In search of my candle and span of days.
In the land. Here Lyngbye has:
In the Land of the Franks is a lake broad and wide:
O there does my span of life abide.
O there does my span of life abide:
And so for long I have wandered far and wide.
But he adds a version corresponding to Hammershaimb's in a footnote and states that it is frequently sung so.
42.[°] The courteous man. According to Lyngbye, by a 'courteous man,' the Faroese mean a Scotsman and says that the origin of the word (kurtis) is unknown. It is of course the same as the Icelandic kurteis which is a French loan-word.
According to Lyngbye it was still part of popular Faroese legend in his day that Nornagest kept his candle in a little leaden casket which was sunk in a lake. Lyngbye says that Nornagest was regarded as the 'Nestor' of the Faroes, which is quite in accordance both with his "three hundred years" mentioned in the saga, and with the unusually long span of life often associated with the External Soul of folklore.