add site
services
publishers
database
health videos
toolbar
stats
live show
health store
more stuff
JOIN/LOGIN
| advertise add site services publishers database health videos
| | about toolbar stats live show health store more stuff JOIN/LOGIN |
The Faroese or Faroe Islanders (Føroyingar) are the people of the Faroe Islands in Northern Europe of Celtic and Norse origins.[4] About 21,000 Faroese live in neighbouring countries, particularly in Denmark, Iceland and Norway. The Faroese language is a West Nordic language, closely related to Icelandic and more distantly to western Norwegian dialects.
[edit] Origins The first colonists were Gaelic hermits and monks who arrived in the 6th century. Later from around 650 the Norse-Gaels came and brought Norse culture and language to the islands. Little is known about this period, thus giving room for speculation. A single source mentions early settlement, the Icelandic Færeyinga Saga. It was written somewhere around 1200, and it explains events taking place about 300 years earlier. According to the saga, many Norsemen objected the Norwegian king's unification politics and thus fled to other countries, including the new found places in the west. Historians have understood since the time of the Færeyinga Saga that the Viking Grímur Kamban was the first settler in the Faroes. The Norwegians must have known about the isles before leaving Norway. If Grímur Kamban had settled some time earlier, this could explain the Norwegians knowing about them. Anorther and more logical explanation might be that the Norwegians became to know about the islands by the Gaels of Scotland and Ireland. While Grímur is an Old Norse first name, Kamban indicates a Celtic origin. Thus he could have been a man from Ireland, Western Isles or Isle of Man, where the Vikings already had settlements. Some place names from the oldest settlements on the Faroes suggest that some of the settlers perhaps came from the Scottish islands and the British coast. Recent DNA analyses have revealed that Y chromosomes, tracing male descent, are 87% Scandinavian.[5] The studies show that mitochondrial DNA, tracing female descent, is 84% Scottish / Irish.[6] [edit] Population trendsAn investigation from 2006 by the North Atlantic Group in the Parliament of Denmark, shows that 45% of the entire Faroese population choose to leave the Faroe Islands to settle down in Denmark. Most of them are the younger generation and women.[2] [edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ↑ top of page ↑ | about thumbshots |
