Faeroe Islands far to the north of scotland and a little closer to iceland in the west than to norway in the east, constitute a ‘self-governing community within the Kingdom of denmark’. It is thought that the first people to arrive in the islands, of which there are eighteen in all, came from S. Norway and Orkney, in the early 9th century ad. The existence of a Faeroese parliament dates back almost as far; and there is a long-established Faeroese language. The economy depends almost entirely on the fishing industry and the outlook for this in the 1990s seems to preclude for the present any prospect of the Faeroes moving to the complete independence which they enjoyed in the remote past.
