Grímr Kamban was, according to the ''

Færeyinga saga ''Færeyinga saga'' (; Danish: ''Færingesagaen''), the saga of the Faroe Islanders, is the story of how the Faroes were converted to Christianity and became a part of Norway. Summary The saga was written in Iceland shortly after 1200. The auth ...

'', the first Norse settler in the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...

. The modern Faroese form of the name is ''Grímur'', but it was ''Grímr'' in

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

and is often anglicised as ''Grim''.

Settlement of the Faroe Islands

The saga says he was a Norwegian

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

escaping the tyranny of the Norwegian King Harald (''Haraldr Hárfagri''). However, this is an error in this saga, because Harald's age was in the late 9th century, while the first Norse settlers reached the Faroes after 825. :"According to the

... the first settler in the

was a man named Grímr Kamban – ''Hann bygdi fyrstr Færeyar'', it may have been the land taking of Grímr and his followers that caused the anchorites to leave... the nickname Kamban is probably Gaelic and one interpretation is that the word refers to some physical handicap, another that it may point to his prowess as a sportsman. Probably he came as a young man to the Faroe Islands by way of Viking Ireland, and local tradition has it that he settled at Funningur in

Eysturoy Eysturoy (, meaning 'East Island') is a region and the second-largest of the Faroe Islands, both in size and population. Description Eysturoy is separated by a narrow sound from the main island of Streymoy. Eysturoy is extremely rugged, with som ...

." It is said that he settled down in Funningur on

. The name ''funningur'' means ''finding''. Excavations have shown

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

houses in this area, as well as all over the Faroes.

Name

''Grímr'' is an Old Norse name. The name ''Kamban'' indicates

Celt The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

ic origins. Thus he could have been a man from Ireland,

Western Isles The Outer Hebrides ( ) or Western Isles ( , or ), sometimes known as the Long Isle or Long Island (), is an island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. It is the longest archipelago in the British Isles. The islands form part ...

Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...

, where the Vikings already had settlements. Another theory says, he could have been an early Christianized Norwegian under the influence of Irish monks there. If Gaelic, the first part of ''Kamban'' would originate in the Old Gaelic ''camb'' "crooked". The name Kamban is therefore most likely be derived from ''cambán'' "crooked one" (cf. Modern Irish ''camán'', Scots Gaelic ''caman'' and Manx ''camane''). The root ''camb'' is also found in the Gaelic names Campbell (originally ''caimbeul'') "crooked-mouth" and Cameron (''camshròn'') "crooked nose", as well as the sports term ''cambóg'', which in Gaelic refers to the type of stick used in games like hurling, hockey and golf.

Tribute

On 20 September 2004, the Faroese post office issued a stamp including honoring the poem ''Grímur Kamban'' by Faroese poet

Janus Djurhuus Jens Hendrik Oliver Djurhuus, called Janus Djurhuus, (26 February 1881, Tórshavn – 1 September 1948, Tórshavn) was the first modern Faroe Islands, Faroese poet. He and his younger brother Hans Andreas Djurhuus, also a poet, are called the ...

(1881–1948).

References

External links

Sverri Dahl: ''The Norse settlement of the Faroe Islands''
(Medieval Archaeology 14, 1970, London, s. 60–73) {{DEFAULTSORT:Grimur Kamban Viking explorers Norwegian explorers 9th-century Faroese people 9th-century Vikings

Settlement of the Faroe Islands

Name

Tribute

See also

References

Related reading

External links