Located at a similar distance from Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a total area of about 1,400 square kilometres (540 sq mi) with a population of 54,676 as of August 2023.

[11] As a result of its northerly latitude and proximity to the Arctic Circle, the islands experience perpetual civil twilight during summer nights and very short winter days.

[13][14] As with the subsequent Settlement of Iceland, the islands were mainly settled by Norwegians and Norse-Gaels, who additionally brought thralls (i.e. slaves or serfs) of Gaelic origin.

Clergymen Peder Clausson and Lucas Debes began casting doubt on this theory in the 16th and 17th centuries, arguing that the West Norse-speaking settlers, whose word for sheep was sauðr instead of the East Norse fær, could not have coined it from this exact origin.

[20] Archaeologist Anton Wilhelm Brøgger concurred, elaborating on Watson's theory by positing that the Norse, having first learned of the islands from Scottish and Irish accounts as a fearann, could have coined Færeyjar as a phono-semantic match.

Barley and sheep had to have been brought to the islands by humans; as Scandinavians did not begin using sails until about 750, it is unlikely they could have reached the Faroes before then, leading to the study concluding that the settlers were more likely to originate from Scotland or Ireland.

In this text, Dicuil describes "a group of small islands (...) Nearly all of them (...) separated by narrow stretches of water" that was "always deserted since the beginning of time"[25] and previously populated by heremitae ex nostra Scotia ("hermits from our land of Ireland/Scotland") for almost a hundred years before being displaced by the arrival of Norse "pirates".

[citation needed] According to Færeyinga saga, many of the Norwegian settlers in particular were spurred by their disapproval of the monarchy of Harald Fairhair, whose rule was also seen as an inciting factor for the Settlement of Iceland.

However, the saga implies that it was a well-established institution by the middle of the 10th century, when a legal dispute between chieftains Havgrímur and Einar Suðuroyingur, resulting in the exile of Eldjárn Kambhøttur, is recounted in detail.

[30] Baptised as an adult by then-King of Norway Olaf Tryggvason, his mission to introduce Christianity was part of a greater plan to seize the islands on behalf of the Norwegian crown.

In 1846, the Faroe Islands finally regained formal political representation when they were allocated two seats in the Danish Rigsdag; the Løgting itself was reinstated as an advisory body to the amtmand in 1852.

An official Faroese orthography was first introduced in 1846 by Lutheran minister Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb, returning the language to print after 300 years of only existing in oral form.

After the war ended and the British army left, this period and Iceland's declaration as a republic in 1944 served as a precedent and a model in the mind of many Faroe Islanders.

[34] The Faroese parliamentary election of 1946 resulted in a majority for parties opposed to independence:[35] following protracted negotiations, Denmark granted home rule to the Faroe Islands on 30 March 1948.

The Faroe Islands are made up of an approximately six-kilometres-thick succession of mostly basaltic lava that was part of the great North Atlantic Igneous Province during the Paleogene period.

[39] The lavas erupted during the opening of the North Atlantic Ocean, which began about 60 million years ago, and what is today the Faroe Islands was then attached to Greenland.

A few small plantations consisting of plants collected from similar climates such as Tierra del Fuego in South America and Alaska thrive on the islands.

Three species are thriving on the islands today: mountain hare (Lepus timidus), brown rat (Rattus norvegicus), and the house mouse (Mus musculus).

As these erosion processes are more severe at higher altitudes than lower down, the lowlands are filled with weathering material from the heights, often resulting in a characteristic curved landscape shape.

The 1814 Treaty of Kiel terminated the Danish–Norwegian union, and Norway came under the rule of the King of Sweden, while the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland remained Danish possessions.

The first time was in 2011, when the then prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen denounced it as incompatible with Denmark's constitution, stating that if the Faroe Islands wished to continue with the move, they must declare independence.

[70] The Faroe Islands are a member of several international sports federations like UEFA, FIFA in football[71] and FINA in swimming[72] and EHF in handball[73] and have their own national teams.

[92] At the beginning of the 1990s, the Faroe Islands entered a deep economic crisis leading to heavy emigration; however, this trend reversed in subsequent years to a net immigration.

However, archaeology at a site in Toftanes, Leirvík, named Bønhústoftin (English: "the prayer-house ruin") and over a dozen slabs from Ólansgarður in the small island of Skúvoy which in the main display encircled linear and outline crosses, suggest that Celtic Christianity may have arrived at least 150 years earlier.

The islands have one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe, but this should not necessarily be taken as a sign of a recovering economy, as many young students move to Denmark and other countries after leaving high school.

By sea, Smyril Line operates a regular international passenger, car, and freight service linking the Faroe Islands with Seyðisfjörður, Iceland and Hirtshals, Denmark.

In the period 1930 to 1940 a writer from the village Skálavík on Sandoy island, Heðin Brú, published three novels: Lognbrá (1930), Fastatøkur (1935) and Feðgar á ferð (English title: The old man and his sons) (1940).

Women were not so visible in the early Faroese literature except for Helena Patursson (1864–1916), but in the last decades of the 20th century and in the beginning of the 21st-century female writers like Ebba Hentze (born 1933) wrote children's books, short stories, etc.

[140][141][142] However, a study has found whale meat and blubber currently to be contaminated with mercury and not recommended for human consumption, as too much may cause such adverse health effects as birth defects of the nervous system, high blood pressure, damaged immune system, increased risk for developing Parkinson's disease, hypertension, arteriosclerosis, and diabetes mellitus type 2: Therefore we recommend that adults eat no more than one to two meals a month.

[143]Animal rights groups such as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society criticize grindadráp as being cruel and unnecessary since it is no longer necessary as a food source for the Faroese people.