Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1991, Page 22

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PROBLEMS CONCERNING THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENT .
culture, especially manifest in the lang-
uage, must be considered to be of a later
date, and without any connection with the
»Imrama«, the voyages of devout Christi-
ans seeking solitude for contemplation
while awarting a better World in the sense
of eternity,11 or, searching for Paradise in
its physical, earthly, sense.
The presence in Faroese waters of Basq-
ue fishermen or whalers, at this point of
time, must left for further research.12
Færeyinga Saga
Until recently traditional works on the ear-
ly history of the Faroe Islands have conn-
ected the first Norse settlement with King
Harald Fairfair’s seizure of power in the
last years of the 9th century. The main so-
urce for this supposition was Færeyinga
saga, written in Iceland, probably on the
basis of old oral tradition, at about 1220,
preserved and handed down to the present
as fragments of other sagas.13 Færeyinga
saga relates nothing about any earlier Irish
settlement — as do, in the case of Iceland,
tslendingabók and Landnámabók.14
The main theme in Færeyinga saga is
not the question of the Faroese landnám,
but the efforts made by Norwegian kings
to extend their powers also to comprise
the Faroe Islands, practicing a talented di-
vide and rule policy among the families of
chiefs. But the saga mentions by name the
first man who settled in the islands, Grímr
Kamban — the first name significantly be-
ing of Norse, the second of Scottish-Gaelic
origin.15 The fact that Landnámabók co-
unts Grímr’s grandson among the first
colonists in Iceland spoils the chronology
of the saga - and the traditional Icelandic
casual relations at large.16
Recent studies in the saga material have
made new interpretations possible and cre-
dible, thus eliminating all sure evidence of
simultaneous Norwegian settlements in
the Faroe Islands and Iceland.17
It has been pointed out by Dr Ólafur
Halldórsson, in his significant new edition
of Færeyinga saga, that this saga had been
preserved for a long time in oral tradition
before it was written down.18 Neverthe-
less, there are so many correct references,
especially geographical terms, to the Faroe
Islands, that it must somehow have had a
Faroese background. Chronologically it
can date the coming of the first Faroese
Landnám-man back to about or a little
after 800. We are then in good harmony
with Dicuil’s dating of the coming of the
first Norse or Norwegian »invaders. Dr
Halldórsson’s well-founded choice of the
version of Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar instead
of that of Flateyjarbók as the source about
the first settlement has thus eliminated a
logical historical vacuum, with allowances
to traditional inaccuracies in Medieval
historical chronology. So, from the point
of a historian, the coming of the Norsemen
can still be dated to about 800.
As in most, perhaps all, countries, what
might be called archaeological interest in
the 19th century began among persons,
amateurs, in the Age of Romanticism and
awakening nationalism.19 Perhaps things
were done from idealistic and nationalistic
inspiration that were better never done.20
Professional Faroese archaeology only
started in the early 1940’s by the late
Sverri Dahl.
By his research, especially at the villages
of Kvívík and Tjørnuvík, archaeology mo-