The legend of Trøllkonufingur

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Faroe Islands is a country of many legends and myths. More often than not, the wild and mysterious nature plays a role in those stories – sometimes they are even the reason that the story occurs. I have made it a goal of mine to see all of these places on the Faroe Islands and learn about their history and the stories connected to them. Last month, when I spent 18 days travelling through the Faroe Islands with my friend, Katrine, we got to see several of these mystical places. One of these places was Trøllkonufingur, “the Witch’s Finger”, a majestic monolith on the south coast of Vágar near the village of Sandavágur.

Legend has it that the monolith is the finger of a witch that wanted to throw the Faroe Islands all the way to Iceland. But when she reached the sea south of Vágar, the sun rose and she was turned into stone and fell into the ocean. She was so big that when she reached the bottom of the sea, the back of her head and one of her fingers stuck up above the surface. The back of her head is the island of Koltur, and the finger is Trøllkonufingur.

Until 2012, the iconic 313 m. tall monolith was said to have been climbed only once, and the story goes:

In 1844, when Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark visited the Faroe Islands, a man from his entourage climbed the Trøllkonufingur and waved to the Crown Prince, as he sailed by below the cliffs. When the man got down, he noticed that he had left one of his gloves on the monolith. He decided to climb the Trøllkonufingur once again to find the glove, but this decision was fatal. During his second ascent, he fell to his death.

For many years afterwards, no one dared to climb the rock. Until 2012, when a climbing team successfully made it to the top. In July 2016, a group of climbers from New Zealand attempted (and succeeded) to do the first ever ascent of the Trøllkonufingur via the seaward face. They spent five demanding days climbing up the rock until they finally reached the top. Read about their amazing adventure here!

Getting to the rock is much easier than climbing it. There is a road on the east side of Sandavágur that leads almost straight to the view point – there is just a small hike to do, which takes 10-15 minutes. After our adventures on Mykines, Katrine and I headed to Vágar, where we stayed with our friend Andras and his lovely family in their home in Sandavágur. Andras showed us some places in Vágar that I hadn’t seen before, including a trip to the beautiful view point near Trøllkonufingur, where he and his brother told us the fascinating legend of the rock.

Interested in a guided tour to Trøllkonufingur?

The walk to Trøllkonufingur is not hard at all and a guide really isn’t necessary, but sometimes it’s nice to gain a little knowledge on the history of the place you’re visiting. If you want to learn more about this fascinating legend, this tour is for you!