page_title: History of the Faroe Islands
section_title: Pre-14th century
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Faroe Islands / Pre-14th century
context_page_description: The early details of the history of the Faroe Islands are unclear. It is possible that Brendan, an Irish monk, sailed past the islands during his North Atlantic voyage in the 6th century. He saw an 'Island of Sheep' and a 'Paradise of Birds,' which some say could be the Faroes with its dense bird population and sheep. This does suggest however that other sailors had got there before him, to bring the sheep. Norsemen settled the Faroe Islands in the 9th century or 10th century. The islands were officially converted to Christianity around the year 1000, and became a part of the Kingdom of Norway in 1035. Norwegian rule on the islands continued until 1380, when the islands became part of the dual Denmark–Norway kingdom, under king Olaf II of Denmark.
  Following the 1814 Treaty of Kiel that ended the dual Denmark–Norway kingdom, the Faroe Islands remained under the administration of Denmark as a county. During World War II, after Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany, the British invaded and occupied the Faroe Islands until shortly after the end of the war.
context_section_description: The name of the islands is first recorded on the Hereford mappa mundi (1280), where they are labelled farei.
  The name has long been understood as based on Old Norse fár "livestock", thus fær-øer "sheep islands".
  The main historical source for this period is the 13th-century work Færeyinga saga (Saga of the Faroese), though it is disputed as to how much of this work is historical fact.
  Færeyinga saga only exists today as copies in other sagas, in particular the manuscripts called Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason, Flateyjarbók and one registered as AM 62 fol.
  According to Flateyjarbók, Grímr Kamban settled in Faroe when Harald Hårfagre was king of Norway (872–930). A slightly different account is found in the version of Færeyinga saga in Ólafs Saga Tryggvasonar:
  Maður er nefndur Grímur kamban; hann byggði fyrstur manna Færeyjar. En á dögum Haralds hins hárfagra flýðu fyrir hans ofríki fjöldi manna; settust sumir í Færeyjum og byggðu þar, en sumir leituðu til annarra eyðilanda.
  There was a man named Grímr Kamban; he first settled in Faroe. But in the days of Harold Fairhair many men fled before the king's overbearing. Some settled in Faroe and began to dwell there, and others sought to other waste lands.
  The text suggests that Grímr Kamban settled in the Faroes some time before the flight from Harald Hårfagre, perhaps even hundreds of years before. His first name, Grímr, is Norse, but his last, Kamban, suggests a Gaelic origin (Cambán). He may have been of mixed Norse and Irish origin and have come from a settlement in the British Isles: a so-called Norse-Gael. The Norse-Gaels had intermarried with speakers of Irish, a language also spoken at the time in Scotland (being the ancestor of Scottish Gaelic). Evidence of a mixed cultural background in later settlers may be found in the Norse-Irish ring pins found in the Faroe Islands, and in features of Faroese vocabulary. Examples of such words (derived from Middle Irish) are: "blak/blaðak" (buttermilk), Irish bláthach; "drunnur" (animal tail), Irish dronn (chine);  "grúkur" (head), Irish gruaig (hair); "lámur" (hand, paw), Irish lámh (hand); "tarvur" (bull), Irish tarbh; and "ærgi" (pasture in the outfield), Irish áirge (byre, milking place: Mod. Irish áirí). The discovery at Toftanes on Eysturoy of wooden devotional crosses apparently modelled on Irish or Scottish exemplars suggests that some of the settlers were Christian. It has also been suggested that the typical curvilinear stone-built walls enclosing early ecclesiastical sites in the Faroes (as in Norse settlements elsewhere) reflect a Celtic Christian style, seen in the circular enclosures of early ecclesiastical sites in Ireland. Indirect support for this theory has been found in genetic research showing that many Norse settler women in the Faroe Islands had Celtic forebears.
  If there was settlement in the Faroes in the reign of Harald Hårfagre, it is possible that people already knew about the Faroes because of previous visitors or settlers.
  
  The fact that immigrants from Norway also settled in the Faroe Islands is proven by a runestone (see Sandavágur stone) found in the village of Sandavágur on Vágoy Island. It says: 
  Þorkil Onundsson, austmaþr af Hrua-lande, byggþe þe(n)a staþ fyrst.
    
  Thorkil Onundsson, eastman (Norwegian) from Rogaland, settled first in this place (Sandavágur)
  This description "eastman" (from Norway) has to be seen together with the description "westman" (from Ireland/Scotland), which is to be found in local place-names such as "Vestmanna-havn" i.e. "Irishmen's harbour" in the Faroe Isles, and "Vestmannaeyjar" i.e. "Irishmen's islands" in Iceland.
  According to Færeyinga saga there was an ancient institution on the headland called Tinganes in Tórshavn on the island of Streymoy. This was an Alþing or Althing (All-council.) This was the place where laws were made and disputes solved. All free men had the right to meet in the Alþing. It was a parliament and law court for all, thus the name. Historians estimate the Alþing to have been established from 800 to 900.
  The islands were officially converted to Chri
caption: Faroese stamp depicting Tróndur í Gøtu raising the hammer of Thor against Christianity
exif: {}