Sheep and soil in the Faroe Islands Examples from an old Suduroy settlement

Abstract

Strips of fairly fertile volcanic soil and a moderately mild oceanic climate favoured sheep farming in the Faroes during almost a millennium of medieval stability, ending only last century with the abolition of a trade monopoly. After the Reformation (ca. 1535), when the Danish Crown obtained possession of all church farmland, crown tenants normally have had to leave their leased fields to one single heir, whereas allodial land may be partitioned among several persons. In various Faroese settlements an intricate pattern of small allodial plots still hampers modern agricultural methods. Ancient villages, which may have evolved from one single farm, have continued to keep non-cultivated outfields in common as pastures, turbaries etc. In recent years separate farmsteads are taking over, certain outfield areas for cultivation, but the basic joint property of the traditional sheep-raising peasant society is still generally reserved for the previously established village farms.