The Faroe Islands: Interpretations of HistoryUniversity Press of Kentucky, 2014. júl. 15. - 280 oldal Stranded in a stormy corner of the North Atlantic midway between Norway and Iceland, the Faroe Islands are part of "the unknown Western Europe"—a region of recent economic development and subnational peoples facing uncertain futures. This book tells the remarkable story of the Faroes' cultural survival since their Viking settlement in the early ninth century. At first an unruly little republic, the islands soon became tributary to Norway, dwindled into a Danish-Norwegian mercantilist fiefdom, and in 1816 were made a Danish province. Today, however, they are an internally self-governing Danish dependency, with a prosperous export fishery and a rich intellectual life carried out in the local language, Faroese. Jonathan Wylie, an anthropologist who has done extensive field work in the Faroes, creates here a vivid picture of everyday life and affairs of state over the centuries, using sources ranging from folkloric texts to parliamentary minutes and from census data to travelers' tales. He argues that the Faroes' long economic stagnation preserved an archaic way of life that was seriously threatened by their economic renaissance in the nineteenth century, especially as this was accompanied by a closer political incorporation into Denmark. The Faroese accommodated increasingly profound social change by selectively restating their literary and historical heritage. Their success depended on domesticating a Danish ideology glorifying "folkish" ways and so claiming a nationality separate from Denmark's. The book concludes by comparing the Faroes' nationality-without-nationhood to the contrasting situations of their closest neighbors, Iceland and Shetland. The Faroe Islands is an important contribution to Scandinavian as well as regional and ethnic studies and to the growing literature combining the insights and techniques of anthropology and history. Engagingly written and richly illustrated, it will also appeal to scholars in other fields and to anyone intrigued by the lands and peoples of the North. |
Részletek a könyvből
6 - 10 találat összesen 66 találatból.
... ties between the Faroes and the crown in the eleventh and twelfth centuries is unclear, but “it is likely that . . . the king left the superintendence of his interests to some individual leader 10 NORSE SETTLEMENT TO DANISH MONOPOLY.
... the Faroes' most important ties with the continent were commercial. In this as in other respects, their main point of contact was Bergen. The sagas tell us that Bergen was founded in 1070 14 NORSE SETTLEMENT TO DANISH MONOPOLY.
... the bishop was likewise chosen abroad. The Church was the greatest landowner in the Faroes. Commercially, as well as politically and ecclesiastically, the Faroes were most directly linked 18 NORSE SETTLEMENT TO DANISH MONOPOLY.
... of a native middle class. The Faroese remained free peasants, whose way of life changed little until the nineteenth century. This was not just a matter of oppression from abroad, although that was 22 NORSE SETTLEMENT TO DANISH MONOPOLY.
... , but was now widowed (see Heilskov 1915:251). Their son Magnús Heinason became a trader, freebooter, and sometime coastguard. In 1579 the king granted him a monopoly over the Faroe trade THE REFORMATION AND ITS AFTERMATH 23.
Tartalomjegyzék
1 | |
7 | |
Toward a National Culture in an Odd Danish Province | 65 |
Specters and Illusions | 173 |
Governance and Governors | 199 |
Notes | 205 |
References | 231 |
Index | 249 |