CHAPTER FORTY-TWO ( 1 )

THE FAROE ISLANDS

Símun V. Arge

T

he Faroe Islands are located in the North Atlantic at the latitudes of 62 °N and
7 °W almost midway between Norway, Iceland and Scotland; the closest neighbour
is Shetland, 300 km to the south-east. The Faroes consist of eighteen islands, separated
by narrow fjords and sounds, seventeen of which are inhabited. The islands are approxi-
mately 14 , 000 km^2. The longest distance from north to south is 118 km, and east to
west 79 km. The climate can be described as wet, windy and relatively mild, which is
caused by the island’s position within the Gulf Stream.
When the first settlers arrived at the islands in the ninth century they were met with
a natural vegetation characterised by grasses, sedges and ericaceous shrubs. Woodland –
small populations of juniper and tree birch – seem to have been of minor importance. In
other words, the landscape has been rather similar to what we see today (Lawson et al.
2005 ). The topography of the islands has limited the settlements mainly to the coastal
strip along the sounds and by the fjords.

SETTLEMENT

The first professional archaeological excavation in the Faroes took place as late as 1941.
Through this excavation, remains from the islands’ early history were brought to light
for the very first time. Ever since, this site, located in the village of Kvívík on Streymoy,
has been regarded as the classic example of a Faroese Viking farm: a longhouse (the
dwelling), c. 20 m long with a central hearth and earthen benches along the long curved
side walls made of stone and earth; the roof was carried on two rows of posts. Beside the
dwelling there was a shorter house, which in a modified version was built as a byre,
capable of holding about a dozen cattle in the winter. Stalls were allocated along each
side wall and a drain ran down the centre of the structure. A recent reanalysis of the
excavation has altered this interpretation (Dahl 1951 ; Matras 2005 ). Furthermore,
the abundance of artefacts found told about the daily life at the farm and about links to
the outside world.
Characteristic for the investigation at Kvívík was that most attention was paid to
the oldest phases on the site – the Viking Age. That’s why layers from younger periods
were not really taken into account. In Kvívík it was obvious that the Viking layers were