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The Most Famous

WRITERS from Faroe Islands

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This page contains a list of the greatest Writers. The pantheon dataset contains 5,755 Writers, 8 of which were born in Faroe Islands. This makes Faroe Islands the birth place of the 73rd most number of Writers behind North Macedonia and Vietnam.

Top 8

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Writers of all time. This list of famous Writers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

Photo of William Heinesen

1. William Heinesen (1900 - 1991)

With an HPI of 57.86, William Heinesen is the most famous Writer.  His biography has been translated into 31 different languages on wikipedia.

Andreas William Heinesen (15 January 1900 – 12 March 1991) was a poet, novel writer, short story writer, children's book writer, composer and painter from the Faroe Islands.

Photo of Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb

2. Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb (1819 - 1909)

With an HPI of 52.51, Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb is the 2nd most famous Writer.  His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb (Faroese pronunciation: [ˈvɛnsɛslɔus ˈulrikus ˈhamːəʂhaimp], Icelandic: [ˈvɛnsɛslɔis ˈʏltrɪkʏs ˈhamːɛrshaimp]; March 25, 1819 – April 8, 1909) was a Faroese Lutheran minister who established the modern orthography of Faroese, the language of the Faroe Islands, based on the Icelandic language, which like Faroese, derives from Old Norse.

Photo of Símun av Skarði

3. Símun av Skarði (1872 - 1942)

With an HPI of 50.17, Símun av Skarði is the 3rd most famous Writer.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Símun av Skarði (3 May 1872 – 9 October 1942) was a Faroese poet, politician, and teacher.

Photo of Jørgen-Frantz Jacobsen

4. Jørgen-Frantz Jacobsen (1900 - 1938)

With an HPI of 48.11, Jørgen-Frantz Jacobsen is the 4th most famous Writer.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Jørgen-Frantz Jacobsen (29 November 1900 – 24 March 1938) was a Faroese writer. He has a distinct place in Scandinavian literature, as he is the only Faroese writer to achieve international best-seller status. This status derives from his sole novel, Barbara: Roman (1939; translated, 1948 and 1993), which has the added cachet of being one of the few Scandinavian novels to be translated twice into English within the space of fifty years. The novel was translated into five other languages shortly after the first edition in the Danish language. It was also adapted as a motion picture directed by Nils Malmros in 1997 (see Barbara). These facts, together with Jacobsen's essays, a study of the Faroe Islands published in the guise of a travel guide, and a volume of his letters, are sufficient to suggest that had he lived longer, he would have been one of the outstanding literary figures in Scandinavia in the twentieth century. He was one of five Faroese writers, all born between 1900 and 1903, who represented a remarkable blossoming of literature in a country which had no tradition of literature in a modern sense. Jacobsen, together with William Heinesen, Christian Matras, Heðin Brú, and Martin Joensen, created modern Faroese literature, whether writing in Danish, as did Jacobsen and Heinesen, or the Faroese language, as did the others.

Photo of Heðin Brú

5. Heðin Brú (1901 - 1987)

With an HPI of 45.92, Heðin Brú is the 5th most famous Writer.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Heðin Brú (pronounced [ˈhejɪn bɹʉu]; August 17, 1901, Skálavík – May 18, 1987, Tórshavn) was the pen-name of Hans Jacob Jacobsen, a Faroese novelist and translator. Heðin Brú is considered to be the most important Faroese writer of his generation and is known for his fresh and ironic style. His novel, Feðgar á ferð (The Old Man and His Sons), was chosen as the Book of the twentieth century by the Faroese.

Photo of Christian Matras

6. Christian Matras (1900 - 1988)

With an HPI of 45.57, Christian Matras is the 6th most famous Writer.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Christian Matras (7 December 1900 – 16 October 1988) was a Faroese poet and academic. He was the founding professor of the University of the Faroe Islands. He is one of the most important poets in Faroese literature.

Photo of Rói Patursson

7. Rói Patursson (1947 - )

With an HPI of 42.87, Rói Patursson is the 7th most famous Writer.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Rói Reynagarð Patursson (born 21 September 1947) is a Faroese writer and philosopher. He was also the director of the Folk High School of the Faroes. He was born in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands. After attending the St. Frans School in Tórshavn and secondary school, Patursson went abroad from 1964 to 1965, afterwards taking various jobs in Tórshavn and Copenhagen. In 1968 he traveled across Europe, and afterwards he attended a Gymnasium until 1969. From 1970 to 1985 he lived in Copenhagen, and in 1973 he married. He and his wife had a daughter in 1974, and a second daughter in 1981. In 1976 he began the study of philosophy at the University of Copenhagen, and received a master's degree in 1985. Having returned to the Faroes in 1985, he taught night school and at the University of the Faroe Islands, and made transmissions for Útvarp Føroya (Radio of the Faroes). In 1987 he received the post as docent at the Skrivekunst Akademiet in Bergen, Norway. Since 1988, he has led the Folk High School of the Faroes. Rói Patursson's literary work includes prose and poetry. In 1986, he won The Nordic Council's Literature Prize for his poetry collection Líkasum (1985). This prize is awarded to only one author per year, and Paturrsson and William Heinesen are the only Faroese writers to win to date, Paturrsson in 1986 and Heinesen in 1965.

Photo of Jakob Jakobsen

8. Jakob Jakobsen (1864 - 1918)

With an HPI of 38.26, Jakob Jakobsen is the 8th most famous Writer.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Jakob Jakobsen (22 February 1864 — 15 August 1918) was a Faroese linguist and scholar. The first Faroe Islander to earn a doctoral degree, his thesis on the Norn language of Shetland was a major contribution to its historical preservation. In addition, he was known for his contributions to the Faroese language and its literature, most notably his conflict with Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb over the development of the Faroese orthography, in which he unsuccessfully advocated for the adoption of a phonetic writing system.

Pantheon has 8 people classified as writers born between 1819 and 1947. Of these 8, 1 (12.50%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living writers include Rói Patursson. The most famous deceased writers include William Heinesen, Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb, and Símun av Skarði.

Living Writers

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Deceased Writers

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