© SPIN and the author
www.spinnet.eu
Do not quote without
Networks in the Making of Faroese Literature
-Hammersheimb, Schrøter and Lyngbye - mapping the dynamics of social ambience,
institutional infrastructure and cultural practice around the publication of “Færøiske
Qvæder om Sigurd Fafnersbane” in 1822.
Kim Simonsen, University of Roskilde
(The figures attached to this paper can be found in an additional Pdf file)
This paper deals with three clerics of the early 19th Century, and their roles in regards to, the creation of
Faroese language and literature. The main argument - and theoretical outline of this paper - is on the
construction of a 19th Century cultural saint in the Faroese priest Hammersheimb, that large networks
of early philologists and clergymen are overlooked by Faroese memory politics – following the master
narrative of the Faroese nationbuilding, starting with 1846, when Hammersheimb ‘created’2 the Faroese
written language. But we need to put on another frame of perspectives to explain and map the dynamics of
the rediscovery of Faroese letters and language brought about by early networks of cultural nationalists,
most of them clerics. Here I will go back to the case of the 1822 publication of the “The Sigurd
Ballads”, because as we know with the Kalevala epic from Finland and the Icelandic sagas, that these
became a political force in this time. The creation of Finishness was also connected to the publication of
oral epic by first Swedish scholars – later the Swedish-speaking romantics were sidelined in Finnish
memory. My argument is that this is also the case of the early networks of cultural nationalists, many of
these Danish clerics created the institutional infrastructure and social ambience that gave birth to Faroese
letters in Copenhagen. But Hammersheimb is still the one commemorated on banknotes, monuments,
stamps and in official commemorative events as a true cultural saint, by leading poets like J.H.O.
Djurhuus while still alive. But he had help from prior network of mainly clerics that paved the way.
(Figure 1)
When looking at the time around the 1820's, the Danish student of theology, Hans
Christian Lyngbye (1782-1837) came to the Faroe Islands to investigate seaweeds in
1817i. He met the Faroe scholar J.C. Svabo (1746-1824)ii who taught him some Faroese.
This helped Lyngbye to write down folk ballads. He showed this material to Peter
Erasmus Müller (1776-1834) bishop and professor of theology at Copenhagen University
where they were a great sensation. As many a clergyman of his time, Müller was
1
© SPIN and the author
www.spinnet.eu
Do not quote without
interested in the study of ancient Scandinavian literature, and he was able to see, that they
contained The Völsungasagaiii in a hitherto unknown sung formiv. Müller was as a leading
clergyman in Denmark, a remarkable great scholar of ancient Scandinavian literature.
Between 1817-20 he published the Saga Library: “Sagabibliothek med Anmærkninger og
indledende Afhandlinger” 1-3.vol. He made Lyngbye publish these, with the help from the
publisher, activist, cultural nationalist and professor Carl Christian Rafn (1795-1864). The
clergyman Amtsprovst Peter Hentze in the Faroes was also involved after Müller
contacted him. Later we can read in a letter written by the priest H.R.L. Jensen of Sandoy
on Hentze: ”When he undertok the job to collect folksongs, this man did it, because he
had such a respect for the ”republic of letters”. (From: Dansk Folkemindesamling (187176)). The ballad collector, priest and translator Johan Henrik Schrøter from Suðuroy was
also involved.
(Figure 2)
Prof. Müller in Copenhagen made the way for this book by gettig 500 rigsbanksdaler
from a Royal Grant (Grundtvig, 1882, p. 362). It was printed by Rafn.
The Deep Freezer of Literature
(Figure 3)
In 1822, the world saw the publication of ”Færøiske Qvæder om Sigurd Fafnersbane og hans
Æt”. (Faroese Folk Ballads about Sigurd, Bane of Fafner, and his Family).This book was
the first book printed in Faroese. It is also the most important book and it has had the
most influence on establishing Faroese letters in the first place. Here the Faroe Islands
get a part of the same status as Iceland, as being a deep freezer of language and older
oral literature. What happened here, can not be explained, as we see Faroese historians
and Literary scholars and other scholars dov as just an early account and interest in
Faroese antiquarianism and language as a by-product of a Danish national romantic
awareness not leading to the later emergence of Faroese literature later in 1888. Because
Faroese Nationalism is often dated to the 25th of December 1888 where a meeting took
place in the courthouse of Torshavn, that later was termed The Christmas Meeting. This
meeting has also been made synonymous with the beginning of Faroese Literature
(Debes, 1983).
(Figure 4)
2
© SPIN and the author
www.spinnet.eu
Do not quote without
It is a complex notion involving many actors (as we already have seen, with different
agencies and agendas that lies behind the social importance of the invention of the
ballads of Sigurd as a later Faroese national treasure and the (full) notion of these ballads
as the flagship of the Faroese literature. Therefore we first must look into some
definitions of cultural nationalism. Following Hroch and more so, Leerssen and his
methodological unique use of comparative literary studies to be able to make very general
models of dynamics, transfer and exchange in order to explain the range of for example
the publication of the vernacular literatures in Europe and see these as a part of the
nation-building process. In many cases these nation-building processes, in a time when
Europe was witnessing the break up of the ancient regime and its reconstruction into a
system of nations, lead to new nationalist or autonomist separatist movements (Leerseen,
p. 22, 2008). And new power elites – sometimes fighting over the right to define the
culture, language and the new more national version of the republic of letters – as we see
in the Faroese case.
(Figure 5)
Leerssen has proposed a matrix – which details I can not go into:
(Figure 6)
This matrix is useful in order to differentiate and situate our ideas concerning cultural
nationalism in Europevi. The dynamics of the model can be understood as in for example
folksong or saga collecting in one country like Iceland or in Scotland (Ossian) can be
positioned against language revivalism or Faroese publications of ballads. It is useful to
rescue the topic of cultural nationalism from a vague “all that sort of background stuff”
status. We can actually trace developments, influences and networks across cultural fields
and across the European map.
Social Ambience and Institutional Infrastructure
If we go back to the institutional infrastructure of the Sigurd ballads (I). Müller himself
led the work and found the money for the edition of the Sigurd ballads. Lyngbye
somehow got to much credit for it – his greatest work was in his Famous book on
Faroese Seaweeds. An according to many scholars, his manuscript to the Sigurd Ballads
collection are written and collected by the priest Schrøter (Matras, 1935).
3
© SPIN and the author
www.spinnet.eu
Do not quote without
(Figure 7)
The priest Schrøter is worth a couple of notes. He was of German and Faroese decent.
In his childhood in Torshavn, he spoke German, English, Faroese and Dano-faroese.
He was the priest of Suðuroy, but was soon to be relieved from duty as a younger man
with a full pension – probably because of his conduct as a servant of the state was not
always in the realms of what was accepted. He had a child out of wedlock, and he used
more time as a trader on the black marked, than as a priest. He was educated in
Copenhagen and throughout his life; he maintained a network of scholars in many
countries. The latter part of his life he was an eager farmer experimenting with new
forms of vegetables and cultivating great parts of the lands around the Capital. He is
most famous for his translation of the Gospel of St. Matthew published in 1823 (but on
its way from 1815) – that was rejected by the linguistic elites of the latter so powerful
historical etymological school of language in Scandinavia – people as P.A. Munch, Ivar
Aasen, Svend Grundtvig and V.U. Hammersheimb). The book was printed in 1500
copies and the 1300 of them were distributed to Faroese households, but the common
man felt uneasy with the everyday language and the use of known idioms. Some talked
about sacrilege of the holy word. People were only used to getting the Bible in Danish.
Schrøter was inspired by a sense of practicality that belonged to the prior enlightenment
era. He read Rasks book on Icelandic and Faroese, but did not agree with Rask, that
Faroese was an Icelandic dialect – and here Schrøter was right. People like
Hammersheimb reacted strongly against a Danish politician calling the Faroese language
a Danish Dialect, while he had no problem with Rask calling it an Icelandic dialect,
because Iceland – in the eyes of a national romantic – was a nation of noble Vikings with
an authentic language as pure and old as the latin of the North. Schrøters predecessor
was the great Faroese enlightment era scholar J.C. Svabo, that made a orthography,
that was straight forward and more phonetically founded, that the one Hammersheimb
has been credited for making later in 1846.
(Figure 8)
Schrøter was criticised for the Bible translation, but he was a strong spirit of a pioneer
and an impulsive man. He Talked to The Danish Bible Company about publishing more
translations, so he did not believe in his critics – even if they were the elites of that time
in Scandinavia.
4
© SPIN and the author
www.spinnet.eu
Do not quote without
Later he also undertook a great number of tasks, which were to cultivate Faroese culture
and letters. In Faroese memory, he is mostly remembered for recording ballads and for
the work on sagas and other stories – and also for being a somewhat of a fool, but here
we also see the historiography of the romantic nationalists like Hammersheimb and the
historical etymological paradigm come out of the battles over Faroese as winners. After
Hammersheimb put forward the first official Faroese orthography in 1846 – with
nationalists and linguists like Rask, Aasen and other prominent scholars leading the pen
– people like Svabo and Schrøter – and the early networks that worked on Faroese lost
their place in the coming Faroese Pantheon of men of letters – therefore these networks
are still overlooked and a mere footnote in Faroese history and letters. Svabo has had the
same misfortune – even if his dictionary is by far the best one in Faroese history and his
topography and collections of ballads are among the most important work on Faroese
letters ever. Svabo was caught in-between the old regime and the new emerging
romantic one. He did for example not believe in the survival of the Faroese language and
saw his work as recording something that was going to perish.
Hammersheimb
(Figure 9)
Hammersheimbs life and work is well described – even most of the accounts are
hagiographical. He came from a leading and an elite Faroese family- his father was the
last real Lagmand – or Bailiff on the Faroes. After Denmark dissembled the Lagting –
the Faroese Parliament. So the family went from greatness to more modest means, that
hurt Hammersheimb – so he writes in his memoires. He studies theology, but saw
Scandinavian philology as his true interest. Theology for Hammersheimb seems to have
been more a source of status and income. He lived at the Royal Collegium in
Copenhagen, where he became friends with leading Icelandic cultural nationalists as well
as Svend Grundtvig. After making a new etymological orthography for Faroese, he
published a great number of oral literature and translated or re-translated the Faroe Saga
and the Sigurd Ballads as well as making the first anthology of Faroese Letters – this
with the help of the younger Dr. Jacobsen – the first Faroese doctor of Scandinavian
philology.
5
© SPIN and the author
www.spinnet.eu
Do not quote without
Social ambience – Rask and Rafn
At the level of social ambience (S) we see great associations and publishing ventures as
well as reading societies emerge. If we for example look at the publisher of the Sigurd
ballads professor Rafn. He founded important publications like Annaler for nordisk
Oldkyndighed and Antiquarisk Tidskrift and many others. He worked together with the
most important scientists, scholars and philologists in Scandinavia as Rask. Rask was
interested in Icelandic from his youth. In 1816 he helped forming the Icelandic Literary
Union (Hið íslenska Bókmentafélag) and in 1818 the Library in Reykjavik (later
Landsbókasafn Islands).
(Figure 10)
He helped form Literary Societies on London, Iceland and in Copenhagen. His interest
in Faroese inspired and helped create the written Faroese language of 1846. He helped
Rafn in the translation of Faroe Saga. He was one of the leading inspirations behind the
Faroese Library (Thorshavns Læsebibliothek – Later Færo Amts Bibliotek –later
Landsbókasavnið in the 1820ies) – helping the Faroese Davidsen with many gifts of
books. Jákup Nolsøe the brother of the poet Nólsoyar Páll was central to creating a
living environment around the publication of Faroese Antiquarian Texts in the 1820ies.
He is mentioned and admired by Svend Grundtvig (Grundtvig, 1845, s. 73). He wrote
“Færøsk Sproglære”, that never was published, but was well known by Rask. Rafn also
worked with Finn Magnusen, Hammersheimb and others on Icelandic, old Nordic,
Faroese and even Greelandic culture and language. He worked with Rask during the
publication of important translations, text editions and publication of oral literature and
sagas. Rafn was also a founder of the Icelandic and the Faroese National Libraries. Later
other important scholars as Svend Grundtvig and J. Bloch worked great parts of their
lives on publishing Faroese ballads.vii Rafn was a eminent example of a 19th Century
cultural nationalist working on many fronts at the same timeviii in many languages and
creating strings of a global networks. Rafn published the edition of the Sigurd ballads – it
is fair to say that this book led to publications of other editions and thereby a creation of
a national discourse started not only in the realms of salvage, retrieval or inventory (1),
but also in (2) cultivation and (3) propagandation in the public sphere.
6
© SPIN and the author
www.spinnet.eu
Do not quote without
The Problem of Language
The publication also made it clear, that there was a need for a standardization of
orthography (L2). Or at least the etymologically inclined nationalists thought so. Svabo
created the first form of written Faroese, that later was used partly by Lyngbye in
“Færoyiske Qvæder…” and by Schrøter. These publications also drew Svabos dictionary
and life work out of the darkness, and later both Rask, Grundtvig and Bloch worked on
his manuscripts. The Sigurd ballads edition also created a growing interest in other
editions of older texts (D1). The same team, with Rask onboard, but without Müller and
Lyngbye, published old Faroese historical documents – like the Faro Saga in 1832. The
publication activated more than a salvage paradigm, but also cultivation and later has
lead to proclations in the public space –as for example monuments, names of public
spaces, sports and folklore.
(Figure 11)
If we look at the ballads in the light of the republic of letters. Why became the 1822
edition of the Sigurd ballads so important? The ballads were not so unknown as the
romantic’s later clamed - but it is a part of the romantic idea, to try to salvage ‘the last of
its kind’, and something ‘lost’ or ‘dying’ or forgotten. Svabo had submitted his
manuscripts to the Royal Library in the 18th Century and Lyngbye and Müller both
mention his work in the preface to the Sigurd ballads. Faroese ballads were published
before (Rask, Lyngbye, Worm 9, Peder Syv and others, and they are mentioned by other
Danish and Faroese clergimen as Debes, 1664, Tarnovius, Landt and others). When I use
the word ‘discovery’, I mean rediscovery, because Faroese literature was not in itself
invented around 1820. There were important publications prior to this, as the relative
large number of travel writing, scientific expeditions and their reports and Danish Royal
Funded topographiesix. We need to put on another frame of perspectives to explain this.
The Sigurd Ballads, as other epic tales, sagas or mystic tales known from for example
Finland as the Kalevala, the Icelandic sagas became a political force in this time. The
creation of Finishness was for example connected to the publication of oral epic by first
Sweedish scholars – later the Sweedish speaking romantics were sidelined – some moved
back to Sweeden. The publication and use of the legend Kalevala was inspired by
romantic philology, and its mythical material became the Finnish national epic and its
7
© SPIN and the author
www.spinnet.eu
Do not quote without
meaning for the Finns was like Homer to the Greek or Nibelungenlied for the Germans
(Leerssen 2004, p. 168-169). Due to the 19th Century’s explosive interest in the Icelandic
sagas, Iceland became a place of interest, not any more the ”end of the world” or a place
for devils, Iceland became a magnet, a new Jerusalem, Athens or Rome a place of
pilgrimage (Ísleifson, 2009 & http://www.inor.is/ (09.04.2010)).
In many ways it is possible to say, that the Faroese nationalism is a copy-cat
invention or a spin off from all these areas and previous colonies of Denmark. But in
other ways we need to consider and understand, what Benedict Anderson has called the
“philological-lexigraphic revolution” as a golden age of vernacularizing lexicographers,
grammarians, philologists and litterateurs (Anderson, p. 71, 1984). At this point the
theories of Herder (1744-1803) formulated in the late 18th Century were rapidly
disseminated. According to Casanova, Herder did not only propose a new way to put
aside the French hegemony in order to increase the value of German literature, but at the
time his activities enlarged literary space to include the European continent as a whole
(Casanova, 2004, p. 75). Casanova sees the dynamics of the republic of letters as a
competition and a fight over cultural capital - much as Bourdieu defines a cultural field
(Ibid. p. 358). The clerics were men of letters – even though many of them more in the
classical languages of the old regime– many of them like Schrøter were reluctant to go all
the way unborard the new romantic etymological and historical school – while others as
Hammersheimb saw their chance to benefit of these new currents.
Conclusion
Overthrowing the ‘ancient regime’ gave the theoretical basis for politically dominated
territories to move towards independence, here the link between language and nation,
and literature and the spirit of the people became the key to political existence in the
‘long nineteen Century’ – so it is fair to say, that the publication and the whole social
ambience of cultural nationalism and philology created – not only Faroese letters and
literature as we know it today – but the bases of the Faroese nationalism. The romantic
historicist use of history and memory of ancient times (middle ages) – and the
rediscovery and edition of oral literature, can be understood as a part of a battle over
literary status in the new republic of letters and as a part of the programme to create a
new start for emerging literatures. Even though the orthography of Svabo and the one
8
© SPIN and the author
www.spinnet.eu
Do not quote without
later used by Lyngbye and Schrøter became victims of vicious attacks from the romantic
organism paradigm, that lies within the historical etymological romantic language theory.
For smaller nations and postcolonial nations this programme is still a political
factor seen in national literary histories. Here we see that literature becomes a prime
source of national self-definition. This can also explain why Svabos collections of ballads
were never published and probably also why he lived a life of poverty. His timing was
not right – he made most of his work in the 1780iesx. Schrøters timing was not right for
the Bible translation. There was not the social ambience nor the institutional
infrastructure, because the Sigurd ballads needed to be lifted out of their context of
origin by a Danish professionalising philological intelligentsia –that mostly were clerics that recontextualised them for a more modern need inspired by the international
movement of cultural nationalism. They needed to get this new status and be recognized
as a part of the national symbolism of the herderian dynamics of cultural nationalismxi.
The Faroese nationalism did not just fall out as a separate political-national movement –
it was created through cultural nationalism and the cultivation of culture, most of all the
publication of oral literature and sagas that was undertaken mostly by clerics.
The notion, that Faroese Literature and nationalism was created in the Faroe
Islands in the period from 1876-1888 was created much later and used and performed as
an ideological master narrative creating coherence in the later ongoing construction of
Faroese Nation Building and Anti-Danish Memory Politics in the late 19th Century and
beyond as well as the idea that Faroese letters start with the codification of language and
Hammersheimb. Later Hammersheimb republished a new translation of both the Sigurd
ballads and the Faroese Saga in his own orthography, saying very little positive about
Lyngbye, Schrøter and his network. But he himself was later challenged by the younger
scholar Dr. Jacobsen, that made up a different phonetic orthography plunging Faroese
letters into a language war, that lasted over a 100 years. Confirming, what the AmericanNorwegian scholar Haugen stated, that language is the evil spirit of nation building –
here he probably thought of Norway?
The construction of long lasting masternarratives followed the same system as in
Finland, where Finnish literature and nationalism was created by Swedish networks of
scholars, later sidelined in Finish memory. When we see an institutional infrastructure
emerge we may see a social ambience lead to cultural practices as for example collections
9
© SPIN and the author
www.spinnet.eu
Do not quote without
and edition of oral literature, that again can lead to a grater palate of cultural cultivation,
salvage, inventory and assertion in the public spherexii.
What has been understudied and overlooked in the every aspect of the literary
history on the Faroe Islands is the social importance of the collection of oral literature
and collections and edition of old texts. There has never been made an attempt to map
the whole picture – or as here more of it - and the range of actors from university chairs,
libraries, academies to associations, publishing ventures, reading societies, periodicals and
to put all these together in a more complex map that can explain, visualize and put in
perspective the cultivation of culture in cultural nationalism and how the cultivation of
culture works, from one area to another. That these were these were a network of crossborder intellectuals creating a unique intellectual traffic that follows a chronology and a
dynamics of its own. Cultural nationalism is much more free floating and expansive field,
than later national movements in for example the Faroe Islands have suggested and by
doing so these traditions of nationalism have marginalized the true and genuine
transnational dynamics of the early 19th Century cultural nationalism.
To establish a standard language and a literature was therefore a way to claim
legitimacy of a nation and for a new state. Here literary deprived or nearly non existing
nations – as in the Faroese case - were given a new start in the competition over literary
space and prestige following the ‘Herder effect’. This programme was the tool for
invention of new literatures into the world republic of letters. In this way the herderian
notion of the genius of the people became a political weapon emphasising the
soulfulness of a people, where literary texts express the founding principle of the nation.
i
Lyngbye on the Faroes: Lyngbye, H. C. 1820: Noget om Færøerne, især om de der
brugelige Bryllupsskikke. Magasin for Rejseiagttagelser bd. 1. Here Lyngbye had the idea to
let the Faroese language “rent uddøe” (to die). See also Lyngbye, H. C. 1822: Færøiske
ývæder om Sigurd Fofnersbane og hans Æt. Med en Anhang. Samlede og oversatte af Hans
Christian Lyngbye. Med en Indledning af P. E. Müller. Randers.
ii
On Svabo: Svabo, J. C. 1939: Svabos færøske visehåndskrifter. Red. Chr. Matras.
København. Svabo, J. Chr. 1959: Indberetninger fra en Reise i Færøe 1781 og 1782. Red. N.
Djurhuus. København. His great contribution to Faroese letters come in tree: his dictionary,
his scientific topography on the Faroes and his many manuscripts of handwriting in his
collections of ballads.
10
© SPIN and the author
www.spinnet.eu
Do not quote without
iii
There are several differences in the plot of the Faroese Sigurd-ballads, compared to, for
example, the Icelandic Edda-lays and the German Niebelungen-lays. It is difficult to say, why
these differences appear, but there are indications, that the Faroese materials come from a
different source than the others. In Brynhilds Ballad and Högne’s Ballad, an ancient lay
called "Bragdar táttur", "The Lay of the Heroes", is mentioned as source for some of the
informations. It has been suggested, that this original lay was brought to the islands by the
first Norwegian settlers. Due to the isolated position of the islands, this ancient lay may have
survived until the middle of the thirteenth century, long after it had been forgotten in the rest
of the Norse countries.
iv
Se also his scholarly foreword to “Færøiske Qvæder…” Om de færøiske ývæders
Beskaffenhed og Ælde. I: Lyngbye 1822.
v
Jacobsen 1924, Matras 1935, Gaard 1991, Sigurdardóttir 1987, Debes, 1982 and others.
There should be reason to believe that everything has been written and studied around these
ballads, but no one has put them into a more literary sociological and historiographical
perspective. The literature on these ballads – the flagship of the Faroese literature by far - is
very excessive and comes from many scholarly disciplines and in many languages and has
its own bibliography (see my bibliography).
vi
But Leerssen stresses that these models are not in itself the framework of research, or an
total version where we can fill in our knowledge and get one result. But a facilitating
instrument.
vii
Some of the 19 th Centuries famous publications of Faroese ballads after Lyngbye:
Hammershaimb, V. U. 1847: Meddelelser fra en Rejse på Færøerne i 1847-48. Antiýuarisk
Tidsskrift, udgivet af Det kongelige nordiske Oldskrift-Selskab. 1846-1848. Kjøbenhavn.
Hammershaimb, V. U. 1851-55: Færöiske Kvæder, samlede og besørgede ved V. U.
Hammershaimb,
udgivne
af
det
nordiske
Litteratur-Samfund.
I-II.
Kjøbenhavn.
Hammershaimb, V. U. 1847: Olufas Kvad. I: Antiýuarisk Tidsskrift udgivet af Det Kongelige
Nordiske Oldskrift-Selskab 1846-48. København, s. 279-304. Hammershaimb, V. U. 1851:
Færöiske Kvæder. København. Hammershaimb, V. U. 1852: Færøske Kvæder, henhørende
til Hervarar Saga. I: Antiýuarisk Tidsskrift udgivet af Det Kongelige Nordiske OldskriftSelskab. København. 57-96. (Genoptrykt i 73-112 I: V. U. Hammershaimb: Savn. Emil
Thomsen 1969. Hammershaimb, V. U. 1891. 1969: Færøsk Anthologi I. Tekst samt historisk
og grammatisk Indledning. København. 2. útgáva. Tórshavn 1969. All (known) Faroese
ballads are to be found in: Corpus Carminum Færoensium.
11
© SPIN and the author
www.spinnet.eu
Do not quote without
viii
We can see this in the book ”Breve fra og til Carl Christian Rafn, med en Biografi”. From
1869, where some of his correspondence with scholars and writers from many parts of the
world is published.
ix
The most famous ones are Spjellerup (1665), Tarnovius (1669), Debes (1673, 1675
(English) and 1757 (German)), Torfæus (1695, 1770), Svabo (1781-82), Landt (1800) and
some smaller ones. The most Famous traveller goint to the Faroe Islands were the Stanleyekspedition from 1789. They went to Iceland and to the Faroes Island. The German Lawyer
Graba was in the Faroes, and in 1828 the book ”Reise nach Färö” was published. There are
some French as well - Charles Frédéric Martins ”Essai sur la végétation de l´archipel des
Féröe, comparée à celles des Shetland et de I´Islande meridionale, I: Voyages de la
commission scientifique du nord, en Scandinavie, en Laponie, au Spitzberg, et af Féröe,
pendant les années 1838, 1839, et 1840 sur la corvette la Recherche, commandée par m.
Fabvre”, published by Paul Gaimard in 12 volumes from 1842-55. George Claytons ”Journal
of an Expedition to the Feroe and Westman Islands and Iceland 1833” and the american
James Nicoll ”An historical and descriptive account of Island, Greenland, and the Faroe
Islands, with illustrations of their natural history” were published in Edinburgh in 1860. From
1883 to 1888. Two French geographical expeditions were led by Jules Leclercq ”La terre de
glace: Féroe –Islande: les geysers – le mont Hekla” (Paris, 1883) and from 1888 the French:
”L’Islande et L’archipel des Færaeer” by Lebonne. Of later travel writing worth to mention are
Elisabeth Taylors ”The Far Islands and Other Cold Places – Travel Essays of a Victorian
Lady”, she travelled in The Faroes in 1895 (Taylor, 1997).
x
Jørgen Landts book ”Forsøg til en Beskrivelse over Færøerne” was published in 1800.
His work is mostly stolen from Svabo and Debes. Abouts Svabo he said:: ” A student Jens
Svabo has given some written notes on Faroe”, when he actually had taken most of his work
from the unpublished works of Svabo, that he had access to at the Royal Library in
Copenhagen.
xi
This may also be the explanation, on why the Faroese nationalist, sailor and poet Nólsoyar
Páll (1766-1808) did not get the same attention from the Danish philologists, when he wrote
allegorical and anti-Danish ballads like “Fuglakvæði” from 1806 (The Bird Ballad) – much later
he became a Faroese national hero. But this I will explore in another paper.
xii
The ballads were not new or the knowledge of them. Svabo and Debes all wrote about the
Faroese ballads. In 1639 Ole Worm wrote down five Faroese ballads. These have not
survived and are only known today through Peder Syv (1631-1702) (Hansen, 2006, s. 24).
Before the publication it was very well known that the Faroese scholar Svabo spendt all his
12
© SPIN and the author
www.spinnet.eu
Do not quote without
life collecting ballads and his dictionary written in the spirit of the 18. Century enlightment
philosophy later was very important and still is.
Selected bibliography:
Aberbach, David:“The Poetry of Nationalism”. In: Nations and Nationalism, 9 (2), 2003.
Adriansen, Inge: Nationale symboler i det danske rige 1830-2000. Copenhagen, 2003.
Anderson, Benedict: Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism.
London, 1983.
Andreassen, Eyðun 1979: Dansens og arbejdets vise - samme vise med forskellig form?
Sumlen. Årsbok för vis- och folkmusikforskning. Stockholm. 39-50.
Andreassen, Eyðun 1980: Folkekulturen i nasjonalromantisk og nasjonalistisk tolkning.
In: Honko, Lauri (ritstj). Folklore och nationsbyggande i Norden. Åbo. 65-73
Andreassen, Eyðun 1992: Folkelig offentlighed. En undersøgelse av kulturelle former på Færøerne i
100 år. Copenhagen.
Assmann, Aleida: Erinnerungsräume: Formen und Wandlungen des kulturellen Gedächtnisses.
München: Beck, 1999.
At formidle historie. Bryld, Claus (red.) m.fl. Roskilde, 1999.
Barnes, Michael 1978: Grammatical instability in Faroese ballads and written Faroese. In:
Kolsrud, Knut et al. (ritstj). Tradisjon og samfunn. Festskrift til Olav Bø på 60-års dagen 19. mai
1978. Oslo. 209-235
Berger, Stefan: ”Towards Global Perspectives on the Writing of National History”. In:
Representations of the Past: The Writing of National Histories in the Nineteenth and TwentiethCentury Europe (NHIST). News Letter 2, 2006.
Bryld, Claus og Anette Warring: Besættelsestiden som kollektiv erindring. Historie- og
traditionsforvaltning af krig og besættelse, 1945-1997. Roskilde, 1995.
Burke, Peter: “History as Social Memory”. In: Memory: History, Culture and the Mind.
Thomas Butler (red.), Oxford, 1989.
Caldicott, Edric & Anne Fuchs (eds.): Cultural Memory: Essays on European Literature
and History. Oxford et al.: Lang, 2003.
CCF = Føroya kvæði. Corpus Carminum Færoensium.
Chesnutt, Michael 1992: Aspects of the Faroese Traditional Ballad in the Nineteenth
Century. In: Arv. Scandinavian Yearbook of Folklore 1992. Stockholm. 247-260.
13
© SPIN and the author
www.spinnet.eu
Do not quote without
Chesnutt, Michael og Larsen, Kaj 1991: De ældste færøske kvadhåndskrifter. Del 1. In:
UNIFOL. Årsberetning 1990. Copenhagen. 23-49.
Clementsen, Ólavur 1994: Jóannes í Króki - liv og virke. In: Fróðskaparrit 42. Torshavn.
9-14.
Connerton. Paul: ”Seven types of forgetting”. In: Memory Studies, 2008 1, 59-7.
Conroy, Patricia 1994: Min gode ven Jóannes í Króki. In: Fróðskaparrit 42. Torshavn. 1520.
Dahl, Árni: Bókmentasøga I. Torshavn, 1980.
Dahl, Árni: Bókmentasøga II. Torshavn, 1981.
Dahl, Árni: Bókmentasøga III. Torshavn, 1983.
Dal, Erik 1956: Nordisk folkeviseforskning siden 1800. Copenhagen. 227-240
Dal, Erik 1970: Tyske, danske og engelske oversættelser af Færøkvæder. In: Fróðskaparrit
18. Torshavn. 77-92.
Debes, Hans J.: Nú er tann stundin… Tjóðskaparrørsla og sjálvstýrispolitikkur til 1906 við
søguligum baksýni. Torshavn, 1982.
Debes, Lucas Jacobsøn 1673 (1903, 1950, 1963 og 1963). Færoæ & Færoa reserata. Det er
Færøernis og Færøeske Indbyggeris Beskrifvelse. Copenhagen.
Djurhuus, N. 1958: Dansen. I: Færøerne. Udg. af Dansk-Færøsk Samfund, Bd, 1,
Copenhagen. 392-399.
Færeyinga saga eller Færøboernes historie i den islandske grundtext med færøisk og dansk oversættelse.
Oversat af C.C. Rafn. Copenhagen, 1832.
Føroysk og íslendsk kvæðir. IN: Snædal, Magnús og Sigurðardóttir, Turið (ritstj). In:
Frændafundur. Fyrilestrar frá íslendsk-føroyskari ráðstevnu í Reykjavík 20-21. august 1992.
Reykjavík. 78-89
Gellner, Ernest: Nations and Nationalism. London, 1983.
Grimm, W. 1927: (Wilhelm Grimm): (Review of) Färöiske ýuäder om Sigurd
Fofnersbane og hans Æt. In: Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeigen, bd. III, Stück, 4. september
1824, p. 1417-1428.
Grøndal, Benedict: Breve fra og til Carl Christian Rafn med en biografi. 1869
Halbwachs, Maurice: On Collective Memory. Chicago,1992.
14
© SPIN and the author
www.spinnet.eu
Do not quote without
Hammershaimb, V. U. 1847: Meddelelser fra en Rejse på Færøerne i 1847-48. In:
Antiýuarisk Tidsskrift, udgivet af Det kongelige nordiske Oldskrift-Selskab. 1846-1848.
Kjøbenhavn.
Hammershaimb, V. U. 1847: Olufas Kvad. In: Antiýuarisk Tidsskrift udgivet af Det Kongelige
Nordiske Oldskrift-Selskab 1846-48. Copenhagen, s. 279-304.
Hammershaimb, V. U. 1851-55: Færöiske Kvæder, samlede og besørgede ved V. U.
Hammershaimb, udgivne af det nordiske Litteratur-Samfund. I-II. Kjøbenhavn.
Hammershaimb, V. U. 1851: Færöiske Kvæder. Copenhagen.
Hammershaimb, V. U. 1852: Færøske Kvæder, henhørende til Hervarar Saga. I:
Antiýuarisk Tidsskrift udgivet af Det Kongelige Nordiske Oldskrift-Selskab. Copenhagen. 57-96.
(Reprinted in: V. U. Hammershaimb: Savn. Emil Thomsen 1969.
Hammershaimb, V. U. 1891. 1969: Færøsk Anthologi I. Tekst samt historisk og grammatisk
Indledning. Copenhagen. 2. edition. Torshavn 1969.
Hammershaimb, V.U.: Færøsk Antologi. Copenhagen, 1891.
Helgason, Jón 1924: Færøske studier. In: Maal og Minne. Kristiania. I: Den ældste
optegnelse af færøiske kvad, s. 29-37. II: Ljómur paa Færøiene, p. 37-48.
Hervieu-Léger, D.: Religion as a Chain of Memory. Oxford, 2000.
Hettne, Björn, Sverker Sörlin og Uffe Østergård: Den globala nationalismen: nationalstatens
historia och framtid. Stockholm, 1998.
Hobsbawm, E og T. Ranger (red.): The Invention of Tradition. London, 1983.
Hroch, Miroslav: Die Vorkampfer der nationalen Bewegung bei den kleinen Völkern Europas. Eine
vergleichende Analyse zur gesellschaftlichen Schichtung der patriotischen Gruppen. Prag, 1968.
Hutchinson, John og Anthony D. Smith (red.): Nationalism. Oxford, 1994.
Hutchinson, John: Myth against myth: the nation as ethnic overlay. In: Nations and
Nationalism. Vol. 10, 1-2, 2004.
Hutchinson, John: The Dynamics of Cultural Nationalism, London, 2003.
Huyssen, Andreas: Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory (Cultural
Memory in the Present). Stanford, 2003.
Huyssen, Andreas: Twilight Memories. London, 1995.
Høj, Chr., Søga okkara I. Torshavn, 1970.
15
© SPIN and the author
www.spinnet.eu
Do not quote without
Ísleifsson, Sumarliði R.: Icelandic National Images in the 19th and 20th Centuries.
In:Images of the North – Histories – Identities – Ideas. (Ed. Sverrir Jakobsson),
Amsterdam, 2009.
Jacobsen, M. A. 1921: Úr bókmentasøgu okkara. Torshavn 1921
Jacobsen, M. A. 1926: Sunnbiarbók. In: Varðin 6. 114-118.
Jacobsen, M. A. 1929: Jóhannes Klæmintsson í Króki. In: Varðin I‹.
Joensen, J. P. 1978: Føroysk fólkamentan. Bókmentir og gransking. In: Fróðskaparrit 26.
Joensen, Jóan Pauli: ”At finna ella uppfinna tað føroyska”. In: Fróðskaparrit, 36-37.
Torshavn, 1988-1989.
Kitzmann, Andreas, Conny Mithander, John Sundholm (red.): Memory Work : The
Theory and Practice of Memory. New York, 2005.
Króki, Jóannes: Sandoyarbók 2. (Red.) Rikard Long. Torshavn
Halbwachs, Maurice: On Collective Memory. Chicago, 1992.
Landt, Jørgen 1800. 1965: Forsøg til en Beskrivelse over Færøerne. Copenhagen 1800. (2.
edition: Torshavn 1965).
Larsen, Kaj 1994: Kvæðauppskriftir Jóannesar í Króki. Jóannes í Króki. In: Fróðskaparrit
42. Torshavn. 29-35.
Leerssen, Joep: “Nationalism and the Cultivation of Culture.” In: Nations and Nationalism,
12 (4), 2006.
Leerssen, Joep: 1998 "Nation, Volk und Vaterland zwischen Aufklärung und Romantik",
In: Volk – Nation – Europa. Zur Romantisierung und Entromantisierung politischer Begriffe, ed. A.
von Bormann (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann), 171-178.
Leerssen, Joep: 2002 "Primitive orality and archaic heroism: The romantic conception of
epic", In: Romanticna pesnitev. Ob 200. obletni rojstva Franceta Preerna. Mednarodni simpozij
Obdobja - Metode in zvrsti, Ljubljana, 4.-6. december 2000, ed. M. Juvan (Ljubljana: Universa v
Ljubljani): 19-32.
Leerssen, Joep: 2004 "Literary historicism: Romanticism, philologists, and the presence
of the past", In: Modern language quarterly, 65: 221-243.
Leerssen, Joep: 2004B "Ossian and the rise of literary historicism", In: The Reception of
Ossian in Europe, ed. H. Gaskill (London: Continuum): 109-125.
Leerssen, Joep: 2006 National Thought in Europe: A Cultural History (Amsterdam University
Press, 312 pp.).
16
© SPIN and the author
www.spinnet.eu
Do not quote without
Leerssen, Joep:1988 "Anglo-Irish Patriotism and its European context: Notes towards a
reassessment", In: Eighteenth-Century Ireland, 3: 7-24.
Leerssen, Joep:1991 (with Menno Spiering) National identity: Symbol and representation
(Amsterdam: Rodopi), 255 pp. (Yearbook of European Studies, 4).
Liestøl, Knut 1917: Færøyske og norske folkevisor. In: Maal og minne. Oslo. 81-110.
Lyngbye, H. C. 1820: Noget om Færøerne, især om de der brugelige Bryllupsskikke. In:
Magasin for Rejseiagttagelser bd. 1.
Lyngbye, H. C. 1822: Færøiske ývæder om Sigurd Fofnersbane og hans Æt. Med en Anhang.
Samlede og oversatte af Hans Christian Lyngbye. Med en Indledning af P. E. Müller. Randers
Marnersdóttir, Malan: “Narrative and Ideological Form in the Writing of Faroese Literary
History”. In: Borders and Communities. (Red. Michael P. Barnes, Tom Lundskær-Nielsen,
Tom Munch-Petersen).
Matras , Chr. 1939: Svabos færøske visehaandskrifter. Udg. for Samfund til udgivelse af gammel
nordisk litteratur ved Chr. Matras. Copenhagen.
Matras 1951-53: J. H. Schrøter optegnelser af Sjúrðar kvæði. Copenhagen 1951-53. In:
Færoensia III.
Matras, Chr. 1935: Norðmenninir í Danmørk. Chr. Matras greiddi til prentingar. In:
Varðin 15. 237-239.
Matras, Chr.: Føroysk bókmentasøga. Copenhagen, 1935.
Matras, Christian 1973: Nøkur mentafólk. Greinir og røður. Torshavn.
Misztal, Barbara: Theories of social remembering. Maidenhead, 2003.
Müller, Peder Erasmus 1817-20: Sagabibliothek med Anmærkninger og indledende Afhandlinger
1-3. bind. Copenhagen.
Müller, Peder Erasmus 1822: Om de færøiske ývæders Beskaffenhed og Ælde. In:
Innledning til Lyngbye 1822. 3-42.
Nauerby, Tom: No Nation is an Island - Language, Culture and National Identity in the Faroe
Islands. Århus, 1996.
Nolsøe, Mortan 1968: Innsamling av fiske- og folkevisetradisjon på Færøyene. 151-159
In: Vento, Urpo. Fältarbetet. Synpunkter på etnofolkloristisk fältforskning. Helsingfors.
Nora,
Pierre:”Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Memoire”. In:
Representations,26,1989.
Nora, Pierre (red.): Realms of Memory: Rethinking the French Past. Vol. 1. New York, 1996.
17
© SPIN and the author
www.spinnet.eu
Do not quote without
Nünning, Ansgar & Astrid Erll: Cultural Memory Studies. An International and Interdisciplinary
Handbook, Berlin, 2008.
Patursson, Jóannes 1924: Tríggjar føroyskar kvæðakempur. In: Norsk Årbok, Bergen 1924
Petersen, Carl S. 1938: „Stenalder, Broncealder, Jernalder“ (1938) Rossington, Michael &
Anne Whitehead: Theories of Memory – A Reader. Edinburgh, 2007.
Samuel, Raphael: Theatres of Memory. London, 1994.
Schier, Kurt 1990: Sammlung, Wiederbelebung und Neu-dichtung von Heldenballaden
auf den Färöern zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts: historische Voraussetzungen und
Konse-ýuenzen. 329-358 In: Helden und Heldensage. Festschrift für Otto Gschwantler zum 60.
Geburtstag. Hgg. von Hermann Reichert und Günter Zimmermann. Wien 1990.
Schier, Kurt 1994: Om kvæðidiktingen på Færøyene i det 19. århundre. Noen esepsjonsforhold. In: Fróðskaparrit 42. Torshavn. 37-52.
Schrøter, J. H. 1951-53: J. H. Schrøter optegnelser af Sjúrðar kvæði. Chr. Matras (ed.).
Copenhagen 1951-53. In: Færoensia III.
Simonsen (Marnersdóttir), Malan 1991: Hon fekk hug á deyðum manni. Fýra
bókmentaligar greinir. In: Setursrit nr. 1. Føroyamálsdeild. Fróðskaparsetur Føroya.
Torshavn
Skaarup, Povl 1966: Kilderne til de færøske viser om Karl den Store. In: Fróðskaparrit 15.
297-306.
Smith-Dampier, E. M. 1934: Sigurd the Dragon-Slayer: A Faroese Ballad Cycle. New York
Andersen, Wilhelm og Carl S. Petersen: Illustreret Dansk Litteraturhistorie (1924)
Solheim, Svale 1970: Færøysk-norsk i folkevisediktinga. In: Fróðskaparrit 18. 297-306.
Svabo, J. C. 1939: Svabos færøske visehåndskrifter. Ed. Chr. Matras. Copenhagen.
Svabo, J. Chr. 1959: Indberetninger fra en Reise i Færøe 1781 og 1782. Ed. N. Djurhuus.
Copenhagen.
Thomsen, Mads Rosendahl og Svend Erik Larsen (red.) 2005: Litteraturhistoriografi, Århus.
Widding, Ole: Carl Christian Rafn – Biographie of Old Nordic-Icelandic Studies (1964)
Worsaae, J.J. 1866: Carl Christian Rafn og C.J. Thomsen In: Aarbøger for nordisk
Oldkyndighed.
Worsaae, J.J.: Oldskriftselskabets 50 år. 1875. In: Aarbøger for nordisk Oldkyndighed.
Wright, James 1970: The Journals of the Stanley Expedition to the Faroe Islands and Iceland in
1789. Torshavn.
18
© SPIN and the author
www.spinnet.eu
Do not quote without
Wylie, Jonathan 1987: The Faroe Islands – Interpretations of History. Kentucky.
Wägenbaur, Thomas (ed.). The Poetics of Memory. Tübingen: Stauffenburg, 1998.
Østergård, Uffe: The Construction of a Faroese Identity: Nordic, Norwegian, Danish –
or Faroese? Upub. Paper at the 39. Deutchen Historikertag. Hannover, 1992. Internet:
http://www.diis.dk/graphics/CVer/Personlige_CVer/Holocaust_and_Genocide/uffe_f
aroe.pdf
19