Trafika Europe 1 - Northern Idyll

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

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