The middle ages on the Faroe Islands – Trap The Faroe Islands

This impressive 63 cm wide document contains certified copies of six letters written between 1403 and 1405 collected in a diploma recorded in 1407 in Tórshavn. These letters known as Húsavíkarbrøvini (the Húsavík Letters) are about one of the Faroe Islands’ richest women, Guðrun Sjúrðardóttir, and her hereditary estate. When the woman in Húsavík on Sandoy died in 1405, she left no heir to her properties in the Faroe Islands, Shetland and Norway. Today, the document is part of a collection of diplomas from the Norwegian kingdom (incl. the Faroe Islands, Shetland and the Orkney Islands) in The Arnamagnaean Manuscript Collection at the University of Copenhagen and bears the signature ‘AM Dipl. Norv. fasc.’.
SUZANNE REITZ/THE ARNAMAGNAEAN MANUSCRIPT COLLECTION, 2014

The Faroe Islands were most likely included together with the Norse communities on Shetland, the Orkney Islands, the Hebrides and Isle of Man in the Norwegian unification process around year 1100, when the leaders of the countries became vassals liable to pay taxes to the Norwegian king; in respect of the Faroe Islands, it is believed that the inclusion took place around 1035. These areas were also considered by the Church of Rome to be areas of Norwegian interest, and a diocese was established in the Faroe Islands around 1120. Together with the dioceses on Isle of Man and the Orkney Islands as well as in Iceland and Greenland, this diocese was placed under the new Norwegian archbishopric of Nidaros in Norway in 1152/53. Until its abolishment in 1557, the Faroese episcopal residence was in Kirkjubøur.

Ring from Velbastaður in gold-plated silver, decorated with the Christian symbols grapes and a cross. It was found in connection with the study of the village’s small church ruin with a round cemetery. The ring dates to the late Viking Age or early Middle Ages.
FINNUR JUSTINUSSEN, 2016

A stone church was built there in the 13th century; beneath it lies a former church. Around the year 1300, another church was built in Kirkjubøur, the much larger and more richly ornamented Magnus Cathedral, to replace the old cathedral. The Norwegian unification process entered its final stage in the 13th century. In the years 1261‑64, Greenland and Iceland became subordinate to the Kingdom of Norway as tributaries until 1380, when the Faroe Islands, together with Norway, Iceland and Greenland, became part of the Kingdom of Denmark. In 1271, the provincial law for the jurisdiction of the Gulating was implemented in the tributary of the Faroese Islands. Before 1280, however, the law was replaced by King Magnus Lagabøter’s Landslov (Norwegian Code of the Realm), which remained in force until Christian IV’s Norwegian Code from 1604, which is essentially a Danish translation of the Norwegian Code of the Realm. In 1688, medieval legislation was replaced by Christian V’s Norwegian Code. Magnus Lagabøter’s Landslov thus formed the framework for the political, legal and economic development of the Faroe Islands as a country in the Norwegian monarchical state during the High and Late Middle Ages and right up until absolute monarchy. The governing system in the Kingdom of Norway was characterised by collaboration between the State and local communities through representative courts or Lagting.

This reliquary can be found in the outer east wall of the Magnus Cathedral. It was carved from Norwegian soapstone in the early 14th century. The cavity behind it holds a lead box containing, for instance, bones that, according to the Latin text along the edges, stem from the saints Magnus and Thorlacius.
EMIL HELMS/RITZAU SCANPIX, 2021

The Faroese Løgting seems to have been established around 1350 and sat in Tórshavn. According to the law, the king or his ombudsman appointed the chief justice and the members of the old Faroese court, i.e. the judge and lay judges in the Løgting. The public prosecution as well as the collection of taxes and charges were handled by the king’s representative, whose ombudsmen in the local areas were called sheriffs and were locals. Their districts are called ‘sysler’, and the first time this division into districts is mentioned is around the year 1400.

With the royal legislation from the end of the 13th century, a state tax system was also introduced, which lasted until modern times. In addition, a land assessment system was introduced, which still forms the basis for the calculation of land value. Part of the agreement between the Faroese and the kingdom in 1271 was that the king had to ensure the transport of goods with two ships per year.

The fragmented source material from the 14th and 15th centuries suggests that the king farmed out the administration of the trade agreement and that both Norwegian merchants, the Hanseatic towns and later the Dutch were active in the trade. Similarly, the source material suggests that the royal government was managed by members of Norwegian noble families as feudal overlords, whose obligations in the country were handled by administrative officers. At the beginning of the 16th century, the Faroe Islands were a fief under Bergenhus Skanse, but in the period from 1529 to 1553, both the fief and trade were farmed out to merchants from Hamburg.

In terms of population, Faroese society was small in the High and Late Middle Ages. An assessment of the land and tax register from 1584 shows that there were about 305 taxable farms around the year 1300, against 427 in 1584. With an estimated average household size of approx. eight individuals, it totals some 2,440 inhabitants around the year 1300 and 3,426 in 1584. Tax was paid per household regardless of the size of the farms. In 1584, the state’s tax revenue from the Faroe Islands had a value of 331 guilders in Faroese goods. In terms of production value, it corresponded to about 14 kg of dry fish per household per year. In addition to taxes, the king’s income consisted of manorial dues, customs duties and fines.

The church also received payments from the population in the form of tithe, and, before the Reformation, also in the form of fines. The tithe was used to finance the bishopric, the churches, the vicars’ salaries and poor relief. In addition, before the Reformation, the church was responsible for the school system in the Faroe Islands. In the 14th and 15th century, the bishopric in Kirkjubøur underwent a major expansion with the construction of buildings that ended up as ruins already in the 17th century.

Further reading