| Rasmus Christoffer Effersøe | |
| Birth Date: | 30 May 1857 |
| Birth Place: | Trongisvágur |
| Death Place: | Tórshavn |
Rasmus Christoffer Effersøe (May 30, 1857 – March 23, 1916) was a Faroese agronomist, poet, and politician.
Effersøe was born in Trongisvágur.[1] [2] His surname comes from the Icelandic island of Effersey (Old Norse Örfirisey 'island of the ebb tide').[3] He was the son of the local administrator (sysselmann) Gudmund Christie Laurentius Isholm Effersøe and the brother of the lawyer Poul Effersøe (1871–1926) and the politician Oliver Effersøe (1863–1933).[4]
Effersøe was educated in Denmark and Sweden, and he worked as an agricultural supervisor.[5] He was one of the nine men that convened the Christmas Meeting of 1888,[5] which is considered the start of the Faroese independence movement; together with Jóannes Patursson, he is considered to have been a driving force in the movement. Effersøe and Patursson founded the Faroese Society (Faroese: Føringafelag), and Effersøe served as the editor of the society's newspaper, Føringatíðindi,[2] which was the first newspaper written in Faroese. Effersøe also served as the editor of the newspapers Dúgvan and Dimmalætting, and he wrote for the theater,[5] acted in the theater himself, and wrote poetry,[2] including:
Effersøe appears as "the old poet" (den gamle digter) on page 35 of William Heinesen's novel Glataðu spælimenninir (The Lost Musicians).[3] A bust of Effersøe, created by Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen, was unveiled in 1933 in front of the parliament building in Tórshavn.[6]
Rasmus Effersøe died in Tórshavn.