Iceland 1930

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1830571079

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-221162

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Iceland 1930

Edition:: 2. ed.

Place of publication:: Reykjavík

Publisher:: Ríkisprentsmiđjan Gutenberg

Year of publication:: 1930

Scope:: 193 S.; Tab., Kt., Taf.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Literature

Collection:: Economics Books

152 enrich them with fresh contributions of their own, in spite of all the dreadful calamities that have poured in upon them. Historical writing has never wholly died out in Iceland. From the end of the thirteenth and well into the nineteenth century we have an unbroken succession of annals, of which there are now no less than 5060 different collections written by as many authors; and as it not infrequently happens that two or more of these annals cover the same period of time, they are complementary, and contain an enormous mass of information about the history of our country. From them as the main source professor Thoroddsen has, for instance, com- piled a book on the weather conditions in Iceland during a thousand years (900—1900), showing that more or less is kown about the weather for 525 of these 1000 years (of the first 500 years 31 per cent. are known; of the latter 500, 74 per cent). But our greatest annalistic writer is district judge Jon Espélin (1769 —1836). His histori- cal Annals of Iceland (fslands Arbzkur i séguformi) in twelve large volumes (published 1821-—1855) contain a brief history of Iceland from 1262—1832. But besides the annals there has been a steady flow of biographies from the Reformation onwards. Dean jin Hall- dérsson (1665—1736) wrote the Lives of the Schoolmasters at Skil- holt (Skélameistarar i Skilholti); the Annals of the Governors of Iceland (Hirdstjdraannéll), etc. Bogi Benediktsson (1771—1849) wrote the Lives of the District Judges (Syslumannaafir). In addition to this there is a number of individual ‘Lives’, some of the best of which are autobiographies. Many of our peasants have, both in the past and the present, made no small contributions to our historical literature. Genealogy has gone hand in hand with history, so that almost every- body can have his pedigree traced into the eighteenth century, and many much farther back, even to the first colonists of the country, The Icelanders have also composed remarkable historical works in Latin for the benefit of foreign scholars. First among these is Arngrimur Jénsson the “learned” (1568—1648) who wrote a number of books about Iceland and its history; Thormdédur Torfason (Torfaeus, 1636— 1719) wrote Historia rerum Norvegicarum and many other works. Bishop Finnur Jénsson (1704—1789) is the author of Historia ec- clesiastica Islandiz, in 4 vols. Of those who have devoted themselves to historical research in the 19th and 20th centuries, we should mention Jén Sigurdsson, Jén Thorkelsson, Thorvaldur Thoroddsen, Valtyr Gudmundsson, Bogi Th. Melsted, Hannes Thorsteinsson, Jon J. Adils, and Pall Eggert Olason.

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