Precious medieval manuscripts sow discord between Iceland and Denmark

Copenhagen (AFP)

They tell the legend of the Viking centuries, the battles, the kings, the gods: Iceland claims in Denmark invaluable medieval manuscripts bequeathed in the eighteenth century by an Icelandic scholar at the University of Copenhagen.

These texts, inscribed in the register "Memory of the world" of the Unesco in 2009, constitute "the most important collection of the world of ancient Scandinavian manuscripts", the oldest dating from the twelfth century, according to this agency of the UN .

Part of the Arnamagnéenne Collection, directly related to Icelandic history, has been transferred to Reykjavik. The remainder, 1,400 documents, is jealously kept in a vault of the University of Copenhagen.

The jewel of the collection is an almost complete copy of the saga of the Norwegian kings "Heimskringla", written in the 13th century in Old Norse (or Old Icelandic) by the Icelandic historian and poet Snorri Sturlason, dating from around 1425.

Unlike many medieval manuscripts from Iceland with usually rudimentary ornaments, this massive work, dotted with illuminations, is very richly decorated with red initials on each page.

The Arnamagnéenne Collection takes its name from Arni Magnusson, a historian and philologist born on this island in the North Atlantic in 1663 but died in the Danish capital in 1730, who had transmitted by will his 3,000 manuscripts to the University of Copenhagen.

Each loaned codex is insured for five million crowns (670,000 euros).

- A common story -

In the 1960s, anxious to establish friendly relations with its former colony, Denmark graciously acceded to an Icelandic request to hand over part of the collection. A treaty signed in 1965 was the division of the fund.

Under the agreement, more than half of the works were shipped to Iceland between 1971 and 1997, but the Icelandic Minister of Culture and Education, Lilja Alfredsdottir, would like to obtain a larger share of the collection.

"It is important that more manuscripts are in Iceland," she told AFP.

And they could be kept in a future building that should be dedicated to the Icelandic language and thus be more accessible to the public, she says.

On the other hand, for Matthew Driscoll, professor of ancient Nordic philology and head of the collection, the remaining manuscripts are part of the Danish cultural heritage.

In fact, the Scandinavian countries share a common history, and therefore a common story. The small subarctic island that was to become Iceland was first colonized by Norwegians before becoming Danish until its independence in 1944. Norway was itself Danish, as well as part of Sweden ...

- Threats to research -

In all, 3,000 Icelandic manuscripts are scattered throughout the world, and for Driscoll and many of his colleagues it would be more appropriate to focus on those preserved outside Copenhagen.

The university, which cooperates closely with Reykjavik, has fully digitized the works it makes available to researchers, argues the academic.

"These are not objects that have been illegally obtained or stolen." Arni was the owner of his manuscripts, whether they had been received or bought, and he left them completely legally at the University of Copenhagen, "he said. there.

Even in Iceland the transfer of texts is not easy.

"I fully agree with the minister on the need to make cultural heritage visible to future generations, but I believe we can do this in collaboration with the Arnamagnaean Institute in Copenhagen," says Haraldur Bernhardsson, Professor of Medieval Studies at the University of Iceland.

Because for the university community, collecting all Icelandic works in Reykjavik would hinder research on Nordic philology by de facto reducing the number of people studying them.

"If you really want to claim Icelandic manuscripts preserved abroad, give priority to those who are not studied, which is clearly not the case with the collection of Arni Magnusson," said M Bernhardsson.

The Icelandic Minister and her Danish counterpart in charge of higher education, Ane Halsboe-Jorgensen, set up a working group to try to end the discord.

© 2019 AFP