Introduction
Located off the north coast of Great Britain, the Faroe Islands are completely unrelated to Scotland or the United Kingdom as a whole, especially culturally and historically. While geographically related to the Orkney and Shetland Islands further south, the Faroe Islands have largely been associated with the Vikings for a longer stretch, from Norway to Denmark.
Information
The Faroe Islands represent an isolated island chain of the European continent, located to the north and northeast of the Orkney and Shetland Islands, with a continued Nordic presence and culture. The modern flag of the Faroe Islands is inspired by the Nordic crosses and particularly the Danish cross to which the Faroe Islands belong, except that the colors are red on the inside, white on the outside, and blue in the middle.
Today, the Faroese language is the dominant and official national language of the Faroe Islands, while the Danish language is the official second language as the Faroe Islands remain integrated with the Kingdom of Denmark to this day. The Faroese language is relatively closely related to the Icelandic language further northwest, but the Faroese language is not mutually intelligible with the more conservative nature of Icelandic, though both descend from the Old West Norse associated with the region now known as part of Norway.
Within the Faroe Islands, the saga heritage is of particular importance, as with many of the insular Nordic regions and territories, even before reaching Iceland geographically. Though the saga times had the Orkney and Shetland Islands under the control of Norway, only the Faroe Islands remain Nordic to this day, as the other island regions are now associated with Scotland in the United Kingdom.
