Sheep Letter

The Sheep Letter (Faroese: Seyðabrævið, Old Norse: sauðabréfit) is the oldest surviving document of the Faroe Islands. It is a Royal Decree enacted on the 28 June 1298 by Duke Haakon who later became King of Norway. It deals principally with sheep husbandry, but also dealt with other matters and functioned as a kind of constitution, removing most administrative power from the local Thing to the king and his representatives. it was drafted on the advice of Bishop Erlend in Kirkjubøur and of Sigurd the Lawman of Shetland, whom Duke Haakon had sent to the Faroes to consider the deficiencies in the agricultural law.

In contrast to the Færeyinga saga from Iceland, the Sheep Letter is written on the Faroe Islands and hence gives a better description of the Faroese society at that time. It also shows some early changes that the Faroese language had gone through from Old Norse.

The letter is preserved in two copies, one in the National Archives in Tórshavn and one in the library of Lund University, Sweden.

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