Sitting on a grassy hill above the village of Gøta, watching the festivities of the surprising international G! music festival unfolding on the beach below -- and listening to the haunting voice of my now favorite Faroese singer, Eivør -- I couldn't help thinking: this is what the Faroe Islands are all about. Here was an international music festival, drawing performers from Europe and North America, in a little village that was also one of the major sites of the Færeyinga Saga, the farm of the powerful Faroese chieftain, Trondur i Gøtu (and the hometown of Eivør). And the bay around which the the three part village is stretched, enclosed by the high treeless yet oh-so-green hills of the islands, was the sight of a grindadrap, or pilot whale killing, just a week before the
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