The early history of the Faroe Islands…
999 CE
The early history of the Faroe Islands is not well known.
Saint Brendan, who lived circa 484–578, is said to have sailed past the Faroe Islands on two or three occasions (512-530), naming two of the islands Sheep Island and Paradise Island of Birds.
Irish hermits (monks) had settled around the end of the seventh century, introducing sheep and oats and the early Irish language to the islands.
As these monks were celibate and lived in all-male communities, their populations were not self sustaining.
Little is known about Faroese history up until the fourteenth century.
The main historical source for this period is the thirteenth century work Færeyinga Saga (Saga of the Faroese), and it is disputed as to how much of this work is historical fact.
According to the Færeyinga Saga, emigrants who had left Norway to escape the tyranny of Harald I of Norway had settled in the islands about the beginning of the ninth century.
The settlers are not thought to have come directly from Norway, but rather from Shetland and Orkney, and Norse-Gaels from the areas surrounding the Irish Sea and Western Isles of Scotland.
Late in the century, Sigmundur Brestisson, whose family had flourished in the southern islands but had been almost exterminated by invaders from the north, had been sent back to the Faroe Islands, from whence he had escaped, to take possession of the islands for Olaf Tryggvason, king of Norway.
Sigmundur had been the first Faroe-man to convert to the Christian faith, bringing Christianity to the Faroes at the decree of Olaf Tryggvason.
Initially, Sigmundur had sought to convert the islanders by reading the decree to the Alting in Tórshavn, but had nearly killed by the resulting angry mob.
He now changes his tactics, goes with armed men to the residence of the chieftain Tróndur í Gøtu, breaks into his house by night, and offers him the choice between Christianity or beheading.
Tróndur chooses Christianity.
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