Movement in an Insular Community: the Faeroe Islands' Case
Movement in an Insular Community: the Faeroe Islands' Case

Summary/Abstract: The ocean can be a linking way or an isolating factor. For the Faeroe Islands, movement is at the origins of their population, but its history has revealed itself surprisingly sedentary. After the Vikings stopped there and populated the islands, where lived already the famous “Irish monks” – who were also supposed to have migrated in order to get to those desert islands, the Faeroese population has remained stable and stationary. Why? Which are the mechanisms that have dissuaded the population to pursue its once mobile way of life? How the sea is perceived in the archipelago – has it allowed and encouraged the contacts between the islands or, on the contrary, prevented the movement of the Faeroese within their internal space? How commerce and contacts with other powers affected the Faeroese communities? To all these questions this paper hopes to give an answer based on the analysis of the Faeroese experience throughout the centuries. This article is based on the material Toomas Lapp had written for his presentation in the seminar Worldroutes I, Tartu, May 30 2010. The article was not concluded when Toomas Lapp tragically perished on July 12th. His message has been reconstructed, translated and completed by Eva Toulouze, who was his doctoral supervisor and had discussed at length his positions for this presentation. By publishing his last scientific contribution, we homage our colleague, whose path was so brutally interrupted.

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