"" ("Thou fairest land of mine"), officially "" ("My fairest land"), is the national anthem of the Faroe Islands. It was written in 1906 by headteacher Símun av Skarði, and the melody was composed in 1907 by violinist Petur Alberg.
History
Composition
The song was written in a work dated 1 February 1906 by Símun av Skarði, the headmaster of a high school in Føgrulið, southwest of Klaksvík. It was written during a time of strong division in the Faroe Islands between conservatives who wanted to preserve Danish rule and autonomists who wanted more self-government, of which Símun was the latter.
Violinist Petur Alberg wrote the first notes of the music of the anthem on 4 September 1907, after the melody came to him that evening. He later sang the melody down the phone in the Løgting to Símun av Skarði, who liked it. Petur then sent it to a music teacher he knew in Akureyri, Iceland, and to asked him to harmonise it for a male quartet. In October 1907, the male quartet arrangement arrived, and singers began to practice it for a Boxing Day concert in Sloan's Hall in Tórshavn. Petur, not daring to reveal the song's author, told the singers the song was Icelandic, by a certain Jón Sveinsson. However, the singers liked the song. The song was performed at the concert on 26 December 1907, which was the first time any song by Petur had been performed publicly and the first time "Tú alfagra land mítt" was performed publicly.
!IPA transcription
!Literal English translation
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|<poem>I
You fairest land of mine, my dearest own!
in winter so edge-white, in summer with calm,
you take me to you so tight in your embrace.
You islands so valuable, God bless the name
that men gave to you when they saw you.
Yes, God bless the Faroes, my land!
II
The red that you shine in summer on hillside,
the tempest that destroys many lives wintertime,
and the darkness that hides from me the brightest goal,
and the light that plays me victory in the soul:
all strings that sound, that dare and hope
that I defend the Faroes, my land!
III
I bow therefore down in prayer to you, God:
The holy peace, that I fall to fate!
Let my soul be washed itself in your glory!
So may it be dared – well cleansed by God –
to bear the flag that distinguishes the work
that preserves the Faroes, my land!</poem>
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!Metered Danish translation<br />(by Tormod Jørgensen, 1928)