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gave birth to Betta in 1810. Shortly thereafter, Annelin
married Finnur, who was a farmer in Kirkja on Fugloy, but
she left her small daughter, Betta, to be fostered by her first
husband’s mother and father in Tórshavn.
Sorrow and Rhyme
Sixteen days later the cart again stopped outside the Geil
house. To Tóvó’s mind, it was as if a stick had been stuck
between the wheel spokes; and when he thought back later,
it was as if the cart had stood there his whole childhood,
digging and hewing itself deeper and deeper to his soul’s
bottom.
Nils Tvibur and a man in a mask placed the empty coffin on
the floor. The mask had a beak with a little dried moss and
caraway and horseradish. The smell was supposed to
prevent contagion.
The Geil house had gotten so fine. The floorboards were
new. Martimann had laid at least half the floor and installed
the stove before the measles broke out. The disease’s
progression had been as expected. His eyes and cheeks
swelled up and he lay in bed with a high fever for a week.
When he felt better and his cough was somewhat improved,
he thought there was no harm in nailing down a floorboard
every now and then. There was no one else to do it, and he
could not bring himself to ask Old Tóvó. The old man had