Ritmennt - 01.01.2004, Page 162

RITMENNT
Abstracts
Kristín Bragadóttir: íslandsvinurinn Daniel Will-
ard Fiske. Ferð hans hingað til lands og söfnun
íslenskra bóka. Ritmennt 9 (2004), pp. 9-41.
In the middle of the 19th century, an Amer-
ican, Daniel Willard Fiske, developed a keen inter-
est in Iceland and Icelanders, and while staying in
Denmark and Sweden for two years he learnt
Icelandic. He came to Iceland in the summer of
1879 and travelled on horseback from Húsavík in
the North East to Reykjavík, meeting many peo-
ple and enjoying their generous hospitality. After
staying in Reykjavik for a while, he sailed around
the country on the ship Diana where he made
friends with all kinds of people, not least young
men on their way to the Reykjavík Grammar
School, some of whom later helped him collect
Icelandic printed material. In 1882, Fiske married
a wealthy woman, Jennie McGraw, but unfortu-
nately she died after only one year of marriage.
After a long and tiresome trial he inherited con-
siderable wealth, which enabled him passionately
to spend money on books. Fiske spent the last 21
years of his life in Italy, and from there he collect-
ed most of his books. Fislce was a good chess play-
er, and when he heard that the inhabitants of the
isle of Grímsey were good at chess he decided to
become their benefactor and sent many splendid
gifts to the island. He showed his generosity to
many other Icelanders and Icelandic institutions.
Thus he donated the Fiske Collection of about
1150 rare chess books to The National Library of
Iceland. When he died on the 17th of September
1904, he had the second largest collection of
Icelandic books outside Iceland. This collection is
now in the Rare Books and Manuscript Depart-
ment at the University Library of Cornell.
Jóhanna Þráinsdóttir: Nær menn þvinga eitt barn.
Þýðing síra Jóns Þorlákssonar á uppeldisriti eftir
J.B. Basedow. Ritmennt 9 (2004), pp. 42-58.
This article discusses a manuscript of an 18th
century Icelandic translation of a Danish work on
education. In Europe interest in childrearing and
education was widespread in and after the middle
of the 18th century and Professor J.B. Basedow of
Soro, Denmark, evolved an educational theory
which he chose to call philanthropismus. Adher-
ents of strict orthodoxy within the Danish
Church were, however, sceptical of Basedow's
ideas and forced him to resign. The poet Jón Þor-
láksson, who later became parson at Bægisá,
translated one of Basedow's works on childrearing
but was unable to get his translation published.
The author also discusses publication issues
prevalent in Iceland in the late 18th century. The
manuscript of the translation is kept in the
Manuscript Department of the National and
University Library of Iceland.
Ingi Sigurðsson: Áhrif hugmyndafræði Grundtvigs
á íslendinga. Ritmennt 9 (2004), pp. 59-94.
(English summary on p. 94.)
Bjarni Bjarnason: Persónuleg túlkun á Þjóðvísu
eftir Tómas Guðmundsson. Ritmennt 9 (2004),
pp. 95-98.
The author suggests a new and personal ap-
proach to the interpretation of the poem Þjóðvísa
by Tómas Guðmundsson, 'the poet of Reykjavík'.
Þórður Ingi Guðjónsson: „beitt sá hafði björtum
andans vigri". Sighvatur Borgfirðingur ritar ævi-
ágrip síra Jóns Sigurðssonar (1787-1870) „upp úr
sjálfum honum". Ritmennt 9 (2004), pp. 99-133.
Published here for the first time is a brief
account of the life of the Reverend Jón Sigurðsson,
best known as parson at Sandar in Dýrafjörður (in
the West Fjords). It was written down from his
own mouth shortly before his death. The tran-
scriber was Sighvatur Grímsson Borgfirðingur,
who was roughly thirty at the time and had just
begun to gather material for his Prestaævir (Lives
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