Nólsoyar Páll

Poul Poulsen Nolsøe called Nólsoyar Páll (* October 11, 1766 at Nólsoy, † 1809 before Sumba ( Faroe Islands ) ) is a national hero of the Faroe Islands.

Nólsoyar Páll was a Faroese sailor, merchant and poet. He built 1804 in Vágur the schooner Royndin Frida (literally, nice try) the first, suitable for Atlantic voyages, Faroese own ship since the Middle Ages. With this ship, he went according to tradition 1809 in an attempt to preserve the country people with a British cereal from a famine.

His ballad of birds Fuglakvæði of 1805 is an integral part of the Faroese National understanding. It encodes its implacable opposition to the Royal Danish trade monopoly in the form of metaphors.

Life

Poul Poulsen was established in October 1766 as the fourth child of his father Poul Joensen family ( 1724-1786 Therefore: . Poulsen = Pouls son ) and Susanne Djonedatter born on Nólsoy. When exact date October 11 is assumed. His family came from the northern island Eysturoy. He had six siblings, five brothers.

According to her birth, she received the nickname Nolsøe what the Danish spelling for Nólsoy was at that time (hence: Nólsoyar Páll = Paul von Nólsoy or Nólsoy -Paul ). Three of the brothers - Poul, John and Jacob (1775-1869) learned to read quickly and personally by the young bailiff Hammershaimb Wenceslas (1755-1822) were then transported, who loaned them books. Wenzel Hammershaimb grandson VU Hammershaimb later founded (1846 ) the Faroese written language.

The brothers Nolsøe grew up in the heyday of the company Rybergs trade, stopped the Royal Danish trade monopoly. The Faroese capital Tórshavn, one nautical mile from Nólsoy removed, was then already populated by craftsmen and sailors, many of them foreigners.

John studied autodidactic medicine. It is said that he had for an old book available and able to interview a senior manager at Rybergs trade named Rose Meyer. Jacob made ​​a commercial apprenticeship and was described as the Educated of the three. He was said to be an excellent navigator. He was clerk of Rybergs trade and quickly became its Managing Director.

Poul Poulsen's desire was to become a sailor was. He also learned navigation and merchant was at Rybergs trade. After the death of his father (who, however, defended himself that his son should go to sea ) he drove for Rybergs trade across the seas. In 1793 he was said to be in Paris and Marseille. Also is transmitted orally, that he sailed under the French and the English flag, until he captain for a U.S. trading company was. What is certain is that he was heading the United States, West Indies, England, France, Portugal, Norway, Denmark and other countries in the world and in contact with the poetry of the great Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796) came.

In 1798, finds its track in Copenhagen, where he married a woman of his native island Nólsoy in the same year. After a while in Copenhagen, he returned in 1800 to the Faroe Islands back. A little later his wife died, and he married in 1801 again, this time the daughter of a wealthy big farmers from the vicinity of Borðoy Klaksvíks. His father gave him land with a Markatal of 7, and it is said that Nólsoyar Páll was fast as the most efficient manufacturers in the Faroe Islands. For his achievements in agriculture, he was awarded by the Royal Agricultural Society with a silver medal.

His attention was also paid to the shipbuilding industry. As an experienced sailor, he recognized the disadvantages of the previous typical Faroese boat constructions. He benefited from the fact that his home island Nólsoy had an old boat-building traditions and he mastered the craft. He extended the keel and makes the Steven steeper. Thus the boat could stay the course in the strong currents of the Faroese waters better. The square square sail he replaced with a lateen sail. Thus the boat could go up to the wind. The crossing has been simplified. A short time later, all the boats were built in the Faroe Islands in this way. His decisive improvement of the spinning wheel could not prevail against it.

In the back of the head Nólsoyar Páll had but something much more Walking: Not less than the fight for free trade and the abolition of the Royal. Danish trade monopoly. His boat designs were intended not only as improvement of local roads, but aimed at the independence of his homeland. But this effort seemed to many of his countrymen as abstract, especially since it played in the area of tax law.

The Ballad of Birds

In the song Fuglakvæði Nólsoyar Páll sang the Oystercatcher ( Tjaldur [' tschaldur ] ), which is the symbol of the Faroese struggle for independence ever since.

German translation:

In reality, this was a song resistance against the Royal Danish trade monopoly (from about 1620 until 1 January 1856) and the Danish colonialism. In the allegorical language of the ballad of oystercatchers Nólsoyar Páll itself.

Nolsoy Paul's journey home

The Faroese poet J.H.O. Djurhuus wrote in his national- romantic phase, a poem about Nólsoyar Páll entitled Heimferð Nólsoyar Pals and the circumstances of his death, that are still considered among his many admirers Faroese as part of a conspiracy. Nólsoyar Páll used in his ballad of birds different symbols. The Oystercatcher is the hero, and the Ravens are the Danish gentlemen. Djurhuus relies on this language and represents a symbol of chaotic powers in this battle with the Norse goddess Rán.

German translation: