohala (*ohara) would be in full conformity with Shetland-Norn phonology. ”

“ Both these versions were noted down in Fetlar. It seems as if “karəl mi mŏg” is another and more corrupt Shetlandic form of “kallar á mik” — kallar by metathesis of ll and r becoming [karəl] . mog is a Shetl.-Norn form of “mik”, me, which is found again in the Hildina ballad (“moch”) and in the rhyme of “The Crow and the Crab” (“mog”) . “mi mog”, doubtless with added English “me” as mog was no longer understood.
Himpi or Humpi, the introductory word, with which the troll-mother calls to her child, is probably the child’s name, and may be the Norwegian word “hympe”, n., clumsy figure ”

“ The now unintelligible Jala could have become ala by association of the sound with the familiar word ali in “ali-lamb”. Accordingly the line might be translated thus: they rowed round (the north point of) Yell. The Unst fishermen, especially those from Westing, and some also from Fetlar, have, like the Yell inhabitants, carried on haaf-fishing to the north and west of Yell, and on these expeditions the high Valafjel on Unst was a particularly prominent landmark to be taken in finding the fishing-grounds. ”

“ The expression then may stand as a designation for the cat.
tappatirl, high, pointed pile, evidently the same word as Lowland Scottish tappie-tourie (-toorie) , sb., “any thing raised very high to a point” (Jam.) , and quite suitable as a periphrasis for “hay-stack”.
The meaning in the second line is obscure. The old man (*kall, man) in great excitement? bambirr and bambirl (Un.) means hurry-scurry or excitement. “käᶅɩ” might also be accepted as O.N. kalla, vb., to call, cry; but if this definition should point back to the cat, the latter has, at any rate, not seen the mouse. ”

“ The first line is corrupt Norn. The only intelligible word is gonga, to go, O.N. ganga.
C. A third Fetlar version is:
Du at rides de rød
and rins de grey,
tell tūna [tuəna] tɩvla
at nūna nɩvla
is väᶅna väƫna [= fallinn í vatnit] .
de rød, the red horse or mare. In this version the water takes the place of the fire.
Nivla as a troll-name, name of a troll-child, may, if not formed simply to rhyme with Tivla, be set alongside No. nyvel, m., a small, insignificant person (Aa.) , a good-for-nothing (R.) . ”

“ Come, come quickly and you will not get a scolding (shame) ! Here follow a couple of cow-names “nipperd Nani” (see Dictionary) , and Lengsprali. still kom ower mi Sjålma. “still” is doubtless the English adv., still. kom ower, come over here. mi Sjålma, my white-headed cow, *Hjálma.
“Fallalderalde kjøra”, as a kind of refrain, ending the rhyme, is also found in the middle of the verse, as if to divide it into two parts. ”

“ The rest is unintelligible, though in the variant versions a few words and phrases may be explained; variant b, line 3: stakk, here probably = O.N. stakkr, m., skirt and bodice in one. feldin (felta) gro (groa) : the grey fur overcoat (cape) , O.N. feldinn grá (accus.) .
fuden gua: the good foot, O.N. fótinn góða (accus.) .
A corresponding rigmarole “þula”, is found in Icelandic, beginning:
Hann tók upp og hann tók niðr, og svo tók hann á frúinni.
In this rigmarole, as in the Shetland fragment, occurs “málhús” as a periphrasis for mouth.
The following folk-verse, originating from Conn. ”

“ Fetlar versions.
A. From Fetlar come some variants of this fairy-verse in a mixture, chiefly L.Scottish with scraps of Norn preserved in between. The Fetlar version, most similar to the Foula form, is the following: Geng hame to Fivla [fɩvla] , and tell Divla [dɩvla] at de honnins [hȯᶇɩns] wis lopen [lopən] in a “tuilly” [tøli] and brunt de bonnins [bȯᶇɩns] ; go home to Fivla, and tell Divla (Tivla) that the dogs were fighting and had "burnt the bairns", i.e., had knocked over the children into the fire. ”

“ In this case, there would be no verb in the sentence (Irvine inserts “return” in his translation: to earth thou returns now when dead) ; moreover, English “when” can hardly have been pronounced “ven” in Shetlandic.
Words and forms showing Danish characteristics in the formula, are: “opstaa” for “upstand or opstand”, to arise; “naar” in sense of when (conj.) , and the contracted from “laar”, let, arising from “lather, laðer” with d aspirate, a pronunciation also occurring in Mod. Danish: lar. ”

“ Let the steel and the sword always guard her and appear to her as a protection (a shield?) , a sword.
u in “stuhl”, from O.N. stál, n., steel, denotes, in this case, a close o-sound [ô] . a in “sachel” probably expresses an e-sound, open pronunciation of English sickle, sb. “emer” is possibly Germ. immer. “snean” is sni̇̄en, cutting, from sni, vb., to chip, cut; O.N. sníða. v for w in “vird”, L.Scottish wird, word, is probably due to consciousness of the fact that initial w in Eng. corresponds to v in the old Norn. “sicer” means sicker, i.e. certain. ”

“ No. skot (skoot) , n., small animals, mice or birds, that damage by eating corn in the field, (O.N. skóð, n., harmful thing or tool, esp. in poetry, F. J. Lex. Poet.) , 2) from No. skoe, m., = skobeist, skodyr, n., voracious, bold, thievish animal (R.) , from skoa (sko) , vb., to grab greedily; eat greedily.
But then one or more lines must have been dropped before the words “runnin undi kongalu” or “under a kongalu”, run in under a heather-bush, for these words in the definition given, are applied to the mouse.
Fragments of Song, Verse and lines of Verse. ”

“ A man, sitting on the top of a corn-stack, is calling in to his wife, that he saw a mouse running in under a heather-bush.
Bonna (bonja) site po tappatirl.
“The farmer sits on the top of a high heap.”
Bonna (bonja) is doubtless O.N. bóndi, farmer. “bóndi” elsewhere is found in the forms bund and bonder in Shetland, but with reference to the definition given: “man or cat on a hay-stack”, bonna, bonja cannot here, as elsewhere, be the word child. It may have been developed from “bóndi” in the same way as *honnin, -en (*honnens) has been developed from O.N. hundinn (accus.) ”

“ Shetl. tilt) , to walk on tiptoe, connected with hilka in the main version, corresponds better to the cat’s gait than to that of the mouse, lediko, in the combination lediko hilka tilta, and ledikossen, in the combination hilter tilter ledikossen (variant b) , must be accepted as the name for “cat” rather than for “mouse.” luta kussa (variant a) is the same as lediko, ledikossen.
râ̅metəna skūi, the beast of prey eating the vermin (the cat eats the mouse) .
rām in Shetlandic indicates a cat’s paw (a paw with claws) . From this comes rāmi, a name (tabu-name, used by fishermen) for cat (S.Sh.) ”

“ The second line is easier to interpret, and was prob. originally: *leikar þú svá frór (frár) um morguninn geiplandi, are you playing so blithe and gay in the morning, waving your arms about? (or possibly: making vigorous mouthing efforts to take the nipple) .
The k-sound in leka (and also the foll. frūa) favour the probability of a derivation from leika, vb., to play, rather than from liggja, vb., to lie. frū (a) may be *frór, O.N. frár and frór, adj., hale; vigorous; lively, or a later imported *frór = Fær. fróur, Da. fro (Germ. froh) , adj., gay. ”

“ It is wise to take old men’s advice.
A Proverb from de Herra:
“Ma‘rta di gå‘ns tekə di (də) vɛps”, given to me with following explanation: much can be used for woof that is useless for warp. Ma‘rta: O.N. margt, much; di gå‘ns: O.N. til garns, for yarn; tekə di vɛps: O.N. tekit (?) ”

“ The original form is probably:
einn eptir drallar ok optast óhreinn.Fjórir hanga, fjórir ganga,
fjórir standa upp á ský,
(tveir) vísa veg í bý
(ok) einn (kemr) aptan drallandi.
(Solution: the cow — four teats, four legs; ears and horns: four; two eyes, one tail.)
Cf. Gest the Blind’s riddle about the cow (in Hervarar Saga) :
Fjórir ganga, fjórir hanga,
tveir veg vísa,
tveir hundum verja,
einn eptir drallar ok optast óhreinn.
From Fetlar comes a corrupted variant of the above-mentioned riddle from Unst. ”