We start here, with a simple map of the island; all evidence points to a ‘point’ at the W tip of the Kõpu peninsula

Spitballing here, and despite the odd bays on the E and S coasts suitable for beaching, given the ‘problem-solving’ nature of many of the present toponyms, perhaps the island earned its suffix for being simply a relieving stop on a cold, wet and windy crossing from Finland to Estonia. The Narig- element has been accused of proximity to Sámi njárga (cape or headland) generating a bilingual doubling with the -eth suffix but it’s hard to give credence to such a northern import when Finnish already had its established niem doing the same job. Likewise, it being a cognate of Finn. nurkka, Est. nurk (corner), while not impossible, is too tenuous to assert. The question remains open.

At the N tip of the islands, and some 4.25 km as the puffin flies (9.5 by sheep) from Slættaratindur, their highest peak, located at the N tip of the sound separating Eysturoy from Streymoy, this would make it an ideal point to navigate towards and make initial landfall from Iceland; there’s a sorta isthmus to its N, a bay on its S, it could be a portage point for a 400-m crossing to Niðara Vatn and thence to the N coast, and the landmass to its N & W could be a headland

Bay on the E of Viðareiði, likely the ‘other’ end of a portage route

Likely a portage route across a narrowish (1.5 km) isthmus

Likely a portage route across a narrowish (1.5 km) isthmus

Bay on the W of Vágur, possibly the start of a portage to Vágsvatn (lake) and thence to Vágsfjørd.

Possible isthmus or low-elevation portage across the island saving maybe 10 km by sailing around, see Eiðsvik

Nothing unequivocally clear

Looks like a bay, but could be a portage point for a 200-m crossing from Norrfjärden to Skogbyträsket (lake)

Mentioned in King Valdemar’s Itinerary. Fygh prob. derives from Old Swed. fogh(i)l, fughl, (cf. Eng. fowl) for bird; while the elde may be cognate with Hangethe’s suffix which, like Dagaið, might have morphed by simplification from its similar-sounding ethe/aið to Swedish ö, creating the ‘island’ trope, raising two issues: 1) being an island group could also make the singular suffix a red herring; but 2) being an island group with up to 100 scattered islets could also convey the notion of generalized zone of navigational caution

Here we have bays, isthmuses and a modest headland, it’s SW point no higher than ±10 m; the Finnish name is said to derive from hanka, ‘bifurcated peninsula’, itself perhaps from another meaning, oarlock, which the southernmost tip could resemble; the presence of Russarö Lighthouse some 3 km S of the peninsula suggests the location was long known as a shipping hazard; Hangethe has also been translated as Hango promontory^[1]

Officially an isthmus, it could also refer to a possible 200-m portage between Hemsundet and Norrsundet, but Finnish map positions the name over the elevation (headland?) to its E

Now farmland, but likely named after an earlier portage route between Norrsundet and Skvättviken

Ambiguous, could be a double bay, an elevation, a portage, or even an occasional tombolo… uncertain

Looks like a bay, but could be a portage point for a 100-m crossing to a small inland body of water; site also of 2 approx. 1.5-m-diam and 1.2- to 2-m-high stone cairns / historic navigational markers^[2] (see Haugeið)

Bay with possible headland

Eið names can also refer to settlements located on or near a strip of land between two lakes, here Lagarfljót and Eiðavatn; likewise, Icelandic place names involving landscape features or settlements such as this are often plural

After a historic farm, generally considered to be the originator of local eið-based placenames; could be named for the peninsula, isthmus, bays or headlands

Seems to mean the gravel bay close to the original farm; ‘grandi’ means gravel, here designating the type of tombolo (see, e.g. XXX)

Bight W of a tombolo between mainland Grafarvogur and Geldingarnes island, historically crossable at low tide. The name Eiðsvik seems part of a larger Kollafjörd which includes another Eiðsvik (+Eiðssker), N of Eiðsgrandi

A one-time gravel tombolo on the N of Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands), named after the probably Irish slaves killed there þar sem Eið heitir í eyjunum (±at a place on the islands called Eið)

Seems clearly to be an isthmus or neck of land but could also be named for the narrow, 1-km channel / portage leading from Hardangerfjord to Erdfjordvatnet (lake)

Nothing clear-cut or obvious here; one of the rarer names which may possibly come from its other meaning of ‘oath’; local lore has it that court clercs met at a nearly knoll to swear them, for others it’s related to portage along Norway’s longest river, the Glomma but, being about 4 km away, seems unlikely; on the other hand, there being more than one Eidsberg side by side opens other avenues: the one to the NW is close to Lekumfoss (waterfall [blue circle]) on a tributary to Glomma, so maybe?... undecided, and named not earlier than the 15th C anyway…

Lit. ‘eið wood’, located close to Store Gaustadsjøn (lake), depending on river level, width, or possible rapids, sounds like a point of portage through the woods between more navigable stretches of water up- or downstream, uncertain

Eið + vágr, way or inlet (see Aith, Bressay), but with an Eidsøra; eið + øra, gravel, 4 km NE, almost certainly a portage to/from Tingvollfjord

Helpfully described as ligger på et tynt, smal eid-lignende halvøy (located on a thin, narrow eid-like peninsula), the original designation may well have referred to the narrow isthmus

Located on a major N-S watercourse, possibly one of those occasions where it’s named for the water between two landmasses, or perhaps a portage site

A possible site of portage between its own Loch of Skaill and the sea and Lochs Stenness and Harray, but seems a lot of work for little benefit

Two names, both the island itself and a bay at the NW of Mill bay; said to mean isthmus island, so it could have been named for the neck of land between the N & S halves, but also for the bays on either side

Haugeið = cairn eið, could be an isthmus on a peninsula but the cairn itself could also be the nautical marker or reference point (see Träskedet, Biskopsö)

Could be either the bay at the N of Scapa Flow, or the isthmus between Scapa and Kirkwall

Located at the center of 2 isthmi^[3] and 3 bays, make of it what you will

Often misunderstood as Mull of Kintyre whose Gaelic name Maol Chinn Tìre (bare headland) speaks for itself. According to Magnus Berfœtts saga where Kintyre used to be known as Satíri, lét hann draga skútu um Satíriseið (he had a ship pulled over the Kintyre isthmus) which seems to refer specifcally to the 1-mile (1.6 km) land-bridge and portage at Tarbert in the N of the Kintyre peninsula, all the more so since the name is an Anglicisation of Gaelic tairbeart, meaning ‘carrying across’

N of Bressay, curving around the SW of Aith Ness promontory / peninsula and abutting ‘Aith’, possibly an ‘isthmus’ leading to Aith Ness; Shetland’s Aiths are often associated with a ‘Voe’, Shaetlan, or Shetland dialect, for inlet, from ON vágr (way), itself suggesting the eið was a nautical destination

Mainland center, a village/bay at the S of its inlet

S of Mainland, where Aith could be a bay (wick) just N of said inlet and 600-odd meters S of Aithsetter, a one-time farm on a headland; this is a good example of copy-and-paste error-sprawl: Wikipedia confidently asserts Aithsetter to come from Old Norse: Eiðseti, ‘the farm at the isthmus’ when it’s probably named for being near (but not on) Aith (yes, prob. an isthmus)

Perhaps the type example of ed, from O. Swed. eþer < ēþ: a neck or passage over a narrow strip of land between navigable waterways, over which a ship can be pulled, the waterways here being Stora Le to the N and Lilla Le to the S

Harbor on the E coast which may have been a landing-beach/bay, “pronounced […] Kyll-aid by the older generation”[4]; not an island so the aid to (very hypothetical) ey to ö switch (see Fyghelde) can be excluded; this is a possible eið candidate

Lit. Hart ed, used here to refer to a passage between or alongside water

First known as enlang in King Valdemar’s Itinerary; probably a promontory, Lagnö being divided into two halves: the WSW Västra Lagnö and ENE Östra Lagnö

Three names, one locality. Lilla Edet, Stora Edet and Edborg, the latter a one-time fortress on the Göta river, the second now called Trollhättan (qv.), formerly Eidar and Stranna (dialect for Swed. strand, ‘beach’) named for its being a site for portage of boats past the rapids; the area was known as Eiðar, i.e. the plural of Ed, in the 13th C (see Eiðar, Iceland)

Originally named for being a site for portage of boats past the rapids/falls, akin to its smaller version 20 km downstream (see Lilla Edet)