The Faroe Islands are a North Atlantic archipelago located 320 kilometres north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway between Norway and Iceland. The islands have a total area of about 1,400 square kilometres with a population of 52,703 as of September 2020. Despite only having one laureate, the Faroes currently have the most Nobel laureates per capita worldwide.
About Faroe Islands in brief
The Faroe Islands are a North Atlantic archipelago located 320 kilometres north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway between Norway and Iceland. It is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. The islands have a total area of about 1,400 square kilometres with a population of 52,703 as of September 2020. Archaeological evidence shows settlers living on the Faroe islands in two successive periods before the Norse arrived. Despite only having one laureate, the Faroes currently have the most Nobel laureates per capita worldwide. In Faroese, the name appears as Føroyar. In English, it may be seen as redundant to say the Faro Islands, since the oe comes from an element meaning ‘island’. The name is also sometimes spelled ‘Faeroe’, which means ‘Islands of Sheep’ in Danish. The Faroes have an extensive bilateral free trade agreement with Iceland, known as the Hoyvík Agreement. In the Nordic Council, they are represented as part of the Danish delegation. In certain sports, theFaroe Islands field their own national teams. The country has an independent trade policy, and can establish trade agreements with other states. A Latin description of insulae includes a account of a voyage made by Brendan, an Irish monastic saint who lived around 48–4578, resembling a Faroe Island.
This is far from conclusive in its description of the islands, however, and an Irish monk, Dicuil, wrote a more definite account of them in the ninth century. According to the Icelandic sagas such as Freyas Saga, one of the best known men, Fjarjar, lived on the northerly islands of Britain for almost a hundred years until the arrival of Norse pirates in c 800, bringing Old Norsemen. In his work De mensura mensur, he claimed he had reliable information of heremitrae terrae exmitae nostrae, or ‘heremitra exmitra nostraes nostra’ (‘here is the land of the north-northerly islanders’), which he called the ‘Faroes’ The name could then have been passed on to the Norwegian settlers, who then added oyar. The name thus translates as either “Island of Fearrann’ or � “estate”. The first element, før, may reflect an Old Norse word fær, although this analysis is sometimes disputed because Faroeese now uses the word seyður to mean ‘sheep’ In Danish, the word Færøerne contains the same elements, though øerne is the definite plural of ø. This is seen in the BBC Shipping Forecast, where the waters around the islands are called Faeroes, the name is sometimes spelled Faeroes.
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This page is based on the article Faroe Islands published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 07, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
