I was speaking to a friend of mine the other day, and they suggested I make a blog entry where I pick a random country and then write using all the information I can find about it. You can see an entry on their own blog where they describe the idea here. Anywho, the country I got was the Faroe Islands, so, let me tell you about them!
Faroe means ‘sheep’ so the place is actually called the Sheep Islands, which is quite nice, I think. However, I do think it would have been nicer if the random country I picked could turn out to be the Cow Islands (if such a place exists). The main kind of sheep on these islands are, rather unoddly, called ‘faroes’ and they can be found on everything, from stamps to the country’s coat of arms. Aside from sheep, you can find various other animals there, including seals and whales, but these aren’t quite as important, they aren’t called the Whale Islands or the Seal Islands after all are they? It’s a shame really, that they don’t care for their whales as much as their sheep, since there is a lot of whaling from the Faroe Islands.
I like food, so I’ll tell you a little about what is traditionally eaten there. Sadly, it’s not all that exciting. Rather unsurprisingly, the people who live on the Sheep Islands, like to eat sheep. In fact, many of their traditional meals involve sheep meat in some way or another, so I can imagine that I (a vegetarian) won’t enjoy any of it. They also really like British food, such as fish and chips, so that’s not all that exciting from my point of view either.
Since reading is cool, I’ll also tell you a little about their literature. Sadly, there’s not much that exists from more than two hundred years ago, because it’s a rather isolated country, which is a shame really, because who knows how many excellent stories may be lost due to lack of records? But, anyway, a quick search tells me that The Old Man and His Son by
Heðin Brú and The Black Cauldron by William Heinesen are two popular books by contemporary authors from the Faroe Islands (both of them being on my book list now!).
But, yes, that’s my overview of the Faroe Islands, and I must say that it was quite fun to research a random country. If anybody else has a suggestion for a theme or anything to write about, feel free to let me know in my suggestion box, or any other how 🙂
Faroe means ‘sheep’ so the place is actually called the Sheep Islands, which is quite nice, I think. However, I do think it would have been nicer if the random country I picked could turn out to be the Cow Islands (if such a place exists). The main kind of sheep on these islands are, rather unoddly, called ‘faroes’ and they can be found on everything, from stamps to the country’s coat of arms. Aside from sheep, you can find various other animals there, including seals and whales, but these aren’t quite as important, they aren’t called the Whale Islands or the Seal Islands after all are they? It’s a shame really, that they don’t care for their whales as much as their sheep, since there is a lot of whaling from the Faroe Islands.
I like food, so I’ll tell you a little about what is traditionally eaten there. Sadly, it’s not all that exciting. Rather unsurprisingly, the people who live on the Sheep Islands, like to eat sheep. In fact, many of their traditional meals involve sheep meat in some way or another, so I can imagine that I (a vegetarian) won’t enjoy any of it. They also really like British food, such as fish and chips, so that’s not all that exciting from my point of view either.
Since reading is cool, I’ll also tell you a little about their literature. Sadly, there’s not much that exists from more than two hundred years ago, because it’s a rather isolated country, which is a shame really, because who knows how many excellent stories may be lost due to lack of records? But, anyway, a quick search tells me that The Old Man and His Son by
Heðin Brú and The Black Cauldron by William Heinesen are two popular books by contemporary authors from the Faroe Islands (both of them being on my book list now!).
But, yes, that’s my overview of the Faroe Islands, and I must say that it was quite fun to research a random country. If anybody else has a suggestion for a theme or anything to write about, feel free to let me know in my suggestion box, or any other how 🙂
