FAROE FRIDAY: FAROE ISLANDS, AN EXAMPLE FOR GAELIC BROADCASTERS?

OK, I know the topic is a stretch, but news about the Faroes is really hard to come by in English. According to Faroe Man, there has been an a Danish Election that had implications for the islands, and the Faroe Islands soccer team lost to Italy this past week.

But I hate to repeat the fine work Faroe Man has already done, so go check out his site for those stories.

Instead, I'm diving down the bottom of the news barrel, and I've come up with a story about the BBC denying funding for a start up Gaelic television and radio service. Among other reasons, the BBC doesn't believe such a service can draw a big enough audience to make the endeavor worthwhile. But a supporter noted: ""The Faroe Islands has a community of 48,000, yet supports two dedicated television services, together with three radio stations."

So that's it. That's the Faroe Islands tie in to this extremely obscure story. How about a photo?

This is the village of Trøllanes on Kalsoy. It comes from a great Flickr photo set from this guy.

Kalsoy is known by some as "the flute" because it's long and skinny and has several tunnels drilled though it. The name means something like, "land of trolls." According to legend, the village would be overrun with trolls once a year on Twelfth Night. The villagers found this so awful that the left for a neighboring village each year. Then an old lady too weak to travel stayed behind and was menaced by trolls. When things were getting unbearable, she said, "Jesus have mercy on me."

Apparently trolls hate the name of Jesus, because that one utterance caused the trolls to scream and run away. There have been no troll problems in Trøllanes since.

Good to know, because I'd hesitate to visit any village overrun by trolls. They tend to be poor hosts, what with the menacing and all.