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Serious academic views of a far away place
Europe's many international soccer tournaments see some phenomenalmismatches, as when Russia plays Andorra, for example, or when Germanyplays San Marino.But I've always found the Faroe Islands team thebravest.Imagine a country of 40,000 people taking on countries of 50million or more !They do it every year.There's only one stadium thatmeets FIFA standards.Other than in soccer, though, you'd have to admitthat news about the Faroe Islands is "slightly" sparse.How many people gothere, how many people know much about this group of islands in the NorthAtlantic more or less between Norway and Iceland ?I was certainly one whoknew almost nothing.THE RING OF DANCERS was published in 1981.At thetime, judging from the no doubt-comprehensive bibliography in this volume,there were possibly two books in English on the Faroes, with a couple moremimeographed articles or studies in obscure places.There was also aNational Geographic article in 1970.That was it.

Unfortunately thisbook will not be a satisfactory source of general information for mostreaders.It is meant for specialists---for those interested primarily inthe anthropology of Scandinavia.The amount of detail is tremendous inthree out of four chapters, much more than can be absorbed by readers whodo not have a professional interest in the Faroes.Chapter Two explores avery interesting problem---how people refer to compass directions and howthis relates to a general geographic conception of their land.In NewEngland, people commonly say "over to" Salem, "into Boston" or "up toBoston" but "down to Maine", to name a few examples.The Faroese patternis far more intricate, but who can remember the details of all this in anunknown language ?Geertz' "Local Knowledge" (1983) comes to mind.Chapter Three is an analysis of a Cinderella-like folktale which supposedlyreveals much about 19th century Faroe society and the changes it wasundergoing.I was not entirely convinced, but the attempt was interesting. Because we readers are plunged right into these analyses without anybackground, everything remains on the level of "Yeah ?Really ?Well,maybe, I guess....."

Chapter Four is about the development of the Faroeselanguage---yes, OK---but it was only Chapter Five that grabbed myattention, both on the descriptive level---it's about sporadic pilot whalehunts when up to a thousand whales can be massacred on the beaches followedby night-long celebrations with dancing and drinking---and on theanalytical level---the author used Geertz' Balinese cockfight article as arough model.This chapter and the short interviews of Faroeseintellectuals that followed were what saved the book for me. Inshort, if you are looking for a readable introduction to the Faroes, thisis not it, though there are some tantalizingly fascinating parts.If youare a student of Anthropology or a professional, you can definitely findsome interesting material here, though if you are unfamiliar withScandinavia, you still may be left with quite a number of questions. ... Read more

Product Description
A masterful rendition of two sagas by George Johnston,the internationally recognized translator of the Icelandic saga. TheSchemers and Viga-Glum were composed during the thirteenth century inIceland and have come to be accepted as classics of Europeanliterature. They are soberly told stories, with an air ofauthenticity, so they were taken as history until comparativelyrecently when scholars studied them more closely. They are nowrecognized as achievements of the story-teller's art, literary in thesense that they were given in written form, but composed mostly oforally-preserved stories that had their origins in fact. ... Read more