Why Iceland? Heritage from the North  

N.B. Several of these “new” arrivals are transfers, fully catalogued and eligible for circulation, from the pre-LC-class component of the collection.

This transfer project is an ongoing access enhancement initiative.

Borg, farmstead of Egill Skallagrímsson.

From A Pilgrimage to the Saga-Steads of Iceland, by W.G. Collingwood and Jón Stefánsson

(1899)

·                  “The official gateway to Iceland,” including embassy contact information

·                  Under the preceding for “the big picture” of Iceland

·                  “The official Iceland Tourism site for North America”

·                  Infoplease® history summary on Iceland

·                  Cultural and social summary from Travelnet.is

·                  “Interactive Map of Iceland and Scenic Icelandic Postcards” under the site “Virtually Virtual Iceland”

·                  Chapter on Icelandic history and culture from Iceland, the Republic, published 1996 by the Central Bank of Iceland

Entertainment news item:

The Icelandic folk/rock group Of Monsters and Men performed its hit single “Little Talks” on the show “Saturday Night Live” 4 May 2013. The Hulu clip is at http://www.hulu.com/watch/486601.

For further information on Of Monsters and Men, see the official website at http://www.ofmonstersandmen.com/ or, inter alia, the information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Monsters_and_Men, which documents awards the group has earned.

The eighth annual Fiske Conference on Medieval Icelandic Studies (also known as Norsestock VIII) will be held at Cornell University, Thursday 30 May through Sunday 2 June 2013.

Please send titles for proposed papers (no abstracts) by Wednesday 24 April 2013 Professor Jeffrey Turco, Purdue University.

See also images from the 2012 conference on the Norsestock Facebook site.

~~~~~

Old Norse and Icelandic literatures (PT7000- ) are now circulating from Floor 7 of Olin Library.

Please consult signs and maps accordingly. This notice currently applies to regular-sized (essentially octavo, no higher than 25 cm) books.

 Icelandic panorama en route to Akureyri

Image created and graciously provided by Danielle Cudmore

The components of this guide offer overviews

 on the land, the language and the people of Iceland;

and on the Fiske Icelandic Collection

in the Cornell University Library.

The overviews include references to Internet sites of interest.

Although Iceland is little more than five hours by air from the American mid-Atlantic seaboard, the island and its people remain relatively unknown to many Americans. The island of Iceland, with an area akin to that of Kentucky, hovers just below the Arctic Circle. Not only is Iceland geographically remote, but also its population is minuscule at about 320,000 souls. The role of this frost-flecked, starkly beautiful country in European and North American history far exceeds, however, its diminutive dimensions.

In the Middle Ages, Iceland was the cradle of Old Norse-Icelandic literature, offering the world manuscripts of most of the sagas and much of the poetry from the region. For generations, Iceland was a self-ruling commonwealth with representative institutions and a strong sense of law.

In modern geopolitics, Iceland has been strategically crucial during the Anglo-American prosecution of the war against Nazi Germany (1939-1945) and again during the NATO cold war with the Soviet Union (1946-1990).

During the last generation, into the twenty-first century, Iceland has been a leader in such areas as fisheries conservation, renewable (particularly geothermal) energy and environmental protection. The nation continues its storied fame as a cradle of creative literature. Modern cultural productions such as film and rock music are significant, even as folk traditions and traditional European modes of artistic expression continue to garner appreciation.

In 2008 and succeeding years, Iceland suffered the grave societal effects of a crash in financial institutions, with severe unemployment and daunting impositions on the country’s economy at personal and national levels. Iceland has recovered significantly from the most dismal days of this experience, not least because of the remarkable fortitude of its citizens.

Eruption of Hekla

From Danmark fremstillet i billeder: samling af prospecter af mærkelige byer og egne paa öerne, i Nörrejylland og Slesvig

(Kjöbenhavn, 18--)

·                  874 Settlement of Iceland by majority Norse and minority Celtic colonists

·                  10^th-mid-13^th centuries: Self-governing Commonwealth of Iceland

·                  11^th century: Icelandic/Norse settlement in Newfoundland; beginning of 300-year settlement in Greenland

·                  12^th-14^th centuries: Golden age of saga composition in Old Norse-Icelandic vernacular

·                  16^th century: Reformation and Danish domination

·                  17^th century: Baroque era of literature, chiefly religious poetry; beginnings of literary studies of sagas literature. Deep poverty

·                  18^th century: Continuing poverty; major natural disasters and declining population. Beginnings of printing independent of the Church and of Enlightenment

·                  19^th century: Incremental autonomy and new literary directions. Persistent poverty and emigration, chiefly to Manitoba

·                  20^th-21^st centuries: Sovereignty, independence as a republic (1944). Tripling of population; flourishing of literature, arts, tourism, industry