Ritmennt - 01.01.2000, Page 164

ABSTRACTS
RITMENNT
Einar Sigurðsson: Myndir Tryggva Magnússonar
af íslensku jólasveinunum. Ritmennt 5 (2000),
pp. 95-101.
An exhibition was opened on 4 November
1999 in the National and University Library of
Iceland to commemorate the lOOth anniversary
of the birth of Jóhannes úr Kötlum, the poet.
Among the exhibits were the original drawings
of the Icelandic jólasveinar or "Yuletide-Lads"
made by Tryggvi Magnússon to illustrate the
book of poems Jólin koma ("Christmas is com-
ing") by Jóhannes, first published in 1932. The
book proved extremely popular and has been
reprinted 19 times to date. The drawings,
deposited with the Library in 1989, are printed
here together with a complete list of all the edi-
tions of Jólin koma.
Helga Kristín Gunnarsdóttir: Eggert Ólafsson
skáld og upplýsingarmaður. Ritmennt 5 (2000),
pp. 102-11.
Eggert Ólafsson was one of the greatest poets
of Iceland in the eighteenth century, which is
generally known as the Age of Enlightenment. It
is pointed out that while his poetry is steeped in
the ideas of the Enlightenment it is also charac-
terized by pre-romantic attitudes. Eggert sound-
ed a new note in Icelandic poetry and introduced
new ideas which had great influence on the
Romantics of the first half of the nineteenth cen-
tury. Many of his poems, including one of his
greatest, Búnadarbálkur, are exhortations to his
countrymen, written in order to arouse their
self-awareness and urge them to do better both
in intellectual and economic life. His poetry
marks in a sense the end of an era and the begin-
ning of a new one and shows unmistakable influ-
ence of foreign ideas.
Gottskálk Jensson: Hversu mikið er nonnullal
Recensus Páls Vídalíns í Sciagraphiu Hálfdanar
Einarssonar. Ritmennt 5 (2000), pp. 112-30.
(English summary on pp. 129-30.)
Wawn, Andrew: The Dream. Óbirt ljóð á ensku
eftir Lárus Sigurðsson frá Geitareyjum. Rit-
mennt 5 (2000), pp. 131-47.
This article provides an edited text of The
Dream, a poem written in English by Lárus
Sigurðsson from Geitareyjar in honour of a visit
to Iceland at some point between 1823-32 by the
young British nobleman Sir Thomas Maryon
Wilson. The poem, a copy of which survives in a
holograph manuscript in the National and Uni-
versity Library of Iceland, is both epoch-making
and epoch-marking. Firstly, it may well be the
first significant poem written in English by an
Icelander. As tlie poem's dedication makes clear
Lárus was a pupil of Sigurður Sívertsen of
Hafnarfjörður, whose father acquired an impres-
sive facility in the English language during his
enforced and extended stay in Britain during the
Napoleonic Wars. Secondly, the poem provides a
fleeting glimpse of a British expedition to
Iceland about which little else is known. It helps
to bridge the gap between earlier scientific expe-
ditions led by celebrated Enlightenment-Age fig-
ures like Sir Joseph Banks, John Thomas Stanley
and Sir George Mackenzie and the subsequent
Victorian tradition of Icelandic travel motivated
by enthusiasm for medieval Icelandic literature.
Sópuður. Ritmennt 5 (2000), pp. 148-57.
Accounts of two unrelated events, one taking
place in the National and University Library of
Iceland, the other in Helsinki University
Library: firstly, a reception on the morning of 29
January 2000 to mark the opening of Reykjavík
- Cultural City of Europe, at which the Mayor of
Reykjavík broke the seal of a box containing the
personal papers of Erlendur Guðmundsson, a
well-known figure in the cultural life of
Reykjavík in the first half of the 20th century,
which included, as it turned out and had been
suspected, his correspondence with prominent
writers and artist (by Ögmundur Helgason; pp.
148-53); and, secondly, a meeting of Nordic boolc
historians held on 28-31 October 1999 to dis-
cuss, among otlier things, the future of the jour-
nal Nordisk Tidskríft för Bok- och Biblioteks-
vásen (by Steingrímur Jónsson; pp. 153-57).
Finally, there is a correction relating to an article
in Ritmennt 4 (1999), pp.126-39 (p. 157).
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