The Land of Maybe: A Faroe Islands Year

Ask someone about the Faroe Islands - a few might associate them with Denmark (they are a self-governing archipelago, part of the Kingdom of Denmark); a few might know that St Brendan the Navigator (the Irish monk) stopped at the Faroes on his legendary voyage to Greenland and the Americas (a la Tim Severin's Brendan Voyage); but for most people - the Faroe Islanders are known for still hunting whales.

They continue to hunt pilot whales, as a traditional hunting right. This is large part of this book, occurring in the middle third, and Ecott pulls few punches. It is gruesome, described in great detail and tells of culls in quite extraordinary numbers. For most people - the author and myself included, having this described is a disturbing experience.

But thankfully that is far from all this book is about. Tim Ecott is an Irish born, British author who draws many parallels with the rural Ireland of his grandparents era and the Faroes - based on his numerous and lengthy visits to the islands.

The numerous seabirds get plenty of coverage, but not at the expense of other land based birds - a family of ravens feature heavily. The author also provides a recent and longer term history of each island visited, although for me the many, many people he meets and the names all become a bit of a blur after a while, but there is no lack of interest as I was reading (little change of retention of the knowledge though!).

There is no doubt the Faroe Islands are a harsh and hard place to live. They live a traditional style of life, where they work hard on the land; they are a hardy people. There was a short quote I thought quite apt:

They accommodate an appreciation of the majesty and beauty of the animals and birds around them, with a belief that they are things which equally must be hunted, killed and eaten.