Historyedit

Archaeological studies from 2021 found evidence of settlement on the islands before the arrival of Norse settlers, uncovering burnt grains of domesticated barley and peat ash deposited in two phases: the first dated between the mid-fourth and mid-sixth centuries, and another between the late-sixth and late-eighth centuries. Researchers have also found sheep DNA in lake-bed sediments dating to the year 500. 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.

These findings concur with historical accounts from the same period: archaeologist Mike Church noted that Irish monk Dicuil describes a group of islands north of Scotland of very similar character to the Faroe Islands in his work De mensura orbis terrae ("Of the measure of the worlds of the earth"). In this text, Dicuil describes "a group of small islands (...) Nearly all of them (...) separated by narrow stretches of water" that were "always deserted since the beginning of time" 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". Church argued that these were likely the eremitic Papar that had similarly resided in parts of Iceland and Scotland in the same period. Writers like Brøgger and Peter Andreas Munch had drawn the same connections from Dicuil's writings, with the latter arguing that these Papar were also the ones to bring sheep to the islands. A ninth-century voyage tale concerning Irish saint Brendan, one of Dicuil's contemporaries, details him visiting an unnamed northern group of islands; this has also been argued to be referring to the Faroe Islands, though not nearly as conclusively. A number of toponyms around the islands refer to the Papar and the Irisish, such as Paparøkur near Vestmanna and Papurshílsur near Saksun. Vestmanna is itself short for Vestmannahøvn ("harbour of the Westmen"). Tombstones in a churchyard on Skúvoy display a possible Gaelic origin or influence.

Old Norse-speaking settlers arrived in the early 9th century, and their Old West Norse dialect would later evolve into the modern Faroese language. A number of the settlers were Norse–Gaels who did not come directly from Scandinavia, but rather from Norse communities that spanned the Irish Sea, Northern Isles, and Outer Hebrides of Scotland, including the Shetland and Orkney islands; these settlers also brought thralls of Gaelic origin with them, and this admixture is reflected today in the Faroese genetic makeup and a number of loanwords from Old Irish. A traditional name for the islands in Irish, Na Scigirí, possibly derives from Eyja-Skeggjar, ("Island-Beards"), a nickname given to island dwellers. 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.

The founding date of the Løgting is not historically documented, though 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.

Christianity was introduced to the islands in the late 10th and early 11th centuries by chieftain Sigmundur Brestisson. 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. While Christianity arrived at the same time as in Iceland, the process was met with much more conflict and violence, and was defined particularly by Sigmundur's conflict with rival chieftain Tróndur í Gøtu, the latter of whom was converted under threat of decapitation. Although their conflict resulted in Sigmundur's murder, the Islands fell firmly under Norwegian rule following Tróndur's death in 1035.

14th century onwardsedit

While the Faroe Islands formally remained a Norwegian possession until 1814, Norway's merger into the Kalmar Union in 1397 gradually resulted in the islands coming under de facto Danish control. When the Protestant Reformation reached the Faroe Islands in 1538, the Faroese language was also outlawed in schools, churches and official documentation; thus Faroese remained exclusively a spoken language until the 19th century. Following the Napoleonic Wars, the union between Denmark and Norway was dissolved by the Treaty of Kiel in 1814; while Norway was transferred to the Swedish Crown, Denmark retained possession of Norway's North Atlantic territories, which included the Faroe Islands along with Greenland and Iceland. Shortly afterwards, Denmark asserted control and began to restrict the islands' autonomy. In 1816, the Faroe Islands was reconstituted as a county (amt) within the Danish Kingdom: the Løgting, having operated continuously for almost a millennium, was dissolved and replaced by a Danish judiciary, and the post of løgmaður (lawspeaker) was likewise replaced by a Danish-appointed amtmand (equivalent to a governor-general).

As part of its mercantilist economic policy, Denmark maintained a monopoly over trade with the Faroe Islands and forbade the Faroese from trading with other countries. The trade monopoly in the Faroe Islands was eventually abolished in 1856, after which the area developed into a modern fishing-based economy with its own fishing fleet. 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. With the return of written Faroese to the public sphere after more than 300 years, nationalism gained a foothold in Faroese society: the modern Faroese national movement is commonly agreed to have begun with the Christmas Meeting of 1888, held to "discuss how to defend the Faroese language and Faroese traditions". This meeting led to the rise of two of the movement's most prominent early figures: Jóannes Patursson and Rasmus Effersøe.

It was initially exclusively concerned with the status of the Faroese language, but it soon gained a political dimension with the advent of the Faroese language conflict in the early 20th century. Both sides of the conflict were represented by the country's first-ever political parties: the Union Party (Sambandsflokkurin), founded in 1906, which supported Faroese literature but opposed its usage in education; and the Self-Government party (Sjálvstýrisflokkurin), which sought to introduce Faroese as the official language in all public spheres and additionally demanded increased political autonomy for the islands. The Faroese language gradually won out; laws and protocols of the Løgting were written in Faroese from 1927 onwards, schools switched to Faroese as the language of instruction in 1938, and Faroese was fully authorised as the language of the Church the following year. Finally in 1944, Faroese gained equal status with Danish in legal proceedings.

In the first year of the Second World War, on 12 April 1940, British troops occupied the Faroe Islands in Operation Valentine. Nazi Germany had invaded Denmark and commenced the invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940 under Operation Weserübung. In 1942–1943, the British Royal Engineers, under the command of lieutenant colonel William Law, built the first and only airport in the Faroe Islands, Vágar Airport. The British refrained from governing Faroese internal affairs, and the islands became effectively self-governing during the war. 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.

The Løgting held an independence referendum on 14 September 1946, resulting in a very narrow majority for independence; 50.73% voted in favour and 49.27% against; the margin was only 161 votes. The Løgting subsequently declared independence on 18 September 1946; this declaration was annulled by Denmark on 20 September, arguing that the number of invalid votes (481) being greater than the narrow margin in favour made the result invalid. As a result, King Christian X of Denmark ordered that the Faroese Løgting be dissolved on 24 September, with new elections held that November. The Faroese parliamentary election of 1946 resulted in a majority for parties opposed to independence: following protracted negotiations, Denmark granted home rule to the Faroe Islands on 30 March 1948. This agreement granted the islands a high degree of autonomy, and Faroese finally became the official language in all public spheres.

In 1973 the Faroe Islands declined to join Denmark in entering the European Economic Community (EEC); as a result, the islands are not part of the European Union (EU) today (although as Danish citizens, Faroe Islanders are still considered EU citizens). Following the collapse of the fishing industry in the early 1990s, the Faroes experienced considerable economic difficulties.