V.U. Hammershaimb’s report on his trip to the Faroe Isles in 1847–1848

A report on the trip to the Faroe Isles by W.U. Hammershaimb was published in Copenhagen Antiquarisk Tidsskrift (issue for 1847–1848). It includes valuable information pertaining to Faroese ballads, as well as to the general theory of oral poetry. Although earlier collectors had documented Faroese folk poetry, Hammershaimb notes that some of his own recordings were longer than those of his predecessors. He also observed that the same ballads were performed differently from island to island. According to Hammershaimb, the ballad tradition was already in decline at the time of his visit. Besides, the same ballads were performed differently on different islands. According to Hammershaimb, the ballad tradition was in decline at the time. The report further includes a short poem that differs in genre from the ballad tradition and preserves several archaic forms. Hammershaimb’s Report on the Trip to the Faroe Islands in 1847–1848 is thus an important supplement to his more extensive and better-known publications.

1. Piotrovskii, D.D. (2025), “Johan Henrik Schrøter: to the issue of the creation of Faroese writing”, Indo-European Linguistics and Classical Philology, ILI RAN, Saint Petersburg, Russia, pp. 269–275.