Faroe Islands hymnody

In the Nordic countries, the Lutheran reformation is often recognised as marking the dawn of hymn writing in the native language. In spite of their remote location in the North Atlantic the Faroe Islands are a part of what was then known as the Kingdom of Denmark and Norway, and the small and scattered population had a Nordic language of its own. But the Reformation made Danish — the king’s language — the official language in matters of state and administration, church and faith. Therefore the Faroe Islands could be seen as a local branch of Danish liturgy and hymnody until the last decades of the 19th century. Everyday Faroese was then only oral, and so was the Faroese literature which...