Ritmennt - 01.01.2004, Page 163

RITMENNT
ABSTRACTS
of Priests), which eventually became an extensive
and well-known collection. It is conceivable that
transcribing the life of the Reverend Jón was the
spark that led to Sighvatur's large collection of
priest's lives and was thus a turning point in
Sighvatur's scholarly career. Jón Sigurðsson tried
his hand at various things during his lifetime, and
his history is interesting in many ways. Before he
became a priest he was engaged in teaching and
commerce. He wrote the description of his parish
for the large work commissioned in Copenhagen
(printed in Sóknalýsingai Vestfiarða II, 1952); he
was interested in the awakening political affairs of
Iceland; lre wrote poetry and was an excellent lin-
guist. He became a figure in a number of follctales
from the West Fjords. The introduction to this
edition describes the various aspects of Jón's life,-
his poems and other materials are printed in
appendices. This summary of his life is preserved
in the Manuscript Department of the National
and University Library of Iceland, under the
signum JS 372 8vo.
Ögmundur Helgason: Sltáldsögur Indriða G. Þor-
steinssonar. Persónulegur sagnaspegill af upp-
eldisslóðum höfundarins. Ritmennt 9 (2004), pp.
134-44.
The Icelandic autlror Indriði G. Þorsteinsson
published six novels during the years 1955 to
1987. These novels all talce place in tlie region
where he spent his childliood and youth and are
more or less based on his own experience, or
events which took place in those parts during tlie
depression years of the 1930s and up until the end
of the Second World War. During these years tlie
farmer community of the past gradually changed
due to technical progress which caused changes of
both a secular and spiritual nature. Although tlie
plot is usually taken from the author's own ex-
perience, it is never permitted to talce precedence
over literary style. Indriði uses the art of under-
statement expertly in his novels as the unknown
authors of thc Icelandic Sagas did before lrim. In
this way he continues in the tradition of liis
ancestors.
Sópuður. Ritmennt 9 (2004), pp. 145-56.
A miscellany containing an account of a
research project on the preservation of the musi-
cal heritage of Iceland in manuscripts from the
period 1550-1850 (by Guðrún Laufey Guðmunds-
dóttir, pp. 145-54), and a description of a project,
now completed, that involved adding over 200
maps from the Central Bank of Iceland to tlie
Library's website 'Antique rnaps of Iceland'
(http://lcort.bolc.hi.is) (by Jölcull Sævarsson; pp.
155-56).
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