Gripla - 20.12.2013, Blaðsíða 239

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interdisciplinary project “Reading and Writing from Below”, based in
Helsinki, investigates the role of literacy and the written word, including
the production, dissemination and reception of texts, of non-privileged and
common people in northern europe from c. 1770 until c. 1920.19 In general,
the life, education and world view of the common people has considerably
sparked the interest of scholars.20
scribal networks and the enlightenment
Within the field of sociology, social networks are defined as “direct and
indirect connections that link a person or a group with other people or
groups”.21 In this sense, I understand a scribal network as a specific social
network between individuals with their mutual aim of committing both
official and unofficial texts to the written word. the members of such a
group are thus connected with each other through their common scribal
activity. they do not necessarily have to know each other personally or
meet, and not all members will be in contact with all other members of
their scribal network, but will in certain cases be linked only through other
scribes. some of the links can be stronger, or more frequent, than others.
the term ‘community’ highlights, in contrast to the term ‘network’, a
strong geographical or local connection.
scribal networks have not been the sole focus of scholarly attention,
but have been an integral part of studies of, for example, individual scribes
or areas of manuscript production. Matthew james driscoll mentions
the scribal network of the farmer Magnús jónsson (1835–1922) from
tjaldanes, who contacted both neighbours and people far away to get

19 As a result of pre-project workshops a volume of articles was published, see Anna kuismin
and Matthew james driscoll, eds., White Fields, Black Seeds: Nordic Literary Practices in the
Long Nineteenth Century, studia fennica Litteraria, vol. 7 (Helsinki: finnish Literature
society, 2013), which also contains three articles dealing with Icelandic matters.
20 the book Alþýðumenning á Íslandi 1830–1930: Ritað mál, menntun og félagshreyfingar,
ed. Ingi sigurðsson and Loftur Guttormsson, sagnfræðirannsóknir, vol. 18 (Reykjavík:
Háskólaútgáfan, 2003) has a similar topic, with specific emphasis on the education of the
common people. Its focus lies, despite the title, more on the period 1880–1930 and thus
describes mostly developments that do not occur during the time of Gunnlaugur jónsson.
21 Anthony Giddens, Sociology, 6th ed. (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2009), 815.
GunnLAuGuR jónsson fRoM skuGGABjÖRG