REYKJAVÍK, Iceland – Last month, a new exhibition of manuscripts opened at the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies on the campus of the University of Iceland. The collection showcases some of the fundamental texts of Norse mythology along with the earliest versions of many sagas.
The exhibition, World in Words, has as its primary focus “presenting the rich and complex world of the manuscripts, where life and death, passion and religion, and honour and power all come into play,” according to the exhibition’s website. “The exhibition looks at how influences from overseas left their mark on the culture of Icelandic mediaeval society and the Icelandic language, but it also considers the influence that Icelandic literature has had in other countries.”
The exhibition is broken into five thematic sections, which contain not only the manuscripts themselves but audio recordings, interactive displays, and videos. Visitors start with “Beginning of the World,” focusing on creation myths and the order of the cosmos, then move in turn to “The Human Condition: Life, Death, and Destiny”; “Worldviews, Stories, and Poetry”; “Law and Order in Oral Form”; and finally a section on the end of the world.
Leaves 2v and 3r of Konungsbók, containing the end to Völuspá and the beginning to Hávamál. [Handrit.is]
At least for modern Heathens, the crown jewel of the exhibition is likely the manuscript GKS 2365 4to – better known as the Codex Regius or Konungsbók. In its pages are 29 poems that form the core of Norse mythology, the Poetic Edda. Among its contents are Völuspá, which describes the beginning and the end of the cosmos; Hávamál, the wisdom poem attributed to the god Óðinn; Lokasenna, the flyting poem in which Loki viciously insults the Æsir; and the cycle of poems describing the adventures of Sigurðr the Dragon-Slayer and his associates, along with many others.
Despite Konungsbók’s incredible significance, it’s quite a small book – only 45 vellum leaves long, though eight additional leaves, likely containing more material about Sigurðr, are missing.
But Konungsbók is hardly the only treasure in the exhibit. Alongside it, visitors can see Möðruvallabók, the greatest collection of the Sagas of the Icelanders, including three of the most popular sagas: Egils saga Skallagrímssonar, Brennu-Njáls saga, and Laxdæla saga. Nearby are Morkinskinna, an early collection of sagas about the kings of Norway, and Staðarhólsbók Grágásar, which contains the Icelandic “Grey Goose” law code, indispensable for understanding the social history of medieval Iceland.
Hauksbók, meanwhile, contains the Landnámabók, which describes the original settlement of Iceland, and Flateyjarbók, the largest collection of medieval Icelandic manuscripts, holds all manner of texts – most more sagas of Norwegian kings, but also of the seafaring travels of the Norse who settled the Faroes and the Orkneys. Perhaps the most famous selection from Flateyjarbók is Grænlendinga saga, which tells one version of how Norse sailors under Eirik the Red came to settle Greenland and then ventured even further west to North America. (The other version of the story, Eiriks saga Rauða, is found in a later section of Hauksbók and differs in some key details.)
There are other manuscripts on display as well that may be of interest to the medievalist, though they tend to focus on Christian concepts such as the lives of saints or rules for clergy.
Portrait of Þórr by Jakob Sigurðsson from the manuscript NKS 1867 4to [Wikimedia Commons, public domain]
That said, there is one more work that is likely to catch the breath of any Heathen visitor, and that is NKS 1867 4to, a paper manuscript filled with color illustrations from Norse mythology by Jakob Sigurðsson, whom the Arní Magnússon Institute describes as “an impoverished farmer and father of seven children” who “supplemented his income by calligraphy and art.” His illustrations have accompanied many editions of the Eddas, and even today are seen by millions as images on Wikipedia pages about the gods.
Even just perusing the exhibition’s website, what’s striking is just how much of what we know about medieval Iceland and Norse mythology rests on a handful of books that have survived by chance. Remove any one of these texts and our understanding of that period – and consequently, the entire project of reinventing the Heathen religion for the modern day – changes drastically. This collection of vellum leaves, which all together might fill two shelves, contain not only the worlds of the past, but worlds yet to come.
World in Words will be off display between December 11 and January 7 for the holidays, and then will remain on display until February 9. The exhibition is housed at the Edda Building, Arngrímsgata 5, 107 Reykjavik, Iceland.
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