Faroese literature

The literature of the Faroe Islands (Faroese literature) displays a unique combination of historical tradition and relatively modern novelty. While the Faroese oral tradition has a centuries-long footprint, written compositions only became an entrenched feature of the nation's literature in the relatively recent past. A standardized orthography of the Faroese language was not established until the mid-nineteenth century, after which a written body of distinctively Faroese literature began to evolve. Before these developments, the written literature of the Faroe Islands was presented almost exclusively in Danish.

Since its modern inception, Faroese literature has quickly expanded to include well-established forms of drama, poetry, short stories, and novels. This trend accelerated after Faroese was elevated to official status in the Faroe Islands, which provided a catalyst for the emergence of a vastly broadened and diverse corpus of literary work. Though some contemporary Faroese authors continue to draw on the islands' unique oral and cultural traditions in developing unique forms of literary expression, others have integrated the broader generic and stylistic influences characteristic of the Western literary world.

Background

The Faroe Islands are a group of eighteen islands situated in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Iceland and Norway, and about 200 miles (322 kilometers) north of Scotland. Originally explored by seafaring monks from Ireland in the sixth century, the Faroe Islands were permanently settled by Norwegian Vikings in the ninth century. The name "Faroe Islands" originates from Old Norse and translates as "sheep islands," echoing the observations of the Irish monks who first explored the Faroe Islands and referred to them as the "islands of the sheep and a paradise of birds."

Given the islands' strategic position in cultural Scandinavia, a succession of ancient Norwegian kings attempted to overtake the Faroe Islands, finally succeeding in the twelfth century. The Faroe Islands became part of Norway, which entered into a union with Denmark in the fourteenth century. In the early nineteenth century, Norway left the Norwegian-Danish dual monarchy to form a union with Sweden. Under the terms of the dissolution of the Norwegian-Danish union, Denmark retained control of the Faroe Islands. Recognizing the islands' distinct culture, language, and history, Denmark later granted special constitutional status to the Faroe Islands, and in 1948, the islands became a self-governing polity within the Kingdom of Denmark with Faroese holding official language status alongside Danish.

The Faroese language evolved from the dialect of Old Norse spoken by the islands' original Viking inhabitants. Faroese belongs to the North Germanic language family and bears significant similarities to the Norwegian dialects spoken in western Norway and to Icelandic. However, because of the Faroe Islands' isolated location, Faroese developed independently. The written Faroese language displays high levels of mutual intelligibility with Icelandic, but the spoken Faroese tongue is unique and not readily understood by native speakers of other Scandinavian languages.

Early forms of written Faroese date to at least the fourteenth century, but in 1536, Danish officials banned the use of the Faroese language in public life and instituted Danish in its place. The local population continued to speak Faroese but because of the Danish language policy, Faroese lacked a standard written form until the mid-nineteenth century.

In 1854, the Faroese religious official and folklorist Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb (1819–1909) published a grammar manual that established a standardized Faroese orthography. Hammershaimb's orthography accounted for the significant shifts in pronunciation that had occurred since written Faroese had gone into decline while also preserving the Old Norse etymology of Faroese vocabulary. The adoption of Hammershaimb's writing system contributed to a general cultural reclamation movement among the Faroese people, which gained momentum during the late nineteenth century and inspired the beginnings of the modern Faroese literary tradition.

Overview

Before the 1854 orthographic standardization of modern Faroese, virtually all the indigenous literature of the Faroe Islands circulated through oral traditions. Notable exceptions include popular fables and historical sagas, with written versions of such works dating to the fourteenth century. The Faroese oral tradition primarily included poetic forms such as rhythmic verse-based rhymes and lyrical ballads, and narrative forms such as legends and folk tales. Traditional Faroese epics combined verse-form and narrative elements, with their content generally focusing on legendary figures such as Siegfried (Sigurd), a Norse mythological hero who rose to fame for incredible feats of dragon-slaying and treasure-hunting.

The nineteenth-century Faroese cultural awakening also had a political dimension, reflected in the nationalistic character of the poetry that emerged in the years following the 1854 orthographic standardization of modern Faroese. As the nineteenth century progressed, poetry remained the dominant form of emerging Faroese literature. Scholars generally recognize the poet Jens H.O. Djurhuus (1881–1948) as the first Faroese writer to earn recognition from the international literary community. Djurhuus primarily worked in rhetorical verse-forms, while his brother Hans Andrias Djurhuus (1883–1951) achieved a high profile within the Faroe Islands for his poems, folktales, and works of drama that drew heavily from established Faroese mythological and folkloric traditions.

After the turn of the twentieth century, Faroese literature began to mature and evolve into diversified literary forms. Scholarly sources recognize Bábelstornið (The Tower of Babel), written by Rasmus Rasmussen (1871–1962) and published in 1909, as the first true Faroese novel. During the 1930s, five Faroese authors emerged as the leading figures of the nation's fast-growing literary scene, dominating literary production until the middle of the twentieth century. This group included William Heinesen (1900–1991), Jørgen-Frantz Jacobsen (1900–1938), Christian Matras (1900–1988), Martin Joensen (1902–1966), and Hans Jakob Jacobsen, also known by the nickname Heðin Brú (1901–1987). Heinesen and Jørgen-Frantz Jacobsen wrote in Danish, while Matras, Joensen, and Hans Jakob Jacobsen worked exclusively in Faroese. Some scholars and observers refer to their period of collective activity as the "golden age" of Faroese literature. Heinesen, in particular, is credited with bringing Faroese literature to the notice of the broader international literary community and was awarded the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 1965 for his historical epistolary novel Det gode håb (1964; The Good Hope).

From their beginnings in the early years of the twentieth century until about the 1970s, Faroese novelists mainly operated within the confines of naturalistic realism and explored themes related to the evolving Faroese identity. After 1970, Faroese novelists adopted more subjective techniques and personal subjects, reflecting similar movements that came into vogue among mainstream European novelists of the era.

Faroese poetry underwent a similar shift, which began during the 1960s. Before the 1960s, Faroese poets tended to draw inspiration from historical subjects and the islands' mythological and folkloric traditions while working in personal yet formalized styles emblematic of Romanticism. The poetic shift of the 1960s saw Faroese authors adopt more innovative and modern forms, with Karsten Hoydal (1912–1990) earning recognition as one of the Faroe Islands' first native poets to adopt the inventive techniques popular among the leading poets of his contemporary international literary scene. Others, including Regin Dahl (1918–2007) and Steinbjørn B. Jacobsen (1937–2012), pushed their experimental techniques farther than many of their Faroese contemporaries, earning comparisons to leading figures of Western avant-garde poetics such as Ezra Pound (1885–1972).

Overall, modern Faroese authors have generally migrated toward poetry in greater numbers and have displayed a distinct tendency to draw on the long-established oral traditions of the Faroe Islands in their meter, rhythm, and rhyme strategies. The stylistic trappings of both modernism and postmodernism, which came to dominate Western literature in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, have also been imported into contemporary Faroese literature. Notable works of Faroese literature since the turn of the twenty-first century include the critically acclaimed 2005 novel Ó–Søgur um djevulskap (Un–Tales of Devilry) by Carl Jóhan Jensen (1957– ) and the 2004 children's book Ein hundur ein ketta og ein mús (A Dog, a Cat, and a Mouse) by Bárður Oskarsson (1972– ), which was subsequently translated into French, Icelandic, Danish, and Norwegian.

Despite the now well-established literary scene of the Faroe Islands, many Faroese authors have struggled to achieve sustainable commercial success. As the Faroese poet Oddfríður Marni Rasmussen (1969- ) noted upon being nominated for the 2020 Nordic Council Literature Prize, only a very small number of Faroese authors can earn a living solely from their literary output. Those who do are heavily reliant on translations and sales in the international market, a dynamic observers describe as having a significant influence on the stylistic and subject-matter choices of contemporary Faroese writers.

Still, several contempoary Faroese authors have achieved success. Rakel Helmsdal (1966-) is known internationally for her novels, children's books, and short stories. Helmsdal’s 2014 work Hon, sum róði eftir ælaboganum (The Girl Who Rowed Towards the Rainbow) won the 2016 West Nordic Council's Children and Youth Literature Prize. Other works in her catalog have been nominated for awards, such as the Nordic Council Children and Young People's Literature Prize and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Other notable contemporary Faroese authors include Marjun Syderbø Kjelnæs (1974-), a poet, playwright, and novelist, and Oddvør Johansen (1941-), whose epic novels draw from modern Faroese history.

Bibliography

Chamsaz, Pardaad. "This Grain of Sand Is Nevertheless a Whole World: Literature of the Faroes." British Library European Studies Blog, 20 Apr. 2020, blogs.bl.uk/european/2020/04/this-grain-of-sand-is-nevertheless-a-whole-world-literature-of-the-faroes.html. Accessed 2 Nov. 2024.

"Faroese Literature - A Historical Overview." FarLit, www.farlit.fo/about-farlit/faroese-literature-a-historical-overview. Accessed 2 Nov. 2024.

"Fog Swept Islands: Literature from the Faroe Islands." Scandinavia House, www.scandinaviahouse.org/sh/lectures-literary/literature-from-the-faroe-islands-do-we-leave-any-traces-at-all. Accessed 2 Nov. 2024.

"History of the Faroe Islands." Visit Faroe Islands, visitfaroeislands.com/en/about-vfi/history-governance-economy/history-of-the-faroe-islands. Accessed 2 Nov. 2024.

Marnersdóttir, Malan. "An Overview of Faroese literature." nordics.info, 8 May 2024, nordics.info/nnl/show/artikel/faroese-literature. Accessed 2 Nov. 2024.

"Rakel Helmsdal." FarLit, www.farlit.fo/authors/rakel-helmsdal. Accessed 2 Nov. 2024.

Sondrup, Steven P., et al. Nordic Literature: A Comparative History, Volume I: Spatial Nodes. John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2017, pp. 173–186.