The Stone of the Boy from Lorvík

The Stone of the Boy from Lorvík in the mountain above the settlement of Viðareiði. In the background the island of Fugloy. Photo: Kristian Martin Eliasen ©.

View over the settlement of Viðareiði from the mountain, where ´The Stone of the Boy from Lorvík´ stands. Photo: Kristian Martin Eliasen ©.

In the mountains around the valley of Villingardal north of the settlement (Faroese: bygd) of Viðareiði c. 735 meters above sea level, a stone-pillar, similar to a standing stone, with a height of approximately 1.30 meters is seen. It is locally referred to as The Stone of the Boy from Lorvík (coordinates: N 62° 22.668´, W 006° 33.338´).

The background for the name of the stone, and the history attached to it, was described by Símun Hansen on page 75 in the third volume of his work Tey byggja land (1984):

 “Summarið 1803 hvarv húskallurin Poul Johannesen. Hann var ein morgun farin við stong í Villingardal, men ongin maður kom aftur. Farið var at leita, men onki tey funnu. Menn ansaðu tó eftir, at ein tunnur høgur steinur var settur upp eftir enda, uppi á Varða tey kallað. Ongin hevði verið har áður, og ti góvu tei honum navnið Steinur Lorvíksdrongin. Pól var úr Lorvík, og ein av teim, sum bjargaðust á Fodlinsbátinum árið fyri.”

 “In the summer of 1803 the servant Poul Johannesen disapppeared. He had left the house one morning with his fowling pole heading for the valley of Villingardal, but never returned. People went searching, but never found him. Some men noticed that a stone pillar had been raised on the spot called “á Varða”. No such stone had been there before, and therefore they gave it the name “The Stone of the Boy from Lorvík”.  Pól was from Lorvík, and was one of those, who had been rescued when the boat from Fodlin wrecked the year before.”

The boy from Lorvík – Poul (Pól) Johannesen – was a farmer’s son from Heiðriksstova in the settlement of Leirvik (Lorvík) on Eysturoy, but had moved north to Viðareiði some years before he disappeared. In the 1801 census for Viðareiði he is listed as being 23 years of age, and serving with the King’s farmer Simon Danielsen and wife Sidsel Olesdatter in the house of Miðstova.