The Restitution of Icelandic Manuscripts

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The Restitution of Icelandic Manuscripts

Cheyenne Stradinger

Brian Cumer

LIS 2970: Cultural Heritage

July 26, 2011

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Icelandic manuscripts have always been held with great prestige by the Icelandic people. These manuscripts were a collection of documents hand written by the Icelandic people who started writing on vellum in the 12 th century. Although the manuscripts haven’t always been present in Iceland, their presence in the minds of Icelanders always has been. With Iceland finally gaining a place in the world’s eye during the 20 th century, Iceland wanted to their archival manuscripts back from their former colonizers, Denmark who began collecting the manuscripts starting around the early 1600’s. The

Icelandic manuscripts were lawful property of Danish institutions. A treaty was finally made in 1971 to return the manuscripts to Iceland. The outcome of the decision was “treated as a purely internal

political matter resulting from the dissolution of the state and later personal union between Denmark and Iceland. It is normal practice in such cases to return relevant archive material to the respective state archives.” 1 Throughout this paper, I will be discussing the history of these historical Icelandic manuscripts, their transfer throughout hundreds of years to Denmark and various other Scandinavian countries and the long lasting battle for Iceland to get their cherished manuscripts back.

Icelandic manuscripts have always represented the Icelandic cultural identity. The oldest manuscripts date back to the 12 th century and were made of vellum and slowly transitioned to paper manuscripts. Icelanders from every background wrote some of the manuscripts, not just the very wealthy and educated few. Iceland has always had a tradition of a large percentage of literates, even in the earliest days of the settlements of Iceland. “After Christianity was introduced in 1000

AD

as the state religion, a tradition of Icelandic writing began to develop in the peasant society of Iceland.” 2 The manuscripts written by the Icelandic people were stories relating to the history of Iceland and its people, their way of life.

1 Nielson, “Denmark to Iceland,” 5.

2

Nielson, “Denmark to Iceland,” 2.

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The manuscripts contain accounts of local history and tell of the lives of famous Icelanders, but they also contain historical material of more general interest, for example, sagas about the

Norwegian and Danish kings and queens, skaldic poetry and literature, religious writings, legal documents and, lastly, manuscripts documenting the principles of Icelandic law, as either originals or transcripts of the so-called diplomas.” 3

What is even more impressive is that all of these manuscripts were all in the Icelandic vernacular rather than the popular written language of Latin during that time period.

The first work known as the First Grammatical Treatise (Fyrsta málfræðiritgerðin), thought to be written around the middle of the twelfth century, states that writing in the vernacular, laws and genealogies and sacred work, had already been practiced for some time…To this list may be added computational and astronomical works found in one of the oldest extant Icelandic manuscripts, GKS 1812 4to.

4

Even what is now known about earlier Germanic religious practices before the introduction of

Christianity comes from these early Icelandic manuscripts.

To the Icelandic people, these manuscripts are very significant. “Their significance lies in the fact that a wealth of literature was produced by a population which during Viking times and the middle ages even in prosperous times numbered no more than between 50,000 and 60,000 people.” 5 In Iceland, manuscripts were read out loud in the Middle Ages, especially after book ownership became more prevalent. “Farmers in Iceland entertained and delighted their guests by reading for them for hours from the sagas. In the eighteenth century it was still the main form of leisure in the evenings to read the old

Icelandic Sagas and recite ballads.” 6

As well as providing great entertainment and records of the Icelandic society for centuries, the sagas also represented their traditional culture and heritage.

3

Nielson, “Denmark to Iceland,” 3.

4

Sigurðsson, Gísli and Vésteinn Olason, eds., The Manuscripts of Iceland. Reykjavik: Árni Magnússon Institute

Iceland, 2004: 18.

5 Nielson, “Denmark to Iceland,” 3.

6

Sigurðsson, Gísli and Vésteinn Olason, eds., The Manuscripts of Iceland. Reykjavik: Árni Magnússon Institute

Iceland, 2004: 8.

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The sagas not only preserved the old language as a living tongue and a written language that is closer to modern Icelandic than Shakespeare is to modern English; they also helped to keep alive the Icelanders through the worst centuries of natural disasters and colonial oppression.

Indeed, when the Icelanders took up the struggle for freedom and independence from Denmark in the nineteenth century, the saga literature was both their inspiration and their justification.

7

Over the years, most of the Icelandic manuscripts had been transported to Scandinavia because of their esteemed importance as well as a place for safekeeping. Iceland has particularly harsh environmental conditions and it is said that their transfer to Denmark saved the manuscripts from destruction because of Iceland’s humid and cold structures.

8 Many of the manuscripts ended up in

Denmark because they officially ruled Iceland from 1380 until 1944 in some way or another. They also made their way to Denmark as a way to properly preserve the manuscripts because Iceland did not have an institution to properly take care of such a large collection. Because of these reasons, various people had taken many of the Icelandic manuscripts to Denmark, but the most famous person who did so was an Icelander named Árni Magnússon.

Árni Magnússon is one of the most well-known collectors of Icelandic manuscripts and one of the main reasons why so many manuscripts made it out of Iceland in the first place. While Magnússon was growing up during the 17 th century, manuscripts were still in popular demand and many vellums had already found their way into private collections of scholars and collectors in Denmark. These exported manuscripts were often gifts from Icelanders who needed assistance of respected figures in

Denmark.

In 1683, Magnússon traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark to enroll in the University of Denmark. A year later, he had graduated from the University and started working for Thomas Bartholin Junior, who had been appointed Keeper of the Royal Antiquities. Junior’s main job was to publish all the main writings of manuscripts that related to Danish and Nordic interest. Magnússon’s job was to copy all manner of these writings that he planned to use in the publications. The copying of the manuscripts had

7

Greenfield, Jeanette. The Return of Cultural Treasures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989: 4.

8 Hálfdánarson, “Denmark and Iceland.”

Stradinger 5 to be done because the Danish king had prohibited the sale of Icelandic manuscripts out of the Kingdom in 1685. That same year, Magnússon returned to Iceland to begin collecting more manuscripts for

Bartholin. Due to the harsh Icelandic weather, he spent a full year collecting, studying, and learning how to copy the manuscripts until he was able to return to Denmark. It is also believed that he began collecting many of the manuscripts for himself at this time. Privately, Magnússon collected copies of manuscripts, original manuscripts, and manuscripts from Danish official’s private collections that he acquired upon their deaths.

Bartholin died suddenly in 1690, and Magnússon bought his collection instead of having it auctioned off. This helped further establish Magnússon’s collection and also led to a better job with the

Danish monarchy.

In 1694, Magnússon was offered a professorship by the king of Denmark at the University of

Copenhagen. Because of his high standing with this position, people in Iceland became more willing to give Magnússon more of the manuscripts.

By this stage Magnússon had gained extensive knowledge of the books and documents that had been preserved in Iceland and a considerable number of them had come into his possession. In a letter to the Swede Johann Peringskiöld in 1699 he mentions that there was hardly a larger private collection of Icelandic vellums than his to be found anywhere in Europe. This was no exaggeration.

9

In 1702, Magnússon was appointed by the Danish king to compile a land register for the whole of Iceland. He left immediately and ordered landowners to make records of their property stating its value, rent and chattels, with a copy of deeds of ownership for the land. It also had to be signed by witnesses. It was expected that the land registers were to be completed in two years. This did not happen, however, because of the vast land they had to cover as well as dealing with a country that did not have roads and harsh weather conditions. The register was finally completed thirteen years later in

1714.

9

Sigurðsson, The Manuscripts of Iceland, 92.

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Much work had to be done once all of the information had been collected. The register had to be made presentable and translated into Danish for the king. This register is a remarkable source of information. It held information “on conditions in Iceland in the beginning of the eighteenth century.

Regrettably it is no longer preserved intact.” 10

During his thirteen years in Iceland, Magnússon was able to collect even more manuscripts as well as study them.

While working on the land register in Iceland,… Magnússon had taken virtually his entire manuscript collection with him to Iceland and he had plenty of time during the winters to work on it, write letters and inquire about old books and documents all over the country. One provision in their letter of appointment granted the envoys access to all documents in Iceland, without a doubt at Árni Magnússon’s instigation. He had full-time scribes at Skálholt who copied out books and documents which he borrowed from all over Iceland. On his travels he was able to visit farmers whom he knew or believed to own books and fragments. In this way he sought out and saved many scraps of manuscripts which their owners considered worthless and would otherwise have been lost.

11

After Magnússon’s return to Copenhagen, his life remained fairly steady and uneventful for fifteen years. He became keeper of the archive once again and remained absorbed in that work. In 1721, he was appointed deputy librarian at the University of Copenhagen and that helped to further his studies and collection of Icelandic manuscripts.

In 1798, Copenhagen experienced a great fire that changed Magnússon’s life and also the future of all of the Icelandic manuscripts owned by Denmark. On October 20, a fire broke out and destroyed a large part of the city. Some of the building destroyed were “the entire university campus and professional residences in the vicinity, several of the main churches including the Church of Our Lady and Trinity Church-and with the latter the University Library in its loft-as well as hundreds of other buildings and houses.” 12 Among the houses destroyed, was Árni Magnússon’s. This house was also where he kept his private collection of Icelandic manuscripts.

10

Sigurðsson, The Manuscripts of Iceland, 93.

11

Sigurðsson, The Manuscripts of Iceland, 94-95.

12

Sigurðsson, The Manuscripts of Iceland, 97.

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When Magnússon had heard that the fire was getting closer to his house, as well as the library, he began trying to rescue the documents held in them. He was able to pile books and furniture into a carriage that then took the items to a safe location.

The full extent of the damage to Árni Magnússon’s manuscript collection may never be known.

He never took the time himself to make exhaustive inventories of his manuscripts, documents and books, so the size of his collection before the Great Fire is not clear. For the short remainder of his life he lived in straightened circumstances and could never arrange his collection to gain a picture of what had been rescued. He believed the damage was greater than subsequent studies have suggested, and he made frequent reference to this opinion in the letters he wrote back to

Iceland in the year after the fire. In one of them, however, he admitted that he had managed to rescue most of his books of sagas, and it is now held for certain that the oldest and most valuable core of the collection, the ancient vellum books, escaped with only a handful perishing.

Nonetheless, a great assortment of documents were destroyed, paper copies from older books and various writings by Árni Magnússon himself, which he had spent a long time compiling from sources that were now lost. The greatest damage was to his printed books, the majority of which were lost in the fire.

13

Árni Magnússon died the next year. It is no secret the great many documents that were lost in the fire and Magnússon did all he could to save them. He gave the remains of his collection to the

University of Copenhagen. He also gave them a large endowment to take care of the collection and to encourage publication of the documents. An institute was founded with the money called

Arnamagnaeanske Stiftelse in Copenhagen.

Throughout Iceland’s history under Danish rule, it seems that no one objected to the fact that these manuscripts were kept in Copenhagen. However, during the 19 th century, Iceland began to reconsider their heritage and began wanting their manuscripts back. “The story of Iceland’s efforts to have the manuscripts returned goes back as far as the 1830’s, but the issue did not come to a head until

1945, when Iceland, following her final constitutional separation from Denmark, celebrated her independence by embarking on what turned out to be a long, and sometimes acrimonious, campaign for their return.” 14 The fight for the manuscripts return to Iceland would last for nearly thirty years in the legal systems of Denmark. “Though the Danish parliament passed a bill concerning restitution as early as

13

Sigurðsson, The Manuscripts of Iceland, 98.

14

Greenfield, The Return of Cultural Treasures, 13.

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1961 (ratified in 1965), the constitutional validity of the Act was challenged in the courts and the decision in the case in favour of return was not finally made until 1971.” 15

At the beginning of the 20 th century, Iceland had begun to develop into a cultural and academic nation. Iceland wanted to bolster their new University of Iceland. One way to do this is if they had their manuscripts to establish themselves as a center of research.

16 The Icelandic case for the return of the manuscripts from Denmark has rested on the fact that the University of Copenhagen was also Iceland’s university at the time of Árni Magnússon’s will. The University of Reykjavik wasn’t founded until 1911.

Icelanders felt that because of these reasons, Árni Magnússon’s collections would have been kept in

Iceland had they a proper institute for the preservation of manuscripts at the time. These all led to the eventual return of the manuscripts to Iceland.

Iceland began a strong independence movement in the early nineteenth century inspired by revolutionary and nationalistic movements elsewhere in Europe. This influence on Iceland created a need to symbolize their national heritage, and the manuscripts were a symbol of just that. In the 1830’s

“the bishop of Iceland made a formal request for the return of all documents relating to the former bishoprics of Skálholt and Hólar, but this was refused.” 17 The Danish government found no reason to return any manuscripts or documents to Iceland, especially since Denmark still ruled Iceland.

Icelandic independence still gained momentum and their constitution was revised in 1904.

“Three years later, in 1907, the Alþing 18 , the Icelandic parliament, made its first call for the return of ‘all those documents and manuscripts formerly granted to Árni Magnússon which had originated from the archives of bishoprics, churches, monasteries and other offices and institutions’, a request which

15

Greenfield, The Return of Cultural Treasures, 13.

16 Hálfdánarson, “Denmark and Iceland,”192.

17

Greenfield, The Return of Cultural Treasures, 15.

18

The Icelandic letter “þ,” can be translated to English as a “th” sound.

Stradinger 9 included also the documents and manuscripts in the Royal Library.” 19 Yet again, this request was denied by the Danish government. During the 1920’s, Iceland continued to renew their request for the return of their cultural documents and the request came under consideration with some documents returned between Denmark and Iceland. “Iceland received from the Royal Library and the Arnamagnaean

Institute some seven hundred documents and four manuscripts which concerned Iceland exclusively. For its part, Iceland handed over various papers from the archive of the Iceland Office in Copenhagen.” 20

This exchange also came with a caveat. The National Librarian of Denmark wanted the assurance from

Iceland that no further demands would be made for any more returns of documents. However,

Icelanders refused this agreement since they wanted the return of some of Iceland’s most important treasures like the Flateyjarbók and Codex Regius. Once again, Iceland repeated their demand for the return of all of their cultural documents in the 1930’s, but many of these discussions were brought to an end by World War II and the German occupation of Denmark.

Iceland became fully independent from Denmark in 1944 and all remaining ties with Denmark were severed. In 1945, when World War II officially ended, discussions took place between Denmark and Iceland to clear up any outstanding issues caused by the independence of Iceland. “It was made clear to the Danes that the manuscript issue had been one of the factors leading to the break, and that it should be resolved forthwith before fully normal relations between the two countries could be expected.” 21 The Danish government set up a commission of politicians and scholars to finalize the issue.

This commission finally published a report about its findings in 1951. No consensus had been reached because of the varying degrees of restitution that were to be provided. Some members of the commission wanted to return a few manuscripts, while others wanted to return more. However, many did not agree that any manuscripts should be returned. A report was published in open letter by Danish

19

Greenfield, The Return of Cultural Treasures, 17.

20

Greenfield, The Return of Cultural Treasures, 17.

21

Greenfield, The Return of Cultural Treasures, 17.

Stradinger 10 university lecturers, arguing against restitution because the documents the Icelandic people wanted returned, were not actually Icelandic. They felt the manuscripts were “Old Nordic,” and therefore a pan-

Scandinavian treasure. They also felt that it was purely by accident that these manuscripts were written in the Icelandic language.

Finally, in 1954, the Danish government prepared their own proposals to hopefully dissolve this dispute.

The nub of these proposals was that the manuscripts should be considered a joint Danish-

Icelandic possession to be shared between two national institutions: one in Iceland to deal with specifically Icelandic materials, the other in Denmark for more generally ‘Scandinavian’ documents. As it happened, these proposals were ‘leaked’ and published by the Danish newspaper Politiken on 5 March 1954, before they had been formally presented to the Icelandic government. This caused a great outcry in Iceland and, in the ensuing debate in the Alþing, the proposals were emphatically rebuffed on the grounds that they were wholly out of accord with

Icelandic national feeling. As a consequence the Danish proposals were never formally presented to the government in Reykjavik, and all formal discussion between the two countries lapsed for the time being.

22

Finally, in 1957, some discussion on the matter began again. Discussions through a joint Icelandic-Danish commission began to take shape, but the Danish government refused to cooperate with the commission and discussions were, again, put to a halt.

In 1959, the Alþing decided that a five man committee be put together to try and help with the progress of manuscript negotiations. This committee would study earlier Danish proposals and assess whether they might form the basis of discussion. Iceland would also try to formulate the discussion for which they would state their case. Namely, it was a discussion over what documents could be considered Icelandic and which ones Danish. This Icelandic committee decided unanimously that the document could be claimed by a country depending on the nationality of the scribe that had written the document. So, an Icelandic document was one that had been written by an Icelander.

22

Greenfield, The Return of Cultural Treasures, 18.

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The main burden of the report was that, with few exceptions, Iceland should get back all the manuscripts in Denmark that had been written by Icelanders. The Danes should retain sagas specifically relating to Danish kings, along with any Icelandic manuscripts which had come to

Denmark from Norway, and any from Danish private collections which had been deposited in the Arnamagnaean Institute or the Royal Library.

23

This seemed to be an understandable conclusion. With a general election taking place in Denmark, the winning party 24 was one that supported the restitution of Icelandic manuscripts. This put into play some of the finalizations of giving the Icelandic manuscripts back.

“In general, it is fair to say that the Icelandic politicians acknowledged that their country had no absolute judicial right to the manuscripts in Danish possession, but argued that there was a moral obligation to return them, particularly in the light of the ending of the monarchical union with Denmark in 1944.” 25 There were Danish opponents to the restitution of the manuscripts. They not only played the

“pan-Scandinavian” card, but they also claimed that Iceland lacked both the technical resources to conserve the manuscripts properly and the scholarly resources to study and publish these manuscripts.

It was also felt amongst the Danes that the will of Árni Magnússon was inalienable and taking the manuscripts from his institute that he founded with his own money upon his death was something highly argued. It was thought that the removal of these manuscripts from Copenhagen would be tantamount to an illegal expropriation of private property.

Nonetheless, in April 1961 the Danish government laid before parliament a bill changing the provisions of Árni Magnússon’s will and a draft agreement between two countries concerning the restitution of the manuscripts. In June 1961 this bill was passed by a majority of 110 to 39.

However, parliamentary opponents of the bill argued that the new Manuscript Act amounted to an expropriation law, which, under Article 73 of the Danish Constitution, had to be held in abeyance until such time as a new parliament could confirm it, unchanged, following a general election. In the event, when it came to the vote, a sufficient number of MPs-sixty-one in all-was mustered to enforce this requirement.

26

23

Greenfield, The Return of Cultural Treasures, 18.

24

In 1959, there was a general election in Denmark that resulted in a Social-Democratic and Radical victory over the Conservatives, the party which had most consistently opposed the return of the manuscripts.

25

Greenfield, The Return of Cultural Treasures, 19.

26

Greenfield, The Return of Cultural Treasures, 19.

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This new block of the restitution was very much discussed amongst many politicians and scholars and intense lobbying took place. Finally, in September 1964, the new general election was held with the

Social Democrats coming out on top again. “In October of that year the new government laid before parliament the 1961 Act, unchanged, and it was eventually passed, by 104 votes to 58 with three abstentions, and thus became law in May 1965.” 27 Although this looked to be the end of the long debate, another suit began in June 1965.

The Arnamagnaean Institute brought a case against the Danish Ministry of Education that the

Institute still held ownership of the documents, even if the documents were created by Icelanders. It seems that this discussion was unfounded because according to Danish law, it was not actually clear who owns the manuscripts and it was only agreed that the manuscripts were to be kept at the

University of Iceland. It was agreed that after the manuscripts were returned to Iceland, the ownership of the manuscripts would be looked into. However, before the manuscripts were able to be returned, many to look further into the discussion of ownership. Because of this new issue and also wanting to finally be able to get their manuscripts back, Iceland gave up the return of a part of the Snorra Edda and two other manuscripts of sagas just so that they could see the return of the Flateyjarbók and Codex

Regius. However, many Danes and Icelanders wanted to end this discussion, and during a Danish parliamentary meeting, a man named Dupont, a Social Democrat spoke on behalf of the government.

They wanted to return the manuscripts and “he considered it a very touchy subject, but to the Social

Democrats it was clear that they had to carry out the return. He said that the gesture was built on the pre-requisite that it was a gift that was being referred to, and by dividing the Foundation’s holdings they were doing something historic, and ensuring the return to Iceland of a heritage which was placed in

Denmark in 1760 when there was no university in Iceland.” The manuscripts going back to Iceland were now a gift given by Denmark. Of course, there was great parliamentary discussion following this

27

Greenfield, The Return of Cultural Treasures, 23.

Stradinger 13 statement, but this is ultimately how it ended up.

The documents that were to be gifted to Iceland were acknowledged and written into a report so that the final tally of manuscripts could be returned. It was agreed that the restitution of certain documents would take place and occurred over the next 16 years. “From 1971to 1997, a total of 141

manuscripts were released from The Royal Library. The Arnamagnean Collection in the same period released 1,666 manuscripts, 76 facsicles of about 1,350 diplomas and 74 parcels of apographs with the transcripts of about 6,000 diplomas.” 28

The first of the Icelandic manuscripts was returned on April 21, 1971.

The Danish coastguard vessel Vædderen entered Reykjavik harbor with the first manuscripts on board, the Codex Regius of the Elder Edda and Flateyjarbók. A crowd of thousands gathered by the harbor when Vædderen moored, and others watched the event on the first outdoor live broadcast made by State Television.

29

The Icelandic people had been waiting for the return of their cultural heritage for nearly 500 years, and this was the first of them which included some of the most important manuscripts. It was agreed that the transfer of the rest of the documents would take about 25 years. Much had to be preserved and prepared in order to make the ship home.

A photograph was taken of each manuscript to be returned, and then compared with the original, leaf by leaf. The condition of each manuscript was checked

, l eaves and bindings were repaired as necessary, boxes were made for some of the manuscripts, and the charters were specially packed in order to preserve their seals. Finally, each consignment of manuscripts was packed in such a way as to preclude any damage during transportation.

30

Iceland was able to gain back its cultural heritage over a long and drawn out debate. It seems that every issue that could be debated in relation to the manuscripts, were debated. However, all issues argued about did seem to be within their proper legal rights. Both the Danes and the Icelanders had very valid points to have the rightful ownership of these manuscripts. These manuscripts were, for a long

28

Nielson, “Denmark to Iceland,” 4.

29

Sigurðsson, The Manuscripts of Iceland, 174.

30

Sigurðsson, The Manuscripts of Iceland, 175.

Stradinger 14 time, considered to be a great part of the entire Scandinavian heritage. However, it was proven that the rightful owner of the manuscripts was Iceland. They can now be seen in the Árni Magnússon Institute and the National Centre for Cultural Heritage: The Culture House. Both of these institutes are located in

Reykjavik, Iceland where they are beautifully displayed and preserved.

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