Ritmennt - 01.01.1999, Page 165

RITMENNT
Abstracts
Veturliði Óskarsson: íslensk bók í þýsku bóka-
safni. Ritmennt 4 (1999), pp. 9-32.
Some years ago an Icelandic manuscript was
discovered in the library of a German grammar
school, Die Alte Landesschule in Korbach.
Written about 1815, the manuscript was donated
to the library together with other books and
manuscripts from the library of Dr. C.C.J. von
Bunsen (1791-1860), a Prussian ambassador and
bibliophile who studied Icelandic in Copenhagen
for some months as a young man. The manu-
script contains the Hálfdanar saga gamla og
sona hans (the Saga of Hálfdan the Old and His
Sons) composed by Jón Espólín, the historian,
about 1800 in imitation of the mythical-heroic
sagas of the 13th and 14th centuries. Bound with
the manuscript are four Icelandic pamphlets,
published in 1755-1815.
Aðalgeir Kristjánsson: Þorgeir í lundinum góða.
Ritmennt 4 (1999), pp. 33-56.
Þorgeir Guðmundsson (1794—1871) came to
Copenhagen in 1818 to study at the University
and became one of tlie rnost prominent
Icelandcrs there in the 1820s and 1830s. He is
best known for his work for the Icelandic
Literary Society (Copenhagen Division), of
which he was president for ten years, and as one
of the founders and editors (until 1831) of the
Society of Northern Antiquaries. Beside his
work for the societies, he published several
books himself. He became a parish priest in
Lolland in 1839 and on his death he bequeathed
a considerable collection of books and a few
manuscripts to the National Library of Iceland.
Ingibjörg Steinunn Sverrisdóttir: Lestrarfélög
presta. Athugun á aðföngum, bókakosti og útlán-
um Möllersku lestrarfélaganna. Ritmennt 4
(1999), pp. 57-83.
In 1833 Jens Moller (1779-1833), Professor of
Theology in the University of Copenhagen, took
the initiative to found reading societies for cler-
gymen in four different parts of Iceland, and by
the middle of the century such societies flour-
ished in many places around the country. By
studying the acquisitions records of the so-
cieties, purchases, donations and grants, as well
as their circulation records and other sources
relating to their history, an attempt is made to
draw a coherent picture of the growth of the
Moller reading societies with particular refer-
ence to how the collections were built up and
how they changed over time.
Arni Heimir Ingólfsson: Beethoven í Tjarnar-
götunni. Um Jón Leifs og áhrif meistarans. Rit-
mennt 4 (1999), pp. 84-101.
(English summary on p. 101.)
Jón Viðar Jónsson: Leynimelur 13 snýst í harm-
leik. Ritmennt 4 (1999), pp. 102-25.
Several letters that passed between Haraldur
Á. Sigurðsson (1901-84), the actor, and Gunnar
R. Hansen (1901-64), the director, in the years
1946-50 are preserved in the National and
University Library of Iceland. This correspon-
dence is of historical interest from the point of
view of the Icelandic theatre as well as the
Icelandic cinema. On the one hand it sheds light
on the reasons why Gunnar went to Iceland in
the summer of 1950, settled there and became
one of the most influential and, in some people's
opinion, the foremost among directors in Iceland
in the early fifties, a most important formative
period in the history of the theatre in Iceland.
On the other hand it brings to light quite unex-
pectedly rather odd information as to why one of
the most ambitious early attempts of Icelanders
to start making films on their own came to noth-
ing.
Manfreð Vilhjálmsson: Þjóðarbókhlaðan frá sjón-
arhóli arkitekts. Ritmennt 4 (1999), pp. 126-39.
The National and University Library build-
ing, Þjóðarbókhlaða, was taken into use on 1
159