Abstract
Apart from the possible, but unproven presence of some Irish hermits, the Norse colonizers of the Faroe Islands arrived in an unsettled landscape around A.D. 800. The archipelago was essentially unwooded and rich in bird and marine life. The area of land suitable for settlement and farming was relatively meagre and concentrated in coastal areas; inland areas were suitable for shielings (summer pasture) and subsequently more extensive grazing (outfield) activities. Reconstruction of the settlement distribution has not been a well-developed aspect of Faroese historical study. Using archaeological and documentary evidence, we are able to present the first comprehensive distribution map of Norse settlement, which emphasizes an overwhelmingly coastal focus of considerable density. Using historical (including place-names), archaeological, and environmental evidence, we examine the nature and organization of the Viking (early Norse) and medieval (later Norse) settlement. Colonization and economic activity in the islands were strongly influenced by topographic and ecological factors. This, along with social organization, was subject to influences which may have derived, at least in part, from experiences in a Norwegian homeland.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adderley, W. P., and Simpson, I. A. (2005). Early Norse home-field productivity in the Faroe Islands. Human Ecology 33: 711–737.
Amorosi, T. (1991). Icelandic archaeofauna. Acta Archaeologica 61: 272–284.
Arge, S. V. (1991). The landnam in the Faroes. Arctic Anthropology 28: 101–120.
Arge, S. V. (1997a). Føroysk búsetningarsøga—tær fornfrøðiligu heimildirnar. In Sigurðardóttir, T., and Snædal, M. (eds.), Frændafundur 2. Fyrirlestrar frá føroysk-íslendskari ráðstevnu í Tórshavn 28–29 June 1995. Annales Societarium Færoensis—Supplementum XXIV, Tórshavn, Føroya Fróðskaparfélag, pp. 41–58.
Arge, S. V. (1997b). Í Uppistovubeitinum. Site and settlement. Fróðskaparrit 45: 27–44.
Arge, S. V. (2001). Forn búsetning heima á Sandi. FRØÐI 2/2001. Føroya Fróðskaparfelag, Tórshavn, pp. 5–13.
Arge, S. V. (2005). Cultural Landscapes and Cultural Environmental issues in the Faroes. In Mortensen, A., and Arge, S. V. (eds.), Viking and Norse North Atlantic. Select Papers from the Proceedings of the Fourteenth Viking Congress, Tórshavn, 19–30 July 2001. Annales Societatis Scientiarum Færoensis. Supplementum XLIV, Tórshavn, pp. 22– 28.
Arge, S. V. (in press). “UTTANGARS.” A characteristic of relics in the Faroe outfield. Proceedings of the Interdisciplinary Conference: “UTMARK” (THE OUTFIELD/ WASTELAND)—as industry and ideology in the Iron Age and Midle Ages, September 25–28, 2003, Bergen, Norway.
Arge, S. V., and Hartmann, N. (1992). The burial site of the Kirkjugarð in the village of Sandur, Sandoy. Fróðskaparrit 38–39: 5–21.
Brandt, (1996). Sheep-breeding on eastern Sandoy. In Guttesen, R. (ed.), The Faroe Islands Topographic Atlas, Det Kongelige danske Geografiske Selskab and Kort and Matrikelstyrelse, Copenhagen, pp. 82–85.
Brandt, J., and Guttesen, R. (1978). Population and climate in the development of the Faroese peasant society. Det Danske Meteorologiske Institut Klimatologiske Meddelelser No. 4: 60–67.
Brandt, J., and Guttesen, R. (1981). Changes of the rural landscape on the Faroe Islands in the Middle Ages. In Hansen, V. (ed.), Collected papers presented at the Permanent European Conference for the Study of the Rural Landscape, Roskilde 1979, Copenhagen, pp. 17–24.
Bruun, D. (1929). Fra de Færøske Bygder. Samlede afhandlinger om gammeldags sæd og skik, København.
Buckland, P. C. (1992). Insects, man and the earliest settlement of the Faroe Islands: A case not proven. Fróðskaparrit 38–39: 107–114.
Buckland, P. C., and Dinnin, M. H. (1998). Insect faunas at Landnám: A palaeoentomological study at Tjörnuvík, Streymoy, Faroe Islands. Fróðskaparrit 46: 277– 286.
Buckland, P. C., Edwards, K. J., Sadler, J. P., and Dinnin, M. H. (1998). Late Holocene insect faunas from Mykines, Faroe Islands, with observations on associated pollen and early settlement records. Fróðskaparrit 46: 287–296.
Buckland, P. C., and Sadler, J. P. (1991). Farm or sheiling: An entomological approach. In Sveinbjarnardóttir, G. (ed.), Sheilings in Iceland—An archaeological and historical survey. Acta Archaeologica 61: 93–96.
Christensen, A. E. (2000). Ships and navigation. In Fitzhugh, W. W., and Ward, E. I. (eds.), Vikings. The North Atlantic Saga, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington and London, pp. 86–98.
Christiansen, S. (1996). Gásadalur. The old agricultural landscape. In Guttesen, R. (ed.), The Faroe Islands Topographic Atlas, Det Kongelige danske Geografiske Selskab and Kort and Matrikelstyrelse, Copenhagen, pp. 74–77.
Dahl, S. (1951). Fornar toftir í Kvívík. Varðin 29: 65–96.
Dahl, S. (1970a). The Norse settlement of the Faroe Islands. Medieval Archaeology 14: 60–73.
Dahl, S. (1970b). Um ærgistaðir og ærgitoftir. Fróðskaparrit 18: 361–368.
Degn, A. (1932). Hvat kann Rómaskatturin i Færogum siga Okkum. Varðin 12.
Edwards, K. J., Borthwick, D., Cook, G., Dugmore, A. J., Mairs, K.-A., Church, M. J., Simpson, I. A., and Adderley, W. P. (2005). A hypothesis-based approach to landscape change in Suðuroy, Faroe Islands: Human Ecology 33: 621–650.
Færeyinga saga. (1987). Halldórsson, Ó. (ed.). Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi, Reykjavík.
Fellows-Jensen, G. (1984). Viking settlement in the Northern and Western Isles—The place-name evidence as seen from Denmark and the Danelaw. In Fenton, A., and Pálsson, H. (eds.), The Northern and Western Isles in the Viking world, John Donald Publisher Ltd, Edinburgh, pp. 148–168.
Fisher, I. (2005). Cross-currents in North Atlantic Sculpture. In Mortensen, A., and Arge, S. V. (eds.), Viking and Norse North Atlantic. Select Papers from the Proceedings of the Fourteenth Viking Congress, Tórshavn, 19–30 July 2001, Annales Societatis Scientiarum Færoensis. Supplementum XLIV, Tórshavn, pp. 160–166.
Fisher, J. (1952). The Fulmar, Collins, London.
Fosaa, A. M. (2001). A review of plant communities of the Faroe Islands. Fróðskaparrit 48: 41–54.
Gaffin, D. (1996). In Place: Spatial and Social Order in a Faeroe Islands Community, Waveland Press, Prospect Heights, Illinois.
GEsource (2004). http://www.gesource.ac.uk/worldguide/html/880_people.html
Graham-Campbell, J. (2005). The Viking-Age Gold and Silver of the North Atlantic Region. In Mortensen, A., and Arge, S. V. (eds.), Viking and Norse North Atlantic. Select Papers from the Proceedings of the Fourteenth Viking Congress, Tórshavn, 19–30 July 2001, Annales Societatis Scientiarum Færoensis. Supplementum XLIV, Tórshavn, pp. 125– 140.
Guttesen, R. (1996). Historical population geography. In Guttesen, R. (ed.), The Faeroe Islands Topographic Atlas, Det Kongelige Danske Geografiske Selskab and Kort and Matrikelstyrelsen, Copenhagen, pp. 16–17.
Guttesen, R. (1999). Commander Loebner's tables and vital necessities in the Faeroe Islands in 1813. Geografisk Tidsskrift (Special Issue 1): 75–80.
Hannon, G. E., and Bradshaw, R. H. W. (2000). Impacts and timing of the first human settlement on vegetation of the Faroe Islands. Quaternary Research 54: 404–413.
Hannon, G. E., Hermanns-Audarðóttir, M., and Wastegård, S. (1998). Human impact at Tjørnuvík in the Faroe Islands. Fróðskaparrit 46: 215–228.
Íslensk fornrit I - Íslendingabók, Landnámabók. (1968). Benediktsson, J. (ed.), Hið íslenska fornritafélag, Reykjavík.
Jessen, K. (1925). De faeröske Mosers Stratigrafi. Det 17. Skand. Naturforskarmötet i Göteborg (1923): 185–190.
Jessen, K., and Rasmussen, R. (1922). Et profil gennem en tørvemose paa Faerøerne. Danmarks geologiske Undersøgelse 1: 1–13.
Jóhansen, J. (1971). A palaeobotanical study indicating a previking settlement in Tjörnuvík, Faroe Islands. Fróðskaparrit 19: 147–157.
Jóhansen, J. (1985). Studies in the vegetational history of the Faroe and Shetland Islands, Annales Societatis Scientiarum Færoensis. Supplementum XI, Føroya Fróðskaparfélag, Tórshavn.
Jørgensen, T. H., Buttenschön, H. N., Wang, A. G., Als, T. D., Børglum, A. D., and Ewald, H. (2004). The origin of the isolated population of the Faroe Islands investigated using Y chromosomal markers. Human Genetics 115: 19–28.
Krogh, K. J. (1975). Seks kirkjur heima á Sandi. Mondul 1972/2: 21–54.
Krogh, K. J. (1986). Um Føroya fyrstu búseting. Mondul 12: 3–6.
Lawson, I. T., Church, M. J., McGovern, T. H., Arge, S. V., Woollet, J., Edwards, K. J., Gathorne-Hardy, F. J., Dugmore, A. J., Cook, G., Mairs, K.-A., Thomson, A. M., and Sveinbjarnardóttir, G. (2005). Mutual adjustment of environment and society on Sandoy, Faroe Islands: Palaeoenvironmental and archaeological perspectives. Human Ecology 33.
MacDonald, A. (2002). The papar and some problems: a brief review. In Crawford, B. E. (ed.), The Papar in the North Atlantic: Environment and history, St John's House Papers No. 10, St. Andrews, pp. 13–29.
Mahler, D. L. D. (1991). Argisbrekka. New evidence of shielings in the Faroe Islands. Acta Archaeologica 61: 60–72.
Mahler, D. L. (1998). The stratigraphical cultural landscape. In Andersson, H., Ersgård, L., and Svensson, E. (eds.), Outland use in preindustrial Europe, Lund Studies in Medieval Archaeology 20, Lund, pp. 51–62.
Matras, A. K., Andreasen, H., and Stummann Hansen, S. (2004). A Viking age shieling in Skarðsvík, Fugloy, Faroe Islands. Fróðskaparrit 51: 200–211.
Matras, C. (1939). Færøerne. Stednavnene. Nordisk Kultur V: 53–59.
Matras, C. (1953). Gammelfærøsk ærgi. Namn och Bygd 44 (1–4): 51–67.
Matras, C. (1957). Rygir, Sygnir og Hørðar í Føroyum. Varðin 32: 28–32.
Matras, C. (1981). Korkadalur. Fróðskaparrit 28–29: 78–80.
McGovern, T. H., Perdikaris, S., and Amundsen, C. (2004). A Viking-Age to medieval archaeofauna from Undir Junkarinsfløtti, Sandoy, Faroe Islands: preliminary working paper, CUNY Northern Science and Education Center, NORSEC Preliminary DRAFT 1.5, CUNY Doctoral Program in Anthropology, Brooklyn College Zooarchaeology Laboratory, Hunter College Bioarchaeology Laboratory, NORSEC Zooarchaeology Laboratories Report No 17, June 2004.
Mortensen, A. (1954). Fólkatalið og ognarbýtingin í Føroyum um 1600 víð jarðabókini 1584 sum grundarlag. Fróðskaparrit 3: 7–59.
Myhre, B. (1978). Agrarian development, settlement history and social organisation in southwest Norway in the Iron Age. In Kristiansen, K., and Paludan-Müller, C. (eds.), New Directions in Scandinavian Archaeology, Studies in Scandinavian Prehistory and early History 1, Copenhagen, pp. 224–271.
Ólafsson, G. (2005). New Evidence for the Dating of Iceland's Settlement. A Viking-age discovery in the cave Viðgelmir. In Mortensen, A., and Arge, S. V. (eds), Viking and Norse North Atlantic. Select Papers from the Proceedings of the Fourteenth Viking Congress, Tórshavn, 19–30 July 2001, Annales Societatis Scientiarum Færoensis. Supplementum XLIV, Tórshavn, pp. 200–207.
Øye, I. (2005). Farming and farming systems in Norse societies of the North Atlantic. In Mortensen, A., and Arge, S. V. (eds), Viking and Norse North Atlantic. Select Papers from the Proceedings of the Fourteenth Viking Congress, Tórshavn, 19–30 July 2001, Annales Societatis Scientiarum Færoensis. Supplementum XLIV, Tórshavn, pp. 359–370.
Rasmussen, J. (1982). The Faeroe Islands: geology. In Rutherford, G. K. (ed.), The Physical Environment of the Faeroe Islands, W. Junk, The Hague, pp. 15–34.
Sawyer, P. (1997). The Age of the Vikings, and before. In Sawyer, P. (ed.), The Illustrated History of the Vikings, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 1–18.
Small, A. (1969). The distribution of settlement in Shetland and Faroe in Viking times. Saga-Book of the Viking Society 17: 145–155.
Sørensen, S., and Bloch, D. (1990). Fuglar í Norðurhøvum, Føroya Skúlabókagrunnur, Tórshavn.
Stummann Hansen, S. (1991). Toftanes: A Faroese Viking Age farmstead from the 9th–10th century. Acta Archaeologica 61: 44–53.
Stummann Hansen, S. (1993).Viking Age Faroe Islands and their Southern links. In Batey, C. E., Jesch, J., and Morris, C. D. (eds.), The Viking Age in Caithness, Orkney and the North Atlantic, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, pp. 473–486.
Sveinbjarnardóttir, G. (1991). Shielings in Iceland—An archaeological and historical survey. Acta Archaeologica 61: 73–96.
Sveinbjarnardóttir, G. (1998). The question of papar in Iceland. In Crawford, B.E. (ed.), The Papar in the North Atlantic: Environment and History, St John's House Papers No. 10, St Andrews, pp. 97–106.
Sveinbjörnsdóttir, A. E., Heinemeier, J., and Gudmundsson, G. (2004). 14C dating of the settlement of Iceland. Radiocarbon 46: 387–394.
Thorsteinsson, A. (1978). Forn búsetning í Føroyum. Fróðskaparrit 26: 54–80.
Thorsteinsson, A. (1981). On the development of Faroese settlements. In Bekker-Nielsen, H., Foote, P., and Olsen, O. (eds.), Proceedings of the Eighth Viking Congress, Århus 24–31 1977, Odense University Press, Odense, pp. 189–202.
Thorsteinsson, A. (1982). Lambhagar. Mondul 3: 13–22.
Thorsteinsson, A. (1996). Færøske bebyggelsesnavne med -bø. Den ellevte nordiske navneforskerkongressen. NORNA RAPPORTER 60: 183–196.
Thorsteinsson, A. (2005). “There is another set of small islands.” In Mortensen, A., and Arge, S. V. (eds.), Viking and Norse North Atlantic. Select Papers from the Proceedings of the Fourteenth Viking Congress, Tórshavn, 19–30 July 2001, Annales Societatis Scientiarum Færoensis. Supplementum XLIV, Tórshavn, pp. 39–42.
Tierney, J. J. (1967). Dicuilus. Liber de mensura orbis terrae, Scriptores Latini Hiberniae, Dublin.
Vickers, K., Bending, J., Buckland, P. C., Edwards, K. J., Stummann Hansen, S., and Cook, G. (2005). Toftanes: The palaeoecology of a Faroese landnám farm. Human Ecology 33: 685–710.
Woollett, J., Arge, S. V., Church, M., and McGovern, T. H. (2004). Report of archaeological fieldwork at Undir Junkarinsfløtti, Sandoy, 2003. Landscapes circum-Landnám Project. Field Report, February 2004.
Zachariasen, U. (1988). Mykines endnu engang. Namn och Bygd 76: 139–147.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Arge, S.V., Sveinbjarnardóttir, G., Edwards, K.J. et al. Viking and Medieval Settlement in the Faroes: People, Place and Environment. Hum Ecol 33, 597–620 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-005-4745-1
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-005-4745-1