Floating Islands
In many island cultures there are ideas of floating islands. Islands that mysteriously float out of the surrounding sea, disappear again, run aground, or dock with the rest of the archipelago's islands, often by magic or something similar.
In this regard, the Faroe Islands are no exception. Most of the very small islands have some sort of floating island legend. In his work "FÆROÆ ET FÆROA RESERATA" From 1673, the parish priest Lucas Debes describes the phenomenon, attributing it either to icebergs floating past the islands or to the devil's delusion of the superstitious populace. A good century later, in 1781/82, the enlightener Jens Christian Svabo rejected Debes' theories and attributed the legendary islands to floating, rocky clouds on the horizon or the weather phenomenon " pollamjørki ", dense, billowing fog.
There is little doubt that Svabo was correct in his assumptions. Once you've seen the sea fog drifting over the small islands, it's hard to resist the impression that it's the islands that move across the sea and through the fog. But reality is known to be seldom as entertaining as a good fairy tale, so we'll stick to the imaginative explanations of natural delusion that the world of legends offers. To do this, let us look at two examples of islands that swam up with mountains and valleys or even pigs and giants in their wake.
Svínoy – the island of pigs
Like other islands, according to legend, Svínoy was originally a floating island. She appeared mostly from the north, but rarely saw anyone because she was usually shrouded in fog. Now we want to tell how it came about that it became one of the fixed islands:
In the village of Viðareiði on Viðoy there was a sow, but no boar. Nevertheless, the sow became pregnant every year and gave birth to piglets. People wondered about it, but no one could explain how it happened. It was known that the sow sometimes disappeared from the village, but also that she was never gone very long.
One day the sows were seen running east through the settlement, across the isthmus to a small bay called Eiðsvík. One of the local women got hold of the pig and quickly tied a bunch of keys to its tail. The sow then ran into the sea and swam away from the shore.
A moment later an island was seen drifting in from the south. The local men quickly launched a boat and rowed out to the island, which this time did not disappear, allowing them to go ashore. Because the sow had brought iron to the island with the bunch of keys, she settled on the seabed and the surrounding fog disappeared like dew in the sun. She has been there ever since.
The island was called Svínoy (Pig Island) because there were many pigs on it - and the sow from Viðareiði was always mated here.
(From the Faroese Anthology (Færøsk Anthologi) by VU Hammershaimb, Copenhagen 1891)
Mykines
Another legend tells of a risi, a kind of prehistoric giant or giant, who wanted to live in the Faroe Islands. But the islands he liked were too small. So he decided to push the small islands together into one big one to have a little more space. First he found the small island of Koltur and brought it to where it is today. After that he waded down to Skúvoy and wanted to push this island up to Koltur. But the people of Skúvoy asked him if he really wanted to live on an island dedicated to the "little calf" (Kálvur lítli) had heard. Kálvur lítli was a medieval priest notorious for his wickedness, but the giant didn't know that. He thought the island once belonged to a suckling calf - and living in such a place was beneath his dignity.
So the giant waded north, where he found a fairly large island north of the Faroe Islands that suited him. He began pushing them south toward Koltur, which initially worked fairly well. However, when he reached the shallows above the fishing grounds west of Vágar, he hit bottom and got stuck. For a week he struggled to get the island free again, but it didn't budge. At last the giant became so angry that he cried out: "Fjør mitt! - Damned! If only I could get the island over the obstacle, I would sink it in the sea!”
If he couldn't have the island for himself, he wouldn't begrudge anyone else to settle there. This is how the island of Mykines got its place in the Faroese archipelago – and that is for sure.
Sometimes it happens that from Sørvágur another floating island is sighted to the north. It has high mountains, deep valleys and white foaming waterfalls. When people from Mykines hear that, they get worried. Because who knows if the giant isn't still alive and wants to sink Mykines into the sea to make room for the new island?
(Freely retold from the Faroese anthology by VU Hammershaimb, Copenhagen 1891).
Anchor Eli Petersen
