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Sørvágur

From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.

Sørvágur is a village on the island Vágoy in the Faroe Islands. It is located at the bottom of Sørvágsfjørður. Sørvágur is the largest village in the municipality of Sørvágs Kommuna.

The village of Sørvágur with in the background. In the foreground the river

The village of Sørvágur with Vørðufelli in the background. In the foreground the river Skipá

The name Sørvágur translates to "The Bay of Sør". While the first half of the name makes sense given the fact, that the village is located at a bay, the second half is more mysterious. Legend has it, that the first man to settle at this place, was calle 'Sørli' and hence the village was named in honour of him. Another explanation on the origin of 'Sør' comes from the old-norse 'Seyr' which is a word for sand. Sørvágur has quite a large sandbeach in comparison with other faroese villages and towns, and therefore it was speculated, that the original name of Sørvágur was Seyrvágur, and during the curse of time, Seyrvágur became Sørvágur. During the first half of the 20th century local people in Sørvágur tried to correct this historical injustice and used the name Seyrvágur instead of Sørvágur. However, this trend died out again. One reason may be, that there is no proof in the faroese historical records that justifies the name Seyrvágur.

As of today (2005) nobody has come up with at reasonable explanation to the origin of the name Sørvágur.

Contents

4 Geography and landmarks

5 Industry

6 Sport and other activities

6.1 Sport
6.2 Religion

7 External links

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Facts and figures

Population - Sørvágur: 974 (feb 2005)
Population - Sørvágs kommuna: 1080 (feb 2005)
Postal code (Zip): FO 380
Number of school children: 161 (2004)

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First settlement

Sørvágur is considered to be one of the oldest villages in the Faroe Islands. In 1957 the locals decided to build a new school, and during the preparations to build the schools gymnastic hall they excavated a old viking settlement. Sørvágur - alongside Leirvík, Tjørnuvík and Sandur - is in one of the few places in the Faroe Islands where archeologist have been able to find substantial proof, that these places where built during the first 100-150 years after the Faroese Landnám in 825.

Eventhough the village is old, there is no mention of it, or the island of Vágoy, in the old Faeringa Saga from 13 century.

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History

Between the years of 1200 and 1400 the village moved from its first settlements alongside the river Hanusará and further south between the rivers of Stórá and Kirkjuá. Historical records from 17th century show, that the original settlement alongside Hanusará was abandond, and the village was moved firmly to the new location between the two main rivers in Sørvág. The main reason for this was probably that the weather conditions between the two rivers are far superior to other places in Sørvág.

The first written record regarding Sørvág is from 1584. The record shows that there were only three small farms in Sørvág at that time. This coincides very well with the fact, that the land belonging to Sørvág is divided into three parts: Suðurtriðingur, Norðurtriðingur and Úttriðingur.

From 15th_century to the late 17th_century the norwegian nobels Benkenstock owned all the land in Sørvág. Around 1665 a dane - Severin Fohrman - bought all the land from the Benkenstock's and immediatly started to sell it back to the locals. This meant that almost all the land in Sørvág is private property (óðalsjørð) instead of belonging to the king (kongsjørð).

Using the Land Books (jarðarbøkur) it is speculated, that the number of inhabitants in Sørvág in 17th_century was around fifty. In the first counting of people in the Faroes 1801 the number of inhabitants in Sørvág had risen to a mere 86. In 1855 the number of inhabitants was 163. The reason for this slow progress is due to the special requirements for marriage, that were law in the Faroes. The law said, that in order to marry you would need to own land or have demostrated that you were a faithful servant to someone who owned land. It was only the wealthy farmers who had a substantial amount of land, and therefore the birthrate in the Faroes was very low until this law was abolished.

During the feudal period, it was only the big farmers who had a fishing boat. The first person in the Faroes, who didn't own any land, and got his own fishing boat, came from Sørvág. His name was Gamli Dávur.

During the Sloop period Sørvágur had many sloops.

The church in Sørvágur is from 1886.

The first fishfactory in the Faroe Islands was built in Sørvágur in 1952.

The locals from Sørvági formed a part of the backbone of fishermen, who went to Greenland to fish. Faroese fishermen were instrumental in teaching the inhabitants of Greenland to do deepsea fishing.

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World War 2

During WW2 Sørvágur was home to the british Royal Engineers, which lived Uppi á Mýrum. They built all the main infrastructure in Sørvágur including Vágar Airport, the harbour in Sørvág, Niðaraveg (the main road to the harbour) and several bridges. To accomplish this they had to move entire houses to other locations.

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Geography and landmarks

Districts (býlingar) in Sørvág:

Industry

Sørvágur has always been a place where fishery has been very dominant. In older times it was said, that the only thing nessesary for survival in Sørvági was, that you had a fish rod and a pot to cook the fish. The fishing industry also plays a vital role in the industrial environment in Sørvág today (2005). Today there is a modern fish factory producing mainly salt fish; a fish farm raising salmon; one fish market; one major fishfactory-ship, which produces fish directly to the british market; 6 smaller trawlers and 50+ small fishing boats.

After the Royal Monopoly_trade_over_the_Faroe_Islands ended in 1856, everyone was able to start trading on their own. This led to an upsourgh in shops opening all over the place. Many shops opened in Sørvági, but today only the two main shops remain Norði Stovu handilin and Løðuhandilin. Norði Stova handilin (also called Hjá Valdemar) is also a bakery.

The faroese banks Føroya Banki and Føroya Sparikassi are present in Sørvági. There are two ATM machines in Sørvági. One is at Vágar Airport and the other is at Føroya Sparikassi.

Other industrial entities include:

a post offic
a blacksmith
a shoeshop
a cloth shop
a watchmaker
a Statoil tankstation
a radio/TV shop
a tool shop
a hotel

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Sport and other activities

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Sport

The local sport association of Sørvágur is called SÍ. They compete mainly in football and volleyball.

There has also been an association for faroese rowing called SR.

There used to be a chessclub called Rókur, but it died out during the 1960ies.

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Religion

Religion plays a great role in the day to day life in Sørvági. There are two main buildings housing two different religious direction: Libanon houses the protestantic Heimamissiónin and Kedron houses the Bretheren/baptist Brøðrasamkoman.

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