than we have for the
Danish. There can be little doubt, however, that the ballads
translated below had their origin in the _Fornaldar Soegur_ composed
in Iceland during the thirteenth century or in some fourteenth century
_Rimur_ derived from the sagas. That many of the Faroese ballads were
literary in origin[29], and were based on either Sagas or Rimur, is
conclusively established by the opening lines of many of the ballads
themselves, notably that of the _Olufu Rima_:

Ein er riman ur Islandi komin,
Skrivaeth i bok so breietha.

("This story is come from Iceland, written in a book so
broad.")

And _Troellini i Hornalandum_:

Verse 1. Froethieth er komieth fra Islandi
Skrivaeth i bok so vietha _etc._

Verse 2. Froethieth er komieth fra Islandi
Skrivaeth i bok so breietha _etc._

Verse 3. Froethieth er komieth fra Islandi
Higar ieth skald taeth tok,
Havieth taer hoyrt um kongin tann,
Ieth skrivaethur stendur i bok?

("This poem has come from Iceland, brought hither by a
_skald_. Have you heard of the king about whom this book is
written?")

The passages quoted above would seem to point to Rimur rather than
Sagas as the sources of the ballads. Or had more than one "Book
so broad" come from Iceland? One wonders. Heusler notices[30] the
tendency to divide up the longer ballads into sections or _Taettir_,
each whole in itself and yet forming a part of the ballad, and
suggests the Icelandic _Rimur_ as the models for this particular form.
It is even possible that the word _Rima_ is used advisedly in the
first strophe of _Olufu Kvaeethi_, instead of the somewhat commoner
_Kvaeethi_, with some reminiscence of its origin. One of the _Sjurethar
Kvaeethi_ (_Dvoergamoy_ III) begins:

Eina veit eg rimuna,
Ieth inni hevir ligieth leingi.

(I know a rhyme (or _Rima_?) etc.)

and _Risin i Holmgareth_ also begins:

Eg veit eina rimuna,
Ieth gjoerd er um Virgar sterka.

Many other instances might be quoted.

But it would be perilous to press too far what may, after all, be a
mere verbal coincidence. And whatever gave rise to our poems as they
now stand, it cannot be too strongly emphasised that they, like the
rest of the _Foroyja Kvaeethi_, are first and last _Ballads_--rightly
ballads. They have a form of their own, like other ballads, and are
not a degenerate form of _Rimur_ or a mere versification of some
old Icela