Day 4 — June 10
Vestmanna, Streymoy, and Vagar Islands  The early birders left this morning at 0630 to travel by a Faroe Islander’s boat to the Vestmanna bird cliffs on Streymoy Island. The outing was reminiscent of the previous Zodiac exploration of Papa Stour except that here the sea cliffs and seastacks towered several hundred feet above the waterline. As advertised, seabirds were abundant and varied, including numerous eiders, guillemots, black guillemots, fulmars, kittiwakes, and puffins. There was also an opportunity to take a close-up look at one of the fish farms that are becoming an important part of the Faroese economy. As soon as the cliff cruisers returned, it was time to head off on our excursion to Streymoy and Vagar Islands.
Our first stop of the morning was Kvivik, a Viking longhouse site nestled at the foot of a gentle slope, with a stream running by to spill into the sea. One of the longhouses was the dwelling, with a long hearth down the center; the other, immediately adjacent, was the byre and barn, where stone stalls and a drainage channel are still clearly visible. Both structures were built of slightly curved, stout stone-and-rubble foundation walls. Above the village, sheep dotted the bright green grassy slopes, just as they did 1,000 years ago when this was a thriving Viking community. Among the artifacts found during the 1942 excavation of the site were many soapstone pot and lamp fragments and spindle whorls, demonstrating the importance of this material (most likely imported from the Scottish Isles or Norway) for cooking, lighting, and weaving. This beautifully situated site brought to life the images and settlement characteristics described in Callum Thomson’s earlier Vikings lecture.
At the picturesque hillside village of Saksun, we toured a typical farmhouse (now a museum) from the early 1800s. It was built with stone and wood, and had a roof of birch bark and turf. The oldest part of the home is the roykstova, meaning “smoke room.” This is an all-purpose kitchen, workroom, and main living area. As well as being a historical exhibit, the site is also a working farmstead supporting 300 sheep.
We traveled to nearby Vagar Island through an underground, three-mile-long subsea tunnel, an engineering marvel blasted through solid basalt rock.
Sandavagur, our last stop of the day, was voted the most well kept village in the Faroes. Our guides took us to the Evangelical Lutheran Church and cemetery, which are decorated in the traditional Nordic style. This is the fourth church built on this site and was designed by a local architect in 1917. The church is famous for a large rock in the corner of the sanctuary with rune writing engraved. The stone is displayed at the church because the local people discovered it the same year the church was built.
The story goes something like this: A farmer in Sandavagur was plowing in his field and came upon a rock. He dug out the rock, but did not notice the rune writing because it was covered with dirt. As it was too large to move, he left the rock in the field. One year later, a young man carrying peat stopped to rest on this rock. A year of rain had washed away the dirt, and he noticed unfamiliar writing engraved on the rock. Thinking it might be ancient runes, he quickly ran to the village and told the villagers, who followed him back to take a look. They sent a copy of the writing to Denmark to have it analyzed and transcribed. This is what it said:
Torkjell Onundarson, an easterner from Rogaland, built first in this place
The term “easterner” means from Norway, Denmark, or Sweden, as opposed to a “Vestmanner,” who would be from the Hebrides or Ireland.
Back on board the ship, we listened to three dynamic lectures: Peter Harrison’s Birds of Iceland, and Scott Babcock and Jane Thomson shared double-header presentations, Fire and Ice: Scenic Geology of Iceland and Landscape Art of the Faroes and Iceland.
Tonight we set our clocks back one hour and gained an extra hour of sleep on our way to Iceland.
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