Viking Age in the Faroe Islands

Although the dates and events mentioned in this article are generally regarded as indisputable in the Faroe Islands and form part of the national founding myth, they should always be viewed with a certain degree of caution, as the Faroese saga is not a chronicle in the true sense of the word, but a historical novel.

There have been numerous archaeological investigations on the Faroe Islands in recent decades so our picture of that time is becoming increasingly clear.

This find furthers the validity of the sagas by providing an aspect of the agricultural lifestyle being brought from Norway to the Faroe Islands.

[4] A more complete example of the agricultural Norse lifestyle on the Faroe Islands can be found at Toftanes, where a preserved longhouse was unearthed with its walls intact.

They, in turn, had found no native population to convert, so they bred sheep and planted oats, among other things, which now allows them to date their arrival to around 625.

Writings from the Papar, an order of Irish monks, indicate their settling of the Faroes long before the Norse set foot there, only leaving due to ongoing Viking raids.

[12] According to this hypothesis, which is based on the account in the book Liber de Mensura Orbis Terræ by the Irish chronicler Dicuil (825), Grímur Kamban entered a land around 825 where there were only the sheep and seabirds left by the monks.

Grímur Kamban may have come from the British Isles, where the Scandinavians had already established their rule, or he may have been a baptized Norwegian given the nickname by Irish missionaries.

The fact that the majority of these Vikings on the Faroe Islands came from Norway can be determined by a linguistic peculiarity (in addition to other similarities with the dialects of western Norway): In Faroese, northeast is called landnyrðingur ("land north"), southeast landsynningur ("land south"), northwest útnyrðingur ("out north") and southwest útsynningur ("out south").

The relationship between this Norwegian trading metropolis and later Hanseatic League and the Faroe Islands has always played a special role throughout the centuries.

Even if it is not entirely clear what the political order of the Faroe Islands was like at this time, it is no exaggeration to speak of a Republic, as the king in Norway, 500 kilometers away, had no power on the archipelago during the Viking Age, and the thing was an assembly of the local free men, i.e. the large farmers.

Most of the evidence uncovered suggests that Norse communities residing on the Faroe Islands in the pre-Christian period were based heavily on crop cultivation and raising livestock.

[14] At Toftanes, materials Norse used for fishing, such as spindle whirls and lineor netsinkers suggesting a utilization of the islands natural resources for goods.

Although the Norse did rely heavily on the land of the Faroe Islands, they did not completely sever ties with their native Norway.

Accordingly, Thursday (Thor is the god of thunder) is called hósdagur on the Faroe Islands, or tósdagur in the Suðuroy dialect.

The Viking graves on the Faroe Islands deserve special attention, as they allow conclusions to be drawn about burial rites and the cult of the dead.

In 1834, the tomb of the high priest (blótsmaður mikil) Havgrímur in Hov was opened on the initiative of the Danish governor Christian Pløyen.

The two protagonists of the Faroese saga are Sigmundur Brestisson and Tróndur í Gøtu, who each represented the opposing camps in a feud that lasted 65 years on the Faroe Islands.

Despite reservations about the objectivity and accuracy of the Faroese saga, the following picture emerges, which is generally accepted as the chronicle of the time.

Around 969 the situation on the Faroe Islands was as follows: There were two Norwegian fiefdoms, one belonging to Havgrímur of Hov, the other to the brothers Brestir and Beinir of Skúvoy.

He vowed revenge and sought the support of his father-in-law Snæúlvur of Sandoy, but he would not play along, unlike Tróndur í Gøtu and his uncle Svínoyar-Bjarni, who plotted with Havgrímur to kill the brothers.

Sigmundur Brestisson was 9 years old when he witnessed the death of his father Brestir, in which Tróndur í Gøtu was not actively involved, but was in the background.

After the bloody deed, Tróndur suggested killing Sigmundur and his cousin Tóri Beinirsson (Beinir's then 11-year-old son), but Svínoyar-Bjarni refused.

Incidentally, the trade routes from the Faroe Islands to Novgorod in Kievan Rus' at that time are testimony to this episode.

This made him the sole ruler of the Faroe Islands: Sigmundur and Tóri were in Norway, and Øssur was his foster child.

The Faroese saga tells us that Tróndur gave him the estates of Brestir and Beinir when he was growing up, as well as the part of the Faroe Islands that his father had ruled.

Bjarni was able to explain that it was he who had fought for the lives of the young men in 970, and so he came to an agreement with Sigmundur by revealing the whereabouts of Øssur Havgrímsson on Skúvoy.

However, while Tróndur wanted the matter to be settled before the Althing in Tinganes, Sigmundur demanded a verdict from Håkon Jarl in Norway.

It was probably around 986 that Sigmundur brought his family (wife Turið Torkilsdóttir and daughter Tóra Sigmundsdóttir) from Norway to the Faroe Islands, where they would remain for the rest of their lives.

The two are considered the first great women in Faroese history.After Olav I Tryggvason converted to Christianity in 994 and became King of Norway in 995, he invited Sigmundur Brestisson to join him in 997.