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The culture of the Faroe Islands has its roots in the Nordic culture. The Faroe Islands were long isolated from the main cultural phases and movements that swept across parts of Europe. This means that they have maintained a great part of their traditional culture. The language spoken is Faroese. It is one of three insular Scandinavian languages descended from the Old Norse language spoken in Scandinavia in the Viking Age, the others being Icelandic and the extinct Norn, which is thought to have been mutually intelligible with Faroese. Until the 15th century, Faroese had a similar orthography to Icelandic and Norwegian, but after the Reformation in 1538, the ruling Danes outlawed its use in schools, churches and official documents. This maintained a rich spoken tradition, but for 300 years the language was not written down. This means that all poems and stories were handed down orally. These works were split into the following divisions: ''sagnir'' (historical), ''ævintyr'' (stories) and ''kvæði'' (ballads), often set to music and the mediaeval chain dance. These were eventually written down in the 19th century mostly by Danish scholars. ==Music and Chain Dance== Traditional Faroese music was primarily vocal, and was not accompanied by musical instruments. Only in Tórshavn instruments like fiddles were present in the older days. When trade grew in the 20th century the Faroese started to use imported musical instruments. Much of the imported music and instruments remained popular only in the capital and largest city, Tórshavn. Rural peoples remained true to traditions of the chain dance and ballads. The Faroese chain dance is a dance, which only survived in the Faroe Islands, while in other European countries it was banned by the church, due to its pagan origin. The dance is danced traditionally in a circle, but when a lot of people take part in the dance they usually let it swing around in various wobbles within the circle. There are no musical instruments used along with the dance, the dancers are singing ballads of various lengths, in either Faroese language or Danish, but usually the Danish is pronounced in a special Faroese way. One man or woman leads the song by singing the first few words and then the others follow. The leader is called "skipari" (skipper). The skipper can get help from other dancers, who can help him or her to remember the verses. A ballad can be very long with a couple of hundred verses which must be learnt by heart of the skipper. The following description is by V. U. Hammershaimb, Færøsk Anthologi, 1891: ''The storyline of the ballad is attended by everybody with great interest, and if something especially pleasant or moving occurs, you can see it in the look and movement of the dancers – when the rage of the battle is described, the hands are clenched together, and when victory is in hand, they make cheering movements''. Such is the importance of the dance as a cultural element that the Faroese refer to it as Faroese dance. However, it shall be stated that the dance hasn’t the same popularity it once had. This especially applies to younger generations. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Culture of the Faroe Islands」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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