Faroe stamp 495 Djurhuus poems - tronds chanting

Tróndur í Gøtu ( Icelandic: Þrándur í Götu,

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 ...

Þrǫ́ndr í Gǫtu) (c. 945 – 1035) was a

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 ...

chieftain 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 ...

. He is remembered for his opposition to the importation of Christianity.

Biography

Tróndur í Gøtu lived at his father's home in the village of Gøta on the island of Eysturoy. Initially Tróndur and his brother Thorlac drew lots to decide who should inherit the estate. After losing, Thorlac went to live in neighbouring islands with his wife. The siblings eventually lived together at Gøta with their children. Tróndur opposed

Christianization Christianization (or Christianisation) is a term for the specific type of change that occurs when someone or something has been or is being converted to Christianity. Christianization has, for the most part, spread through missions by individu ...

of the Faroes and pronounced a curse against the religion and rival chieftain Sigmundur Brestisson who was promulgating it. He and Brestisson are central figures in the '' Færeyinga saga'', which tells the early history of the Faroe Islands and the coming of Christianity to the islands. This is also the subject of the poem "Gandkvæði Tróndar" by the Faroese poet Janus Djurhuus (1881–1948).

Icelandic saying

Færeyinga saga was written in Iceland shortly after 1200. The saga is the oldest recorded source of the history of the Faroe Islands. It is commonly believed to have relied upon oral testimonies from the Faroe Islands. Tróndur í Gøtu became symbolic of resistance to royal power, with Icelanders now writing ''þrándur'' and ''götu'' in lower case. The saying in the

Icelandic language Icelandic ( ; , ) is a North Germanic languages, North Germanic language from the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national languag ...

, ''vera einhverjum Þrándur í Götu'' (e. being someones Þrándur í Götu) or just ''að vera þrándur í götu'' (e. to be a þrándur í götu), means to be an obstacle to somebody.

In popular culture

Faroese Tróndur í Gøtu still remains a popular folk character. The Faroese music band

Týr (; Old Norse: , ) is a god in Germanic mythology and member of the . In Norse mythology, which provides most of the surviving narratives about gods among the Germanic peoples, sacrifices his right hand to the monstrous wolf , who bites it off ...

wrote a song called "Tróndur í Gøtu" in honor of this famous Faroese warrior which was released in 2009 on the album '' By the Light of the Northern Star.''

References

External links

Blásastova Museum and Tróndur í Gøtu’s Farm
11th-century Faroese people 1035 deaths 940s births Legendary Norsemen Anti-Christian sentiment 10th-century Vikings 11th-century Vikings {{Faroes-bio-stub