Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland Part I.pdf/32

XXIV, of Gardie, and his mother. L. Williamson, though still young, is the man who, along with John Irvine, already mentioned, afforded me the most outstanding help of all in Shetland. With these two men, I will especially mention W. Ratter of N. Roe, settled in Lerwick, who, in a long-continued correspondence after I had left Shetland and returned to Copenhagen, constantly sent me information regarding Shetland words and place-names.

L. Williamson, who regards his native isles, their memories, and old traditions with deep affection, is a man of a strongly marked, scientific cast of mind, to a greater extent than John Irvine was, and had, long before I made his acquaintance, constructed for himself a phonetic alphabet for use in connection with his linguistic notes. He had by himself studied Old Norse and Danish. In contradistinction to Irvine, L. Williamson had always been very careful to note down the exact locality to which the words he collected belonged. This is of great importance in the comparison of the dialects. L. Williamson made several expeditions with me, especially to the district “de Herra” in Yell, and to his native isle Fetlar, and in this manner opened the way for me.

Of those who afforded me special assistance I will mention Thomas Hunter of Bjelagord in the east of Fetlar, and his family, now settled at Clivocast in the south of Unst; and the old fisherman Thomas Tait, a man of most vivid power of narrative, and the last who could tell the remarkable old story of “Jan Tait and the bear”, a saga in miniature. It is the only historical tale which has come down to us from that period, and is quite in the style and spirit of the old Icelandic tales or “sagas”. The tale belongs to Fetlar. It runs thus (as rendered into English by Dr. Jakobsen):

The king of Norway sent his chamberlain across to Shetland to collect the “skat” (tax) due to the Crown. The chamberlain came to Fetlar, where the skat was collected at Urie (“Øri”). To Urie the udallers came with the “teinds” or tithes they had to pay. They brought with them the “bismers”: ancient wooden steelyards. The chamberlain of course had his own bismer, which was considered standard weight, and on which he tested the udallers’ bismers. A udaller by the name of Jan Tait, while paying his butter tithe, was accused by the chamberlain of having a false bismer. This at once led to a quarrel, in which Tait denounced the chamberlain’s bismer as false, and being threatened by the chamberlain, Jan finally raised his bismer and struck the king’s representative dead on the spot. This was, of course, a great crime, for which he was summoned to appear before the king in Norway. Arrived there, Jan went in before the king bare-headed and bare-footed, and carrying an axe in his hand. Jan was a strongly-built man, and had big knobs on the joints of his feet. So the king stared at his feet, until Jan suddenly asked him why he was staring so fixedly. The king said that he had never seen such strange feet before. Jan said, that if they gave him any offence, he would soon cure that, whereupon he took the axe and hewed off one of the knobs. The king said that he did not at all wonder that Jan had killed his chamberlain, since he had so little regard for his own flesh and blood. But seeing his courage, he would give him a chance to save his life. There was a bear infesting a certain place, and constantly endangering the lives of the inhabitants. If he could catch it and bring it alive before the king, he should be pardoned. Tait then went to an old woman who lived near a spot the bear used to frequent, and asked her all about its ways and habits. She said to him: “By butter you have got into the present trouble, and by butter you shall get out of it”. Then she advised him to take a kit full of butter and place it in an open spot in the forest, where the bear used to come, watch