National Archives of the Faroe Islands National Archives of the Faroe Islands The National Archives of the Faroe Islands () are located in Tórshavn; they were established there in 1932 as a government archive. It is now the largest collection of documents in the country and has acquired educational and research functions. In 1932, the Danish government responded to the request of Faroese politicians and administrators to stop archiving documents in Denmark rather than in the Faroes. Government and military documents were however exempted. The archive was moved in 1972 to rooms in the Natural History Museum, including a reading room. In the 1980s they were
History of the Faroe Islands Harald Hårfagre, and that other Norse were driven to the Faroe Islands due to his chaotic rule. This mass migration to the Faroe Islands shows a prior knowledge of the Viking settlements' locations, furthering the claim of Grímur Kamban's settlement much earlier. While Kamban is recognized as the first Viking settler of the Faroe Islands, his surname is of Gaelic origin. Writings from the Papar, an order of Irish monks, show that they left the Faroe Islands due to ongoing Viking raids. The name of the islands is first recorded on the Hereford "mappa mundi" (1280), where they are labelled