This blog now takes another short detour away from the British Isles to travel a little further north. However as is always the case – and as indeed per the underlying theme of this Northern Tapestry – we will continue to see the links between the various lands and peoples.

The Faroe Islands lie in the north Atlantic, a natural meeting point between Scotland (200 miles south), Norway (360 miles east) and Iceland (280 miles north-west). Today, as well as the obvious physical features of mountains, rocks and cliffs, the land looks very lush and green – perhaps a result of the constant rain – but only 2% of the land is arable. Fishing remains, as it always has been, a significant part of the economy.

Traditionally the islands were “settled” by the Norse in the early 9^th century. The Færeyinga Saga (Saga of the Faroe Islanders) begins by saying that:

“There was a man named Grímur Kamban. He was the first person to settle the Faroes. For in the time of Harald Fine-Hair, many people fled from his tyranny. Some settled in the Faroes and established themselves there, while others sought other unpopulated lands.”[1]

The Saga was not written down until the early 13^th century and therefore, like many of the Icelandic Sagas, its value as a historical document must be treated with caution. In particular it is worth drawing to attention the supposed link between the settlement Faroes and King Harald Fine-Hair, who was in power probably sometime after 870.

There are other texts from around the same time, such as Landnámabók (the Book of Settlements) which may rely on earlier sources and which mention Grim:

“Helgi gave his Daughter Helga in marriage to Audun the Rotten, son of Thorolf Butter, son of Thorstein Stofam, son of Grim Kamban, and he granted Audun land between Hals and Villingadale.”[2]

In this instance Hegi is Helgi the Lean who was married to Thorunn, a daughter of Ketil Flatnose. We will get to these people later in this blog but for now it is important to note that Ketil was born after 810, probably dying in the 880s. If Thorunn and Helgi’s daughter (a granddaughter of Ketil) married a great-grandson of Grim Kamban, that would place Grim as having lived in the first half of the 9^th century and therefore any settlement of the Faroes pioneered by him must have taken place earlier than King Harald’s tyranny.

This dating is backed up by a couple of other references. The first of these also belongs to Landnámabók (although only in the Hauksbók version) which repeats that Thorolf Butter was the grandson of Grim[3] and that Thorolf was involved in the discovery of Iceland in the late 860s[4]. If that were the case, surely his grandfather must have been active around some decades earlier?

The second source is from Dicuil, an Irish monk who wrote a geographical book known as “De Mensura Orbis Terrae” (On the Measurement of the World) which dates to the year 825. Contained within this immense geographic work, one section states:

“Illae insulae sunt aliae parvulae. fere cunctae simul angustis distantes fretis, in quibus in centum ferme annis heremitae ex nostra Scottia navigantes habitaverunt. fed, sicut a principio mundi desertae semper fuerunt; ita nunc causa latronum Nortmannorum vacuae anachoritis, plenae innumerabilibus ovibus, ac diversis generibus multis nimis marinarum avium. numquam eas insulas in libris auctorum memoratas invenimus.”[5]

(There are other small islands, almost all of them separated by narrow straits, in which for almost a hundred years the hermits who sailed from our Scottia (Ireland rather than Scotland) lived. But, as from the beginning of the world they have always been deserted; so now, because of the Northmen pirates, they are emptied of the anchorites , but full of innumerable sheep, and of many different kinds of sea-birds. We never find those islands mentioned in the books of the authors.)

If these are the Faroe Islands (no other candidates seem likely) then this is interesting for two reasons. Firstly it supports the theory above that the Norse “settlement” took place much earlier than the era of Harald Fine-Hair. Secondly it introduces a suggestion that the Norse were not in fact the first settlers.

The Irish hermits mentioned are almost certainly what are known as the “papar” (fathers) who set out from Ireland and took up residence in the northern and western islands of Scotland, Iceland and the Faroes. Evidence of this has survived through place-names such as Papa Westray in Orkney, Pabbay in Harris, and Papey in Iceland. There are also the Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Isles) in Iceland, where the name of the Westmen is thought to refer to people from Ireland or Scotland, although in this instance it has been traditionally linked to a group of slaves from those lands (to feature in a future post). In the Faroes we have Paparøkur and Papurshalsur[6] and also the town of Vestmanna.

Recent archaeological research has also suggested that people from Britain or Ireland may have reached the islands before the Vikings – perhaps as early as the year 500[7]. Although there are issues with the dating of Grim (if we accept that he actually existed), it is notable that the second part of his name – Kamban – seems to be Celtic in origin, perhaps referring to a physical handicap; he is sometime described in modern texts as Grim the Lame[8].  Unfortunately we have no further surviving evidence about the “founder” and can only be left to speculate whether his nickname meant he was actually Celtic, whether he had some connection to Ireland and Scotland, or whether he was given the name by, say, hermits whom he encountered on arrival in the Faroes.

It would be remiss to not mention the potential links to St Brendan, an Irish priest born in the late 5^th century and who is best known for his travels as set out in the poem “Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis” (The Voyage of Saint Brendan the Abbot). Sailing north into the Atlantic with a band of monks he visited a number of places including the Island of Sheep. One of the possible meanings of the name of the Faroes is that it derives from the Old Norse words for “sheep islands”

The traditional date for the Norse settlement is 825 and this would work well the discussions above and a history of earlier Irish settlers displaced by the Norse around that time. If Grim did exist then this was almost certainly earlier than the reign of King Harald.

The Saga itself only mentions the settlement briefly and is largely set much later – around the end of the 10^th century and its characters will feature in a later post.

One purpose of this short article is to note that the Faroes, closer to the Northern Isles and mainland Scotland than to Norway, were being colonised by the Norse at around the same time  as the Viking onslaught on Britain and Ireland[9] and as Constantine, the King of Picts, was in power – Constantine died in 820, as related in a previous post Constantin, son of Uurguist/son of Fergus . I will return soon to events taking place in northern Britain among the Pictish, British, Anglo-Saxon, Irish and Dal Riadan nations, but the focus of this Northern Tapestry will start to expand a little too as we cover the 9^th century.

---

[1] “Madr er nefnndr Grimr kamban hann bygde fystr Færeyiar a dỏgum Haralldz hins harfagra. þa flydu firir hans ofriki fiolde manna. settuzst sumir j Færeyium ok bygdu þar en sumir leitudu til annarra eydelanda”. The original Old Norse text can be found at Færeyinga saga (Flateyjarbók) – heimskringla.no

[2] “Helgi gaf Auðuni rotin, syni Þórólfs smiörs, Þorsteins s(onar) skrofa, Grims sonar kambans, Helgu d(ottur) sína, ok land upp frá Hálsi til Villingadals” – chapter 232(198) https://archive.org/details/landnmabkiiiiha00dengoog/page/n264/mode/2up

[3] Chapter 19 – https://archive.org/details/landnmabkiiiiha00dengoog/page/n80/mode/2up

[4] Chapter 5 – https://archive.org/details/landnmabkiiiiha00dengoog/page/n72/mode/2up

[5] De Mensura Orbis Terrae 7.15  – available at https://archive.org/details/dicvililiberdem00dicugoog/page/n64/mode/2up?ref=ol&view=theater

[6] See “The Norse Settlement of the Faroe Islands” by Sverri Dahl, available at 4145vol14_1970journalmedievalarchaeology87475.rdo (archaeologydataservice.ac.uk)

[7] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-59683287 (2021)

[8] An alternative suggestion is that this nickname alluded to sporting prowess; quite a contrast from being “lame” – see, Liv Kjørsvik Schei &, Gunnie Moberg: The Faroe Islands (2003), p19

[9] See also Arrival of the Northmen – The Northern Tapestry