Trafika Europe 1 - Northern Idyll

author succeeded in convincing the reader, or at least Eigil Tvibur, that in 1846 Napoleon Nolsøe had broken the Hippocratic Oath. That accusation was not just hard; it was enough to destroy a man’s legacy. In 1846, namely, measles was ravaging the Faroes; in Tórshavn alone around 50 of the 800 inhabitants died. Doctor Napoleon, who at that time practiced in Nólsoyarstova, was asked by county administrator Pløyen to travel to Su ð uroy to help with the crisis. He would be paid 50 rigsdaler a month. However, Napoleon refused to depart. A few years after Eigil read Ole Jacobsen’s article, the literary history Bókmentasøga I by Árni Dahl was published. It was clear that Dahl greatly respected the doctor. Indeed, page 75 of the book featured a large photograph of the man; the picture was accompanied by a short biography, and Dahl reprinted a few snippets composed in Faroese by Cand. med. & chir. N. Nolsøe. That made Eigil furious. He had always been disgusted by the type of nationalist who claimed to love the native poetry, but could care less about the country’s inhabitants. As Regin Dahl wrote: I love the land, hate the people. Or maybe it was the reverse. Eigil simply had no tolerance for that kind of verbiage. And that was more or less how Napoleon Nolsøe was described in Ole Jacobsen’s essay. He loved the Faroese songs and ballads, but in 1846 had turned his back on his dying countrymen.

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