Faroe Islanders

Faroese people
*føroyingar*
	Faroese folk dancers in national costumes
Total population
	c. 70,000
Regions with significant populations
Faroe Islands	≈50,000
Denmark	21,687
Norway	1,981[dubious – discuss]
Languages
	Faroese; Danish (Gøtudanskt)
Religion
	Lutheranism (Church of the Faroe Islands); Historically also the Norse religion and Roman Catholicism (1000–1538)
Related ethnic groups
	Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, Icelanders, Celts, Orcadians, Shetlanders

Faroese people or Faroe Islanders (Faroese: føroyingar; Danish: færinger) are an ethnic group native to the Faroe Islands.^[4] The Faroese are of mixed Norse and Gaelic origins.^[5] About 21,000 Faroese live in neighbouring countries, particularly in Denmark, Iceland and Norway. Most Faroese are citizens of the Kingdom of Denmark, in which the Faroe Islands are a constituent nation. The Faroese language is one of the North Germanic languages and is closely related to Icelandic and to western Norwegian varieties.

Origins

Elderly Faroese couple in the 1940s, wearing their traditional 'Sunday dress' for Church

The first known settlers of the Faroe Islands were Gaelic hermits and monks who arrived in the 6th century.^[6]

The Norse-Gaels started going to the island in the ninth century; they brought Norse culture and language to the islands with them. Little is known about this period, thus giving room for speculation. A single source mentions early settlement, the Icelandic Færeyinga saga. It was written sometime around 1200 and explains events taking place approximately 300 years prior. According to the saga, many Norsemen objected to the Norwegian king's unification politics and thus fled to other countries, including the newfound places in the west.^{[citation needed]}

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 sometime earlier, this could explain the Norwegians' knowledge of them. Another, more logical explanation might be that the Gaels of Scotland and Ireland told the Norwegians of the islands.^{[citation needed]}

While Grímur is an Old Norse first name, Kamban indicates a Celtic origin. Thus, he could have been a man from Ireland, Scotland 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.

Y chromosomes, tracing male descent, are 87% Scandinavian,^[7] but mitochondrial DNA, tracing female descent, is 84% Celtic.^[5]

References

^ According to a 2009 estimate, the population of the Faroe Islands was 49,000, ~92% of that population was Faroese born, which is approximately 45,000. (See demographics of the Faroe Islands)
^ Politiken Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, 2006 (newspaper written in Danish)
^ "Table 5 Persons with immigrant background by immigration category, country background and sex. 1 January 2009". www.ssb.no. Archived from the original on 20 August 2020. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
^ Minahan, James (2000). One Europe, many nations: a historical dictionary of European national groups. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 769. ISBN 0313309841. Archived from the original on 16 January 2023. Retrieved 25 May 2013.
^ ^a ^b Als, T. D.; Jorgensen, T. H.; Børglum, A. D.; Petersen, P. A.; Mors, O.; Wang, A. G. (2006). "Highly discrepant proportions of female and male Scandinavian and British Isles ancestry within the isolated population of the Faroe Islands". European Journal of Human Genetics. 14 (4): 497–504. doi:10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201578. PMID 16434998.
^ "20 things you didn't know about The Faroe Islands – BelfastTelegraph.co.uk". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 1 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
^ Jorgensen, T. H.; Buttenschön, H. N.; Wang, A. G.; Als, T. D.; Børglum, A. D.; Ewald, H. (2004). "The origin of the isolated population of the Faroe Islands investigated using Y chromosomal markers". Human Genetics. 115 (1): 19–28. doi:10.1007/s00439-004-1117-7. PMID 15083358. S2CID 6040039.

Authority control databases
International	FAST
National	United States Israel

Faroe Islanders

Origins

See also

References

Further reading