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The Glimme Name

Pictures of Fog Over Voss 

(Courtesy of Svein Ulvund, Voss Now!)

No one is sure of the name “Glimme.”  The different explanations are vague.  For instance, they want to connect the name with the sun’s gleam because the early sunshine lit up the farm.  At the same time, the whole north side of Vangswater was in the shade.  Professor Olaf Rygh assumes the name came from the mumur of the small creek on the farm’s east side; but in Voss they distinguish between murmur and glimmer.  It is more reasonable then that the echo is the real reason for the name.  

In pure Vossing (dialect) echo is signified by glum (close the u-sound).  Pro-nunciation is a sound between u, y, and o.  Precisely, Glymme is pronounced the same way; the first vowel will be an inbetween sound. From a lot of places on the farm, one can also hear strong echoes from the steep forest hills, especially during certain weather, such as fog.  Echo or gloom presumably has given the place its name.

In the old documents the name is spelled alternately as Glymme, Glomme, and Glimme.  Naturally, this is the reason for the difficulty in the right Vosse pronounciation.  The way Glimme is written is very old.  It is even used in the King’s letter of Sept. 30, 1724, and later used most in public documents. 

From Oluf Rygh Norwegian Farm Names  (Oluf is the Professor mentioned by JK Glimme above.)

Listen over gårder er hentet fra "Norske Gaardnavne".

This page was last updated on Sunday, October 08, 2017 .