Exhibition about Eirík Magnússon, librarian in Cambridge (1833-1913)
An exhibition has been opened to mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Eiríkur Magnússon, librarian at Cambridge (1833-1913). Eiríkur was a theologian by education but carried out scholarly work in many fields. He was an active translator and publisher of various ancient texts, theological works, poems and hymns, folk tales and fairy tales. Eiríkur had a significant collaboration with George Powell and William Morris for many years on the translation and publication of Icelandic literature. Powell and Morris translated, among other things, most of Jón Árnason's folk tales, which were published in two volumes in 1864 and 1866. Eiríkur and Morris translated many excellent Icelandic works such as Heimskringla , Grettir's saga , Völsunga saga and Gunnlaug's saga ormstung u. Eiríkur translated the Völuspá into English and also, among other things, the hymn "Allt eins og blómstrið eina" by Hallgrímur Pétursson. Eiríkur also translated into Icelandic, including Shakespeare's The Tempest and John Bunyan's Pilgrim 's Progress. Eiríkur was a great advocate for the interests of Iceland. He had considerable contact with Jón Sigurðsson, as both were Geirung members, members of Atgeirn, a division within the Icelandic Society of Friends. He was also a campaigner for "open libraries" that would benefit the entire public and presented ideas for the future library, which he envisioned would be spiral-shaped and could be added to from the center.
The exhibition catalogue can be found here.
