BJARKEY-
nafnorðkarlkyn
in the word bjarkeyjar-réttr, m. town-law, used as opposed to landslög or landsréttr, county-law, Sks. 22; sökin veit til landslaga en eigi til bjarkeyjarréttar, Fms. vii. 130; vide N. G. L. i. 303–336. It is an illustration of this curious word, that the Danes at present call a justice ‘birkedommer,’ and the district ‘birk;’ cp. local names, as in Sweden,—in Birchâ civitate regiâ, Johann. Magnus 542 (Ed. 1554); civitas Birchensis, 556; in Birchâ civitate tum maxima, 541; in Norway, Bjarkey is one of the northern islands, whence the famous Norse family Bjarkeyingar took their name; v. Munch, the pref. to Norge’s Beskrivelse. Etym. uncertain; hedged in with birch (?).