The Faroes and Hebrides: Population and Cultural Change in The Early Viking Period
The aim of the conference is to shed light on early Viking Age population movements impacting on or between the Hebrides and the Faroes and the accompanying cultural changes. Clearly, both island groups need to be seen in their wider geographical context.
The conference will aim to consider five main sources of evidence:
(i) the Icelandic Sagas;
(ii) other historical records;
(iii)place-names;
(iv) archaeology;
(v) DNA analysis.
Themes will include:
• Possible Hebridean or Irish influence in the Faroes before the Viking settlements of the 9th century.
• The narrative that many Norsemen came to the Hebrides (and Ireland) and took women from these places to the Faroes (and Iceland) during the early settlement period of those areas.
• How far the Viking settlement of the Hebrides resulted in integration with or extermination of the resident population.
Programme
Tuesday 14th April (Day 1)
08.00-09.00: Registration
09.00-09.15: Introductions
Session 1
09.15-10.00: Prof. Thomas Clancy: Setting the Scene: Population, Language, and Culture in the Hebrides and Faroes before the Viking Age.
10.00-10.45: Prof. Gísli Sigurđsson: How people in Iceland have remembered – and forgotten – the Gaelic connection? From the sagas to the present.
10.45-11.15: Coffee
Session 2
11.15-12.00: Dr Alan Macniven: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Rationalising Cultural Change in the Wild West of Viking-Age Scotland
12.00-12.30: Discussion
12.30-13.30: Lunch
Session 3
13.30-14.15: Dr Noomi Gregersen: Unravelling the Genetic History of the Faroe Islands
14.15-15.00: Dr Andrew Jennings: Hebrideans in the Sagas...’weirdos’?!
15.00-15.30: Coffee
Session 4
15.30-16.15: Dr Steffen Stummann Hansen: Early archaeological and cultural links between the Faroe Islands and the Western Isles
16.15-17.00: Emeritus Prof. Niall Sharples: Viking houses: convergence, divergence and sexual politics in the Norse settlement of the North Atlantic
17.00 – 17.30: Discussion
19.00-21.00: Dinner
Wednesday 15th April (Day 2) (Coach Trip)
09.30: Coach leaves Runavík (Eysturoy)
10.00-11.30: Visit Toftanes (Eysturoy)
11.30-12.00: Coach to Klaksvík (Borđoy)
12.00 - 13.00: Lunch in Klaksvík (at own expense)
13.00-.17.00: Coach leaves for scenic journey to Viđareiđi (Viđoy) and return to Runavík, visiting the Open Air Museum at Norđragøta (Eysturoy) en route
19.00-21.00: Dinner
You can book your place through the website:
Package price for both days - £452
IBT Members package price for both days - £442
Online attendance - £15
Package prices include 3 nights accommodation and listed refreshments. They exclude travel to the Faroes venue.
Transport options (for own booking) include:
Edinburgh-Faroes (book through Atlantic Airways)
We plan to arrange a shuttle bus between the airport and conference for the Atlantic Airways flights arriving on Monday 13th and departing Thursday 16th April subject to demand. Cost to be shared.
You can also book places on individual sessions:
Day 1 Refreshments: 2 x Coffees@£7.50 = £15, plus Lunch@ £15, plus Dinner@£25 = £55
Day 1 Conference fee (excluding refreshments): £20 for IBT members and locals/ non-members £30
Individual sessions: IBT members and locals: £5/non-members £7.50
Total price for Day 1 including refreshments: £75 for IBT members and locals/£85 non-members
Online fee for attendees for Day 1 of conference: £15/students or Faroese residents: £10
Day 2 Coach trip: £60 (including visit fees but excluding lunch), plus Dinner@£25 = £85 total (excluding lunch)
Overnight B and B accommodation (subject to availability) at Hotel RunavÍk: £94 per night
Please contact us at sales@islandsbooktrust.org for these options.
Payment is also possible in DKK. Please contact susbar@olivant.fo
‘BUNDLED UP IN BLUE’ – poem © Angus Macmillan (Lewis)
[The re-investigation of a Viking grave, Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik 2015]
You come to see me here, in Reykjavik, scattered,
as I now am, in fragments of bone and teeth
in this place of death and memory, with my beads
and brooches, all laid out for your inquisitive eyes.
They took me from my rest, where I was laid down
in my blue cloak, eleven hundred years ago,
my old cloak, blue as the hills of Harris
I could see from my home.
And you count me as treasure, for what my relics
and my bones can tell you, with all your new ways of knowing.
But how little you know of treasure!
Mine was not the baubles and bracelets you seek out
but the language I spoke when I was taken with my mother
from the island of heather to this land of ice and fire
by these savage, pitiless men who killed my father and brothers.
Forbidden to speak our own tongue, we kept the words
between us, my mother and I, till she died
and there was no one to speak them to.
But the words remained on my lips: sìth for peace,
gaol for love, and mo ghràdh for my darling.
They are like words from a dream, a dream
of living and dying, of being lost and then being found.
And if I could dream now I would dream of running
Over the machair at Valtos, my mother calling.
Mo ghràdh, mo ghràdh.
The Islands Book Trust gratefully acknowledges support for the conference and subsequent publication from:
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Runavíkar Kommuna is the municipal authority for the Runavík area of the Faroe Islands |
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The Scottish Society for Northern Studies (SSNS) is a charity which encourages the exploration of the interactions and influences of the Scandinavian, Celtic, and Scottish worlds – both within Scotland and further afield. |