Every month the National and University Library of Iceland picks one item from its collections and tells its story: a manuscript, photograph, map, poster or letter that has lain untouched for decades. Some of the items are well known; others have never been shown in public.
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About the earthquake in Iceland in the year 1783
Sæmundur Magnússon Hólm At the beginning of June 1783, a great flame of fire began on the hillside north of Síða, often referred to as Lakagígar (Craters of Laki), which are in this area. The eruption is known by the name Skaftáreldar and was due in February 1784. News came of the eruption to Denmark…
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Jóhann Sigurjónsson: Eyvindur of the Mountains
Jóhann Sigurjónsson was born at Laxamýri in northern Iceland in 1880 and died of tuberculosis in Copenhagen in 1919). Thus, now is his centenary anniversary. Jóhann was a playwright and poet. Atypically, Jóhann wrote plays and poetry in both his native Icelandic and in Danish. He is probably best known for his play Fjalla-Eyvindur (Danish:…
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Jón Árnason’s Collection of Folk Legends
Jón Árnason was born on August 17, 200 years ago. He passed away on September 4 1888. He was the Head of the National Library from 1848 to 1887, a responsibility he attended with great care and enthusiasm despite acute lack of funding. Jón was also for a while a home tutor for Sveinbjörn Egilsson…
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SA NIJE YFERSETVKVENNA Skoole,
: EDUR STUTT UNDERVIJSUN Um[m] Yfersetu Kveña Konstena Sá nýi yfirsetukvennaskóli [The New School for Midwives] was published at Hólar in 1749. It is the first midwifery textbook published in Icelandic and was translated from Danish by Vigfús Jónsson, a renowned scholar and priest. The instigator of this Icelandic edition was Halldór Brynjólfsson, Bishop of…
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Halldór Laxness
Barn náttúrunnar (Child of Nature] Barn náttúrunnar is the first novel by Halldór Kiljan Laxness (1902-1998), written when he was just 16 years old. It tells the love story of Hulda, an erratic country girl and Randver, a wealthy western Icelander who lived in Canada. In order to live up to his ideals Randver decided…
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Ljósmæðrabladid
The midwife association has published the magazine Ljósmæðrabladid continuously since 1922. It is considered to be the oldest women’s magazine in Iceland that is still in issue. Today, the magazine is a peer-reviewed journal and is published twice a year. The current editor is Ólöf Ásta Ólafsdóttir. All issues of the magazine are available on…
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A letter from Halldór Laxness in May 1919
On May 20, 1919, when Halldór Laxness was 17 years old, he sent his mother a letter from Reykjavík. There he says, among other things, that he was in the company of the poets Stefán frá Hvitadal, Jakob Thorarensen, Einar Sæmundsson, Davíð Stefánsson frá Fagraskógi and Guðmundur G. Hagalín. He asks his mother to let…
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Sigmundur Guðmundsson’s (1853-1898) printing art
Sigmundur Guðmundsson printing artist was born October 18, 1853 in Ólafsdalur in Dalasýsla county. Sigmundur was a major contributor to the reforms that were made in the print industry in Iceland before the turn of the century. He was considered the most talented and artistic printer of the country at that time. In 1871, Sigmundur…
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Jón Thoroddsen Piltur og stúlka
Lad and lass. A little story Piltur og stúlka is regarded as the first Icelandic novel and Jón Thoroddsen (1818-1868) as the father of the genre in Iceland. It tells of a young couple, Indriði and Sigríður, whose story begins in the eastern Icelandic countryside, where rural life is simple and idyllic. Sigríður’s mother disapproves…
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„Hlíðin mín fríða (“Integer vitae”)“ – Sigurður Skagfield
Sigurður Skagfield tenor was born at Litla-Seyla in Skagafjarðarsýsla on June 29, 1895. Skagfield studied singing in Copenhagen and also in Dresden and in other cities in Germany. He had concerts in the Nordic countries and was a singer at the Opera House in Oldenburg for a while. Skagfield stayed for a few years in…
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Tuksiutit sabbatit ulloinnut napertorsaket
Egill Þórhallason (1734-1789) was a missionary, priest and assistant dean in Greenland from 1765 to 1775. Egill’s visitation books from Greenland are remarkable sources of Greenland and Greenlanders in the 18th century. After his stay in Greenland, Egill returned to Denmark where he had completed his studies and after that he served as a priest…
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Is this our Christmas? The Red Stockings Group in 1974
On December 23rd 1974, the Red Stockings Group went to the city center of Reykjavík, distributed demonstration leaflets and decorated a Christmas tree in Austurstræti with a mannequin symbolizing a tired housewife, asking women who were shopping: Is this our Christmas? The Red Stockings Group aimed to draw attention to both apparent and hidden inequalities…