Jens Christian Svabo (1746 – 1824) was a pioneering Faroese linguist, scholar, and ethnographer. Svabo was born in Miðvágur, Vágar, the Faroe Islands to a minister and his wife. Svabo studied history, music, and theology in Miðvágur and later in Tórshavn. Between 1765 and 1800 he lived in Denmark and studied music there, especially the violin. In 1800, he returned to Tórshavn and lived in a house known as the Pætursarstova: it was in the attic of this home that in 1928 a book of songs written by Svabo was found. This manuscript is now part of the collection of the Føroya Landsbókasavn (Faroese National Library).