This song commemorates the fate of Scottish mercenaries who fought during the Kalmar war and were killed by Norwegian peasants. Notable is the use of the Germanic topos of a mermaid fortelling the doom of people travelling over water and her being shut up and threatened.
Here it is performed as a traditional Faroese ballad, an oral tradition accompanying the Faroese chain dance. A form of entertainment once practised all over Europe, only surviving in a small and barren country that has no tradition of musical instruments.
Continuing the Faroese theme. This ballad was first published in 1915 in a Faroese nationalist newspaper - it is about the Viking-Age character Tróndur waking from the dead, sending his friend Geyti to see what the situation was in the islands, and Geyti reports to him how things have become (in the early 1900s), and the Viking-Age Tróndur is left disappointed, especially about the fact that people are taxed, under the rule of a king and that mead is banned.
Ending the Faroese streak with one of the most beautiful love poems set to music.
1. Fagra blóma tú sum prýðir
fjallatindar berg og skørð,
bø og ong og grønar líðir,
hvat er fagrari á jørð?
>Beautiful flower, you who adorns
>mountaintops, rocks and passes
>Infields, meadows and green pastures
>what is more beautiful on earth?
Eina blómu tó eg kenni,
fagrast hon av øllum er,
sjálvt ei rósan líkist henni,
tað er hon eg valdi mær.
>But I know one flower
>that is most beautiful of them all
>not even the rose is like her
>that's the one I chose
2. Blómur spretta móti vári,
følna, tá ið heystið er,
mín, hon blóma man alt árið,
um so kalt og kavið er. –
>flowers bloom in the spring
>wither in the autumn
>my flower blooms all year
>even when it is cold and covered with snow
Einaferð hon bert kann blóma,
følnar hon, eg følni við.
Fylgja skal eg blómu míni,
til tann síðsta hvíldarfrið.
>But she can bloom only once
>when she withers, I wither, too
>I will follow my flower
>until the final rest.
https://fo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%ADsarnir_%C3%AD_Akrabergi
Translating a Faroese text about the Frisians in Akraberg, which you would otherwise probably never read in your life. This is a krautchan.rip exclusive.
>The first written sources about the Frisians in the Faroe Islands are from the latter decades of the 18. century and are based on oral tradition.
>The story says that the Frisians lived in Akraberg on Suðuroy. When the Frisians came to the Faroes is not known, but some assert that the Frisians have lived there already in the year 800. In the years 700-800 the Frisians fled the rule of the French king and settled on the islands on the west coast of Jylland. It can be assumed, that some of them sailed long north, all the way to the Faroes. An old story tells that north of the British Isles there would be an island called "Frislandia" and that could have been Suðuroy.
>When the most Frisians lived in Akraberg, there were no less than 13 houses with so many men, that they could man two ships with 12 oars on every side. The ships were used for viking raids. The most popular weapons with the Frisians were large knives and long poles, which had hooks and a long spike at the end.
>The most well known Frisian in Akraberg was Hergeir, also called The Farmer in Akraberg. He was widely known for his strength and he had eight wives and many sons. Heirgeir is said to have burned down the bishop's garden in Kirkjubøur, stopped the building of the Kirkjubøur-walls and slain "Mús", a henchman of the faroese bishop Erlendi in the year 1307.
>When the Black Death came to the Southern Islands around 1350, all Frisian houses died out. Only two Frisians survived the plague, moved to Sumba and married there.
