- Færeyinga Saga
The Færeyinga Saga, the
Norse saga of Faroemen, is the story of how theFaroes were converted toChristianity and became a part of theKingdom of Norway .It was written inIceland shortly after1200 . The author is unknown and the original manuscript is lost to history, but passages of the original manuscript have been copied in other sagas, especially in three manuscripts: "Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar ",Flateyjarbók , and a manuscript registered asAM 62 fol .The different sagas differ somewhat on the first settlement of Faroe. Historians have understood from the beginning of Færeyinga Saga in
Flateyjarbók thatGrímur Kamban settled in "Faroe" when Harald Hårfagre was king ofNorway . This does not correspond with the writings ofDicuil .However, the version from "Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar" does correspond with the writings of
Dicuil . The opening text is as follows::"There was a man named Grímr Kamban; He first settled in Faroe. But in the days of Harold Fairhair many men fled before the king’s overbearing."
The first man to settle in Faroe is, according to this text,
Grímr Kamban , a man with a Norse first name and an Irish last name. This suggests that he might come from settlements to the south in theBritish Isles . He most probably was not Norwegian.The text says that many men fled from
Norway when Harald Hårfagre was king there. But it also says that the isles were settled before that (possibly for hundreds of years, although most historians do not think so).The Norwegians who fled from Harald Hårfagre must have known about the isles before leaving Norway. If Grímr Kamban settled some time before, this could explain the Norwegians knowing about Faroe.
According to
Dicuil ,Irish monks (papar ) lived in Faroe beforeVikings came from Norway.References
*Debes, Hans Jacob. "Føroya søga 1. Norðurlond og Føroyar." pp. 89-100. Føroya skúlabókagrunnur 1990.
External links
* [http://www.sagadb.org/faereyinga_saga.en Full text in Icelandic and English translation at the Icelandic Saga Database]
* [http://www.heimskringla.no/islandsk/sagaer/faereyingasaga/index.php heimskringla.no - Færeyinga saga] (Icelandic)
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