From 1274 to 1816 it functioned primarily as a judicial body, whereas the modern Løgting established in 1852 is a parliamentary assembly, which gained legislative power when home rule was introduced in 1948.

Together with the Manx Tynwald and the Icelandic Alþing, the Løgting is one of the oldest surviving parliaments in the world, all three holding lineages to the old Norse assemblies of mainland Europe.

The earliest historical sources locate the Løgting on the Tinganes a peninsula, today known as the oldest neighbourhood in Tórshavn.

In the Viking age, it was a tradition to hold the ting at a neutral and uninhabited place, in order to prevent anyone from having an advantage.

Unlike the Icelandic Althing, the Løgting's foundation is not historically documented; however, it is implied to be a well-established institution when it is mentioned for the first time in the Færeyinga saga as the Straumseyarþing ("Streymoy thing"), in which a mid-10th century legal dispute at the thing between chieftains Havgrímur and Einar Suðuroyingur, resulting in the exile of Eldjarn Kambhøttur, is recounted in detail.

The Viking Age in the Faroes ended in 1035 when Tróndur í Gøtu died and Leivur Øssursson (the son-in-law of Sigmundur Brestisson) became liege lord under king Magnus I of Norway.

The status of the Faroes changed under king Magnus VI of Norway, who introduced the Norwegian Landslog (Land's Law) in 1274.

Around 1380, the Faroes, together with Norway, came under the Danish throne, but the islands preserved their special status as former Norwegian territory.

Regardless of these developments, the Løgting preserved a certain influence on the legislature and the administration of the islands until the introduction of the absolute monarchy in 1660 under Frederick III.

At that time many of them wished to see the Løgting reinstated, one reason being that they were not satisfied with the situation that the highest Danish government official, called the Amtmaður, was the sole advisory authority on the Faroes on matters of Faroese legislation.

When the Act of 23 March 1852 was passed it meant that the Faroese Løgting was to be reconstituted, although not as a legislative assembly, but as an advisory body, an amtsráð.

One of the chief objectives behind the demand for political home rule which its supporters put forward was that the Løgting should have legislative powers.

In the assembly established in 1852, the Amtmaður, the highest Danish government official, was ex officio the president of the Løgting.

During World War II, when the Faroes were occupied by the United Kingdom on 12 April 1940 and relations with Denmark were interrupted, the Løgting actually functioned as a legislative assembly, and the Faroes had their own government consisting of the Amtmaður Carl Aage Hilbert and ministers appointed by the Løgting.

At the end of the war, the independence movement (mainly under influence of the new Fólkaflokkurin) was so powerful that none of the political parties were willing to return to the pre-war situation where the status of the Faroes had practically been that of a Danish county (Færøernes amt).

Finally a public vote was held on 14 September 1946 where the electorate was to choose between a Danish proposition of Home rule and full secession from Denmark.

This election resulted in a significant majority of 2,000 votes for the parties favoring a union with Denmark, and a new unionist coalition was formed.

Based on their growth in votes they chose not to pass the secession, but as a compromise, the Home Rule Act was constituted and came into force on 1 April 1948.

At the first meeting the Prime Minister (Løgmaður) delivers his Saint Olaf's Day address, in which he gives a general description of the state of the nation.

Thus the Faroese Løgting is a parliament with an exceptionally well-documented history, where the archives in fact cover the period right from 1298 to the present.

The Løgting's archives from 1615 to 1816 contain similar rich sources of material on all aspects of the history of the Faroes in that period.

The Løgting's archives for the period from 1852 to the present also provide the most important source of information on the more recent and latest political history of the Faroes.