In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean there are eighteen islands called The Faroe Islands.
Narrow straits separate most of them. On the map they look somewhat like a triangle. They are located between Iceland, Scotland and Norway. And – in historical times, they have always been a colony, first Norwegian, then Danish.
There are many mountains, cliffs, straits and shores where the sea moulds the landscape. The islands are an attraction for seals and whales. Birds build their nests on the walls of vertical cliffs at waste bays, safely beyond reach of any predators. There is the wise and charming puffin and the gannet, as big as a goose.
Sailing and fishing keeps the population busy. Sheep and some cattle provide meat and milk. Thorshavn – named after the heathen god Thor – on Heimaey – The Home Island – is the capital.
About 50 thousand people live on the islands. They have homerule, i.e. still belong to Denmark financially, but take care of most home affairs themselves and have their own parliament. The language is similar to Icelandic and Norwegian.
Faroeish culture is famous for its special chain dance, called the Long Worm, where they hold hands and dance in a ring singing scores of verses as they move in a special rhythm. This can go on for a whole night. They also have some exceptionally good writers and painters.
The islanders have all modern facilities, so they do not feel isolated any more. It is a very modern society. Yet, they will never win over nature.This story took place in the westernmost corner of the islands, at Vaagar and Mykines.
It was the Saint Olav´s Day in July at Soervaagur on the island Vaagar.
Saint Olav brought Christianity to Norway and thereby the islands and this has been celebrated every summer for a thousand years.
Everybody, young and old, always looks forward to this colorful feast with dining, dancing, singing until dawn. Then most of the people wear their colorful national outfits.
It doesn´t get dark at night at that time of the year, as the islands are a part of the northern hemisphere.
Many people from Vaagar leave for the capital Thorshavn on that special day. But some families stay at home and make a feast on the common or in a club house. So it was at Vaagar this year. Many families stayed at home, but had prepared a grand get-toegther in the open.
The schoolmates Pauli, Regin and Roi were a bit bored when they had finished their dinner and they found the grownups quite slow in their activities, eating and chatting all the time at the Olav´s feast in the open at Soedervaagur.
They walked around the festival place and met Kristin, Ruth, Elinborg and Jorunn who were their schoolmates, also 14 years old and quite bored.
“There´ll be no fun before midnight,” said Regin.
“Let´s have some fun until the entertainment and dancing starts.”
“Yes,” they all agreed.
“I might be able to borrow dad´s boat,” Jorunn said.
“Really?! Do you really think he´d lend it to us?”
“Well, he always says that Roi is better at navigating than he himself when they go out fishing, so why not?” she answered.
Jorunn and Roi walked over to the long table where her parents and three sisters were having ice cream.
“Dad,” Jorunn said in a low voice,
“could Roi and I borrow the speedboat for an hour or two?”
“The speedboat!” her mother almost shouted. “Why?! Aren´t we having fun enough here?!”
Roi approached the table and said they would just sail a bit out in the fjord and back. He knew the fjord as well as his own pockets and they just wanted some fresh air and fun as this dinner session took so dreadfully long and would last for at least two more hours.
Jorunn´s parents had a whispering conference, until her father said
“o.k., but be sure not to take more than 5 people in it. It’s such a light boat. And do not leave the fjord. That´s an order. Understood?”
“Yes sir!” Roi and Jorunn shouted and Jorunn gave her parents a big hug.
“Remember your mobile, Jorunn, just for the sake of security,” her mother said.
“And you have 2 hours at the most. If your´re not here before midnight, we´ll have to call the rescue squad ” Jorunn´s father added.
“And, and,” Jorunn´s mother whispered, so as not to attract other people´s attention,
“you´re only taking some soda pop with you, neither beer nor cigarettes. Understand?”
“Yes, yes, of course,” both Roi and Jorunn promised and raced off.
The weather was fine and the little harbor looked like a polished mirror.
The five youngsters boarded the white speedboat “Puffin.” There was plenty of room on the back benches and space for two people in the tiny cabin up front. It was built like a car with the motor and steering wheel inside.
Jorunn checked the fuel tank which was full. Roi started the boat and a thrill went through them as they turned in the harbor, away from the pier and out, out on the beautiful water in the mild summer night.
They kept their promise and only drank some soda pop, except for Ruth who lit a cigaret.
“We promised not to smoke,” Jorunn told her.
“Shit,” Ruth complained, took two long puffs from the cigaret and threw it in the water.
There was no need for entertainment other than listening to the engine and sensing the freedom of gliding through the smooth water. Jorunn took over the steering wheel while Roi had a break and they started telling jokes. Some of the jokes were great and somehow this made her increase the speed of the boat and before she relized, they were outside the fjord and could see the island Mykines. She forgot the promise about not leaving the fjord. She just continued towards Mykines which she wanted to see, that precipitous bird island with only a few inhabitants. She couldn´t understand how anyone could live so isolated. Soervaagur was remote enough, even if it had an airport.
Suddenly she couldn´t see the island she was heading for. A thick cloud of fog surrounded them.
“Roi!” she shouted and Roi who had had his arm around Elinborg came to the cabin.
“Oh no!” he uttered as he took the steering wheel and orientated himself with the compass. He slowed the boat down to minimum speed. The others weren´t worried. They knew he was quite a sailor. But there was no radar onboard.
The fog was so thick now that it was almost like the darkest of nights.
Kristin started crying.
“Shut up!” Regin said to her.
“You make everybody nervous.”
Ruth lit a cigaret and gave one to Pauli. The glow from their cigarettes looked like two eyes in the dark fog.
“Let´s go home,” Elinborg said so loud that they all started.
“Roi please!” Jorunn added.
“Let´s pray to God that we´ll find our fjord,” Elinborg suggested. She started asking God to help them and the others listened with closed eyes, except Roi who tried to navigate the right way.
Suddenly he shouted “land!” and they all felt that their prayers had been heard.
Roi knew that this was not their fjord but it was solid ground and that was more important than sailing around in the dense fog. He switched the motor off and let the boat glide into a small wick where it glided upon a stripe of sand and then stopped with a jerk.
“At least it is land,” he said and jumped off the boat onto a narrow stripe of sand. So did the others.
“Where are we?” Jorunn asked.
“I don´t know,” he said, “but I think we are at Mykines. There is almost no flatland, only cliffs.”
They dragged and pushed the boat as far up on the narrow beach as possible, but half of it was still in the water.
“Let´s call home,” Pauli said.
“Where´s the mobile?”
Jorunn reached for the phone in her pocket, but it wasn´t there.
“I know I had it,” she said and didn´t believe her empty pocket.
Then Elinborg saw that it lay in the water where Jorunn had jumped out of the boat. It must have fallen out when she jumped.
Elinborg grabbed it and gave it to Jorunn. She dialled. Nothing happened.
“It´s dead,” she mumbled.
“Oh, my god.”
The fog crept around them like a dark, wet blanket.
Pauli and Regin decided to investigate the surroundings and some few steps away they disappeared. They were back again within a minute and said they had landed between high cliffs and there was no passage upwards.
“We have to spend the night here and hope the fog has gone in the morning.”
“Isn´t it better to sail out and try to find the Vaagar Island?” Kristin suggested.
“No,” Roi said,” The boat doesn´t have a radar and we might sail out to the open ocean or hit a reef or something. You never know how high the waves can be out there and a big ship might sail us down. No, we can´t do that.”
They took some blankets from the boat and the big tarpaulin which was rolled up under the seats. They managed to make some kind of a bed and with their coats as blankets they lay down to get some sleep.
They slept for some hours and when they woke up they saw it must be dawn because it was a lot brighter than before, but the fog was the same, thick and wet, hardly moving.
“I´m hungry,” Kristin said.
“I didn´t eat my dinner last night. Do you have chocolate or something?”
“There´s some in the boat,” Roi said and got up to go and get it, but there was no boat.
“Where´s the boat?” he yelled, and they all got up and started running around.
They had not been able to tie the boat to anything in the night, so the waves must have taken it.
“No phone, no boat, no passage,” Jorunn muttered.
“I´m hungry,” Kristin said.
“I´m going to climb up and seek help,” Pauli shouted and his voice echoed from cliff to cliff.
“They´ll never find us here,” Elinborg sobbed.
“Let´s not panic,” Regin ordered.
They were quiet for some time.
Suddenly a piercing sound hit them. The birds on the shelves of the cliffs had heard them and were scared.
“Eggs!” Roi said. “We can eat eggs!”
And he started climbing the cliff. He made it to the lowest shelve where a huge bird pecked his hand, but he was so steady that he didn´t loosen his grip and when he swung himself upon the bird´s shelf this huge thing flew away and Roi found 6 big eggs right where it had been sitting.
He didn´t know wherefrom his strength came, but he managed to put all the eggs in his pockets. Going down was not as difficult, as he both slid and jumped and was finally back to the beach.
There was blood on Roi´s hands and his knee hurt a lot, but he felt like a superman.
“Noone will starve on my island,” he said and put the eggs in a hollow in a rock.
“Give us your matches, Ruth,” Roi almost shouted at her.
“We´re going to boil the eggs in sea water.”
Yet, everything around them was wet. Making a fire was out of the question.
“Take my coat,” Jorunn said.
“No, we´ll eat them raw,” Roi answered.
“Kristina, you´re the hungry one, so you get the first egg. There you are. Breakfast is served.”
He gave her the egg and she stood there full of wonder which turned into disgust before she gave it back to him.
“No,” she said. “I couldn´t eat this.”
Regin took the egg, broke the top and sipped its contents.
“Delicious,” he shouted. “May I have another one?”
“No, only one for each. For lunch we´ll have to go fishing.”
Jorunn, Pauli, Ruth and Elinborg ate their eggs in a hurry.
Ruth felt sick. “Delicious,” she managed to mutter, tears running down her cheeks.
“How are we going to spend the day here?” Kristin asked.
“Nobody will find us in this fog, – in this hole. Who wanted to go here? You did,” she said. “You did!” she shouted at Jorunn,
” You always want to show off!”
Jorunn started crying. Her parents were well off. She was often in Thorshavn to buy new clothes. They had money, a car, a boat, a big house, everything, but Kristin had almost nothing but a bicycle and often wore clothes others had grown out of.
“When Roi can climb up to the birds, we should be able to climb up where the cliffs meet and reach the top, so we can find some people who live up there,” Pauli said.
“Who wants to try?” Roi said studying his hands.
“I´ll try,” Pauil said and if I make it, I´ll throw a rope down to you and haul you up.”
“A rope!” Jorunn shouted. “There´s a rope in the boat. It´s under the steering wheel seat.”
They all looked at her in silence and thought the same, but noone said anything.
“Wait Pauli,” said Regin,
“I´m sure someone will find us. It´s so steep up there. If you fall you may be killed. Let´s wait a bit.”
“We can tell stories until they find us,” Ruth suggested.
“Sure,” Elinborg said. “I know a lot about old times on the islands. It was like us now, no food, no boats, no school.”
“How do you know?” Kristin asked.
“My teacher Siggi often talks about how poor they were back then and how rich we are now.”
Elinborg started telling about old times on the islands so far away from everything with no ships, just small boats that often went down, no aeroplanes, no buses, nor schools and hardly any food.
“That was long ago.” Roi uttered.
“Only one hundred years.” Elinborg said.
“Siggi said that the worm dance was French and that people used to dance like that all over Europe. Now it´s just us who do it.”
“In the old days everybody was christened even if they didn´t want to. The King ordered it.” Pauli said. It was King Olav who could make miracles. That´s why we have the Olav´s Day.”
“What more did your teacher tell you Elinborg,” Roi wanted to know.
“Horrible things,” Elinborg said.
“Every year boats went down and the seamen drowned. Here at Mykines 50 seamen drowned in the year 1605.”
A shudder went through the group.
“Do you think it´s a good idea to talk about such things now?” Jorunn asked.
“Yes, it is like tv without a screen,” Pauli said laughing.
“They killed people who went to bed with someone they weren´t married to,” Kristin said out loud. “And if they didn´t work they sent them to Copenhagen where they worked in a prison the rest of their lives.”
It was getting late because the low sun which they could not see painted the sea a beautiful pink.
The hunger pangs had increased, so they lay folded holding on to their stomachs while talking. No soda pop was left. There was some wet on the cliffs they might be able to lick when the thirst became unbearable.
“People didn´t have any money and sometimes no food in the old days,” Jorunn added to the history session.
“Yes, and sometimes the sheep died too,” Pauli whispered.
“Don´t talk like that,” Elinborg said, “it´s spooky enough around here.
“Wool from sheep is called the Faroe-gold,” Roi said cheerfully.
“There were always wars in Europe in the old days,” Elinborg said.
Jorunn felt they were creating a very bad atmosphere saying things they didn´t know much about.
Ruth was in pain. She lay on the tarpaulin making grimaces. “It´s my stomach,” she stuttered.
“I think,” Jorunn said,”we should ask Saint Olav to save us. He was a miracle maker and I am sure he´ll help us.”
There was a deep silence until Regin supported her suggestion.
Jorunn started talking:
“The Vikings were always at war with someone because they were so greedy and the kings used them to get more land and kill their enemies. Then there was this Olav who was a viking and he dreamt that he would become the king of Norway forever.”
“Forever?! Regin shouted. “Noone can be a king forever.”
“Well,” Jorunn continued. “he was one of the first people in the North to be christened. And he decided to turn people to Christianity and humility instead of their heathen practice and cruelty. He had many churches built and helped the poor. His eyes were exceptionally beautiful and he was a poet.
She paused but the others wanted to hear more about saint Olav, so she continued:
”The rich farmers in Norway hated him because he forbade viking tours. They were against Christian values. They laughed at him for believing in a god nobody could see, but he showed them how fragile their god Thor was. This clumsy heathen god could not move and was full of vermin, but the sun we see in the sky in the morning is a proof of the kind and generous Christian god, he told them.
The rich men didn´t like his politics, so he had to flee to Sweden. In the end they killed him.
A poet said that when Olav was king the mountains laughed, but when he died the mountains cried.”
Jorunn looked out to the fog on the sea and tried to hide her fear of never being saved from this place.
- They´ll never find us,- she thought, but she didn´t say anything.
“What more do you know about King Olav?” Elinborg asked.
“Well,” Ruth suddenly broke in. “My mother told me that his touch and prayers were healing. When the rich farmers had killed him they put him in a hut and a blind beggar went in there and fell on the floor and got water and blood on his hands. He rubbed his eyes and when he came out of the hut, he could see. And my mom told me that King Olav saw himself in a dream go up a big ladder to heaven. And when people realized that they had killed a holy person they started asking him for help and he has cured many who pray in the church where he lies in Norway. That´s why he is a King forever.”
There was a long pause in the group now. Kristin and Jorunn lay as if asleep.
Pauli kept looking up to the cliffs as if measuring how high they were.
Roi sat with his eyes closed but was evidently freezing because he shook all over.
Elinborg put her arms around him.
“Should we try it?” Regin said.
“Try what,” Kristin asked.
“Pray,” Regin whispered.
“Yes, and ask Olav to help us,” Kristin almost shouted.
They sat in a circle on the tarpaulin with blankets over their shoulders, eyes closed, hand in hand and prayed.
Regin said the prayer:
”Dear Olav. Please save us from this place. Let us not die here far away from our families.
We are young and we want to live. Please holy saint Olav.”
After that they lay down and tried to sleep, all except Pauli who went into the creek where the two vertical cliffs met. No one noticed his leaving.
He rubbed his palms against each other and started climbing.
He looked like a bat that has got hold of two wide curtains. One step at a time, one grip further up and he never looked down.
The others didn´t see this as they lay on the beach with their eyes closed.
He disappeared over the top of the cliffs. He didn´t look down to his friends.
There could be a new ravine ahead. He could fall down on the other side.
He lay for some time on top of the cliffs as if paralyzed. A group of puffins stood on a little rock just by his side.
They stared at him without moving as if they were trying to figure out what kind of a creature he was.
Some of them even came closer and studied him with their heads askew.
When he had gained enough strength, he rose and started walking.
He didn´t know where, but at least there was grass and space up here and he hoped he would find a house or a human being who could help.
The motion gave him strength and he started running and was soon in a fast sprint over a somewhat uneven ground.
He had been to Mykines before, so he knew there were a few houses there.
He grew tired, but decided not to let his body stop him and kept on, now walking as if in his sleep.
Most of all he wanted to lie down and rest, but his friends were waiting for help. He had to make it.
The fog wasn´t as bad up here, or perhaps it was clearing up.
He had probably walked for a whole hour when finally he saw a house in the distance.
He ran up to it and knocked on the door, tried to open it, but no, it was locked and nobody answered.
People were probably at Soedervaagur and couldn´t come home after the feast before the fog cleared.
Pauli ran from house to house, but they were all locked and noone answered.
Finally he came to a little church and it was open. He rushed in and saw a candlelight at the altar.
He ran up there and cried: King Olav, please help us! Then he fainted.
He woke up in a bed and somebody stood at the window.
“Am I in Heaven?” he asked.
The figure turned around. It was a woman who smiled and said:
“Almost, dear little friend.”
She came to the bed and took his hand.
“My name is Annika and I live here.”
“Where did you come from?” she asked.
Pauli told her the whole story and jumped out of the bed.
“We have to help them,” he said in a desperate tone.
“Yes, my friend,” she said and added:
“Do you remember your telephone number at home?”
He did.
She called his parents and explained the situation.
“The fog is clearing,” she said.
“It´s almost gone now.”
Pauli talked to his mother and couldn´t keep his tears back.
The Mykines woman who had found him in the church and carried him to her house,
gave him warm milk and homemade bread with butter and blueberry jam and plenty of water.
He was hungry as a wolf.
“You´re lucky that I am here, because I usually join the group going to Soedervaagar for the Olav´s festival,
but this time I didn´t feel like it.”
When Pauli had eaten his meal, they went out to the only street in this tiniest of tiny villages where only 20-30 people live,
he felt refreshed.
Rescuers would be sent from the airport to save the youngsters that were stuck between the cliffs.
“Quite a lesson,” the woman kept saying.
“Quite a lesson for all of us,” she repeated.
Later that day Regin, Roi, Kristin, Ruth, Elinborg and Jorunn came with the rescue squad to the tiny little Mykines village.
They had been hauled one by one up from the place where they had been stuck between the cliffs.
Annika gave them a good meal of mutton and mashed potatoes before they were transported by helicopter back to Soedervaagur.
”God has been with you all the time,” she said when they left her tiny little house.