The earliest writing found on the Faroe Islands are two Runic inscriptions from about 1000 (Kirkjubøur stone) and 1200 (Sandavágur stone), showing a language close to the contemporary dialects spoken along the west coast of Norway. Throughout the Middle Ages a unique Faroese dialect is attested in legal documents and letters, the oldest of which is known as Seyðabrævið (The sheep letter) from 1298.Magerøy & Nordbø, 2024.
History of written Faroese
Written Faroese emerged first in the 1700s. Towards the end of the century, the Faroese folklorist Jens Christian Svabo, collected wordsSvabo, 1800–50. and folk songs,Svabo, 1800–99. written down according to his own spelling. His manuscripts were published posthumously – the songs starting in 1939 under the title Færøske visehaanskrifter, volumes I–IIIMatras, 1939. and, from 1966, his word collection was presented in Dictionarium Færoense, volumes I–II.Matras, 1966.
In 1823, the Faroese minister Johan Henrich Schrøter published a translation of the Gospel of Matthew, using a new spelling of his own device.Schrøter, 1823. In 1832, he followed up with a Faroese translation of the Færeyínga Saga in collaboration with the Danish linguist Rasmus Rask.Rask & Schrøter, 1832.
The Faroese linguist, theologian and folklorist Venceslaus U. HammershaimbØdegård, 2024. proposed an orthography in the 1840s that, with only minor revisions, is still used to this day.Magerøy & Nordbø, 2024. The spelling was first shown in 1846 in Annaler for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie in a series of Faroese legendsHammershaimb, 1846a. followed by his notes on the spelling.Hammershaimb, 1846b. Hammershaimb published a grammar in the same journal in 1854.Hammershaimb, 1854.
A counter-proposal to Hammerhaimb’s orthography was presented in 1898 by Jakob Jakobsen,Jakobsen, 1889. a philologist and folklorist, and the first Faroese to earn a doctoral degree.Magerøy, 2020. Jakobsen proposed a strict phonetic orthography, but the strong support for Hammershaimb’s spelling forced him to abandon the project.Petersen, 2010.
The Norse-owned islands were grandfathered into the Dano-Norwegian union in the 1300s.Thuesen, 2024. Since 1709, the Faroe Islands had been under Danish administration with Danish as the official language, and it remained so after the Treaty of Kiel in 1814. A 1948 referendum resulted in Denmark granting the Faroe Islands home rule. The Faroese language became the official language, with Danish still in widespread use.Magerøy & Nordbø, 2024.
Literature
Ethnologue. (2016). Faroese. In Ethnologue (19th ed.). Retrieved 18 September 2026 from ethnologue.com
Hammershaimb, V. U. (1846a). Færøiske sagn [Faroese fairy tales]. In Annaler for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie, pp. 358–363. Det kongelige nordiske oldskriftselskab.
Hammershaimb, V. U. (1846b). Bemerkninger med Hensyn til den færøiske Udtale [Notes in regards to Faroese pronounciation]. In Annaler for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie, pp. 363–365. Det kongelige nordiske oldskriftselskab.
Hammershaimb, V. U. (1854). Færøisk sproglære [Faroese linguistics]. In Annaler for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie, pp. 233–316. Det kongelige nordiske oldskriftselskab.
Jakobsen, J. (1889). Nogle Ord om Færøsk samt et Forslag til en ny færøsk Retskrivning [Some words on Faroese and a suggestion for a new Faroese spelling]. In: Dimmalætting, nos. 20–25. Sambandsflokkurina.
Magerøy, H., Nordbø, B. (Februar 24, 2024). Færøysk [Faroese]. In Store norske leksikon. Retrieved 18 September 2026 from snl.no
Magerøy, H. (9 December 2020). Jakob Jakobsen. In Store norske leksikon. Retrieved 18 September 2026 from snl.no
Magnusson, H., V. (1298). Seyðabrævið [The sheep letter] [Manuscript].
Petersen, H. P. (2010). Jakobsen’s Faroese orthography from 1889. University of the Faroe Islands.
Rask, R., Schrøter, J. H., trans. (1832). Færeyínga Saga [The Saga of the Faroese]. C.C Rafn.
Schrøter, J. H., trans. (1823). Evangelium Sankta Matthæussa, aa Førisk o Dansk [Gospel of Matthew, in Faroese and Danish]. Det Danske bibelselskap.
Svabo, J.C. (1800–50). Dictionarium Færoense, AM 971 c 4to [Faroese Dictionary] [Manuscript]. Retrieved 18 September 2026 from handrit.is
Svabo, J.C. (1800–99). Faroese Ballads alphabetically arranged, Acc. 4 c I[1] [Manuscript].
Svabo, J.C., Matras, C. (Ed.). (1939–43). Svabos Færøske visehaanskrifter [Svabo’s Faroese transcribed songs], vols. I–III. Bianco Lunos.
Svabo, J.C., Matras, C. (Ed.). (1966–70). Dictionarium Færoense [Faroese Dictionary], vol. I–II. Munksgaard.
Thuesen, N.P., Pihl, R. (April 30, 2024). Færøyene [The Faroe Islands]. In Store norske leksikon. Retrieved 18 September 2026 from snl.no
Ødegård, K. (April 11, 2024). Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb. In Store norske leksikon. Retrieved 18 September 2026 from snl.no
