Faeroese people had their first real contact with the rest of the world in the 9th century. In those times, the Norwegian King Harold Farhair (872 a.C.) introduced high income taxes, thus initiating the exodus of the first refugees to the Faeroe Islands.

In the “Fareyinga saga” (an Icelandic opus of the 13th century), one can read about the forced conversion to Christianity about 1000 a.C. and the submission to the Reign of Norway (1035). Snorri Sturlusson translated the “Fareyinga saga” in 1225 and, reading this work, we can try to imagine those ancient and glorious times, temporarily leaving history for legend:

“Ólaf the White, the conqueror of Dublin, married Auður, who gave him Þorsteinn the Red as a son.”

Auður was an important figure in this historical period, both as a woman with rights on vast western areas and as a Christian.

Ólaf died in battle and Þorsteinn flew with his mother to the Hebrides, where he married Þuriður, who gave him one son and six daughters. One of these daughters was named Olöf.

After many battles and conquers in Scotland, Þorsteinn also died and his mother, together with his daughters, immigrate to Iceland. During the trip, Auður stopped at the Faeroes (and here history begins!), where she could not find any better to do than to arrange a marriage between her daughter Olöf (than from now on, we will call Olúva Tórsteindóttir, according to the Faeroese spelling) and Tróndur, the son of one of the most important families of the island, who lived on Gøta, on the Isle of Eysturoy (exactly where Grimur Kamban originally settled).

Tróndur and Olúva Tórsteindóttir had two sons, Skeggi and Sólmundur.

In those times, small local parliaments (“tings”) and a general council, the (“løgting”), which was set in Tinganes, today Tórshavn, governed the Faeroes. Few governor ruled the islands, bringing there relatives and slaves until 1200.

 The most important, and therefore the “noblest”, among those families was indeed the Gøtuskeggiar family of Tróndur.

This family was an ally of Havgrimur of Suduroy, and supported Harald Greycloak, King of Norway, while in Skuvoy, the brothers Brestin e Beinir supported the King’s rival, Earl Haakon.

Havigrimur strongly opposed the two brothers from Skuvoy, and eventually he laid a lethal ambush for them while they where coming home to Stora Dimun after having looked after their flock of sheep in Litla Dimun. In the ambush, Havigrimur also died, and so both factions lost their leaders.

Tróndur, who attended the ambush – even though he took no part in it –, found himself controlling the entire archipelago.

Sigmundur Brestisson and Torir Beinisson, sons respectively of the brothers Brestin and Beinir, were spared and were sent to Norway as slaves.

There they were soon freed and started to attend Earl Haakon, their fathers’ friend, now more authoritative after the death of King Harald Greycloak.

Haakon highly considered the help given during various Viking expeditions by the two brothers, so that he gave Sigmundur Brestisson and Torir Beinisson two warships for their vengeance.

Brestisson and Beinisson thus defeated Tróndur, forcing him to submit to the King of Norway. Tróndur lost his power, but was left with his house and properties. Tróndur fell, but, as we will see, he was not tamed!

Meanwhile, in Norway, Ólafur Tryggvason had risen to power; he was a Viking turned Christian, who had recently started converting people first in Norway and then in Orkney and Shetland Islands.

Ólafur Tryggvason invited Sigmundur Brestisson at his court and suggested to him that, if Sigmundur had helped him converting the inhabitants of the Faeroes, he would have given him the sovereignty over the islands.

In 999, Sigmundur, together with some court priests, tried to persuade the Løting of Tinganes on the same subject, but he found a strong opposition in Tróndur, who was extremely effective in defending the religion of the fathers.

Sigmundur Brestisson could then only arrange the kidnapping of Tróndur, whom he baptized by force and brought around the islands to persuade other people to be baptized.

Even the death of Ólafur Tryggvason did not change the situation, because his successors, Erik and Sven, sons of Haakon, went on supporting Sigmundur and Tótir, and later were able to build the first church in Skuroy, near to their farm.

Yet, Tróndur had not given up and, after two failed attempt of murdering the two brothers, he took them by surprise in their own house. The two brothers defended themselves honourably, but eventually gave in. Sigmundur and Tótir tried to escape by swimming to the Isle of Stora Dimun, but the strong stream drove them towards Suðuroy, 11km far from Stora Dimun. Only Sigmundur managed to reach the shore in Sandvik, but he was too fatigued and was murdered and robbed of his golden ring.

Few winter passed before the news was spread; then Tróndur had the murderers arrested and executed, later giving piteous burial to Sigmundur Brestisson in the church of Skuvoy. Then, Tróndur put an end to the fight arranging a wedding between a descendant of Havgrimur, Leivur Øssursson, and Sigmundur’s daughter, Tóra.

Tróndur and many other inhabitants of the Faeroes went on worshipping the Viking gods, but Christianity was extending by then his influence on the entire Europe and the resistance of the Faeroese people was ending.

Fifteen years later, the new King of Norway, Ólafur Haraldsson, took back the mission and many families found it more convenient to make an alliance with the King.

Tróndur, however, rejected the new religion and refused to pay taxes to the new King. Tróndur remained faithful to this line of conduct to his death in 1035, under the reign of Magnús Ólafsson.

Tróndur’s successor,  Leivur Øssursson (the one of the “pacifying marriage”), bowed to the new king and to the new religion and thus, after the Era of the Monks, ended also the Era of the Vikings.

Sigmundur Brestisson and Tróndur were two epical personalities of the Faeroese legends. For the Christian author of the “Faeroes Saga” there was no doubt: Sigmundur was a kind of “white knight”, a “crusader” fighting against Tróndur, stuck on primitive and outdated beliefs.

However, Tróndur displayed the strongest love for his land and for his origins threatened by barbarian foreign beliefs. This man surely had an immensely deep sense of honour, executing the murderers of his enemy and recomposing his mortal remains in a temple that he did not worship but that he respected nevertheless.

Together with Tróndur, ended a world based on the real values of honour and respect, where the opponent was maybe killed, but surely not “baptized by force”, left to his own ordeal, not “saved” against his will.”

With the death of Tróndur also ends the independence of the Faeroe Islands: in 1035, also the Løgting loses his authority, even if it kept on meeting, with limited jurisdiction, until 1380.