Degningsvindar

"Degningsvindar" (1934) var fyrsta skaldsøgan, William Heinesen skrivaði. Hon kom út aftur í 1961 í nógv broyttum líki.

Skaldsøgan lýsir skiftið í tí gamla føroyska samfelagnum til veruliga fiskivinnu og handilsskap. Her eru samanbrestir og spenningar av øllum handa slagi ímillum nýggj og gomul virði, íhald og framtakshug, millum kirkju og sertrúarflokkar. Her eru heimspekingar, fyllibyttur, boðfretar, kargakokur, her er øvund og girnd og kærleiki. Hvør hevur sítt at dragast við umframt tann dystin, tey øll hava í felag, at glímast við náttúrumáttin í teimum sjálvum og kring tey.

Vindsamur morgun stendur um hav og land, harðbalin landsynningur. Hann ber við sær vársins órógv og gróðursemi, tarin tekur dik á seg, grasið grønkar, fiskurin rygnist, ærnar ganga kvidnar í lývætu. Eisini í manna sinni ræður gróðurmikil órógv, tí nýggj tíð er í koming, við vón og vanda, sum ikki sæst út yvir – ein rembingartíð, tá ið gamalt fer, áðrenn nýtt hevur fest rót. Framgongd ella undirgongd? Eingin veit.

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"Degningsvindar" (1934) is William Heinesen’s first novel. It was republished in substantially reworked form in 1961.

The novel depicts the Faroes in the shift from a traditional to a commercial fisheries based society. It is a time of every imaginable tension and clash between old and new values, reactionaries and progressives, church and new religious movements. Here we meet philosophers, winos, gossips and misers. We are in a world of lust and love. They all carry their own misery but engage also in a common battle, to fight the powers of nature within and around them.

A windy morning sweeps over land and sea, a vehement south-easterly. It carries along Spring’s tumult and fertility—the seaweed shoots up, the hills turn green, fish spawn, and the ewes are with young. And fertile unrest has captured human minds as well, a new era has dawned full of hope and danger, its end hidden from view – times change, upheaval, the old ways crumble before new paths are trod. Progress or Apocalypse? No one knows.