Ný saga - 01.01.2001, Page 101

Summaries
the Balkans these past fifteen years. The author
also discusses what the future may hold for this
troubled province, showing that the international
community is having difficulties deciding on the
constitutional situation of Kosovo. Their task has
not been made easier by violence that erupted in
neighbouring Macedonia in early 2001, where
ethnic Albanians accuse their Slav neighbours of
discrimination and terror.
BOOKS (AF BÓKUM)
Halldór Bjarnason
Visitors from the past - in modcrn clothes. Trends
in the publication of priniary sources in Iceland,
1995-99
(Gestir úr fortíðinni - á nýjum fötum. Straumar og
stefnur í íslenskri heimildaútgáfu 1995-99)
Publication of primary sources is important for
historical research, history teaching, and general
reading for pleasure. However, judging from the
lack of both surveys of publications of this kind
and discussion about thern as a genre, historians
might seem incurious aboul them. In order to
track the main trends in this field today and
encourage discussions the author undertook a
small survey of recent publications.
While the results provided a variety of infor-
mation aboul this particular genre, lliey also sug-
gested several interesting things about current
historical interests. For instance, texts on matters
which were of current concern to the authors
comprised the largest category by topic, and per-
haps their most conspicuous feature was that
these texts centred around mentality in one way
or anolher. There were a large number of bio-
graphical texts; interestingly enough texts from
common people were selected for publication no
less than texts from people in the upper layers of
society, possibly because most of the texts were
selected to be used as sources about the private
life of persons rather than their public life.
A classification of the texts by individual peri-
ods of time revealed that more texts are pub-
lished the closer we cotne to the present tirne. A
rough assessment indicates that there is substan-
tially more interest among publishers in the
upheaval of Icelandic society from the late 19th
century onwards and in the Enlightenment
(broadly defined) than in earlier periods. The
arlicle concludes with a discussion about elec-
tronic publishing with regards especially to pri-
mary sources.
Aðalgeir Kristjánsson
Finnur Magnússon and the restoration of Althing
(Finnur Magnússon og endurreisn Alþingis)
The article examines the involvement of Pro-
fessor Finnur Magnússon in the campaign for the
restoration of Althing as a legislative body after
the death of King Frederick VI in 1839. An
archivist of the Privy Council Papers and well
connected at the Court, Finnur nevertheless
joined the enthusiastic sludents and other patri-
otic Icelanders in Copenhagen in their demands
for increased self rule and he acted in many ways
as their representative before the new king,
Christian VIII. A letter written by Finnur Magn-
ússon to the King in February 1840 is published at
the end of the article.
Helgi Skúli Kjartansson
When settlenient hcgan in Iceland
(Hvenær landnám hófst á íslandi)
In response to criticism of an earlier Ný saga arti-
cle. the author reiterates his view that the defini-
tive dating of the „Landnám" or settlement
tephra layer to ca. 871, instead of the earlier ten-
tative dating to ca. 898, would necessitate rejec-
tion of the date ca. 870, provided by the early 12th
century Book of Icelanders, for the beginning of
Norse settlement in Iceland. This he argues on
the basis of pollen analysis, which shows massive
anthropogenic changes of vegetation immediate-
ly above the 871 layer and isolated changes even
below it.
99