Festlig Faglig Fredag with Seán Vrieland: Úr gomlum ritum

The first Festlig Faglig Fredag of the semester will be Seán Vrieland who will give the talk

Úr gomlum ritum: Om færøske håndskrifter

Abstract:

Manuscript production in the Faroe Islands is small when compared to other Nordic countries, especially neighboring Iceland. Nevertheless, manuscripts from or connected to the Faroe Islands can be found from as early as the thirteenth century continued well into modern times.  

In the book Úr gomlum ritum: Faroese Mansucripts from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century I tell the story of Faroese manuscripts, starting with the legal documents of the Late Middle Ages up to the nineteenth-century collections of folkloristic materials. Through the lens of manuscripts one can trace the political, social, literary and not least linguistic history of the Faroe Islands, a small group of islands that are at simultaneously on the outskirts of and at the very center of the Nordic region.

In this talk I present the story of the Faroese language as told through the manuscripts, beginning with the earliest traces of a unique Faroese variant of Old Norse up through the standardization and purification efforts of the nineteenth century.

As always, everyone is welcome from 4 o'clock, and the talk will begin a quarter past.