Gripla - 20.12.2005, Page 264

GRIPLA
Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson’s discussion of the Buchanan psalter, a total of nine
lines in his BA-thesis, was of no influence in my own research. Rather, I
shared with him my recently acquired materials and knowledge in a collegial
and friendly manner. For instance, I gave him a copy of Widmann’s article,
and brought to his attention that a copy of the Buchanan psalter is registered in
Gegnir, the search engine of the National and University Library of Iceland.
It is quite telling of Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson’s attitude to scholarship that he
should attempt to also implicate Njáll Sigur›sson in plagiarism, suggesting
that the incentive behind his „avid“ readership of the BA-thesis was in some
way dishonest. These allegations are easily refuted, since Njáll Sigur›sson’s
research materials prove that he began researching the Buchanan psalter in
1976. Both Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson and I are born in 1973.
Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson’s formal complaint to Harvard University was
referred to an investigative subcommittee by the University’s Administrative
Board. This subcommittee presented its findings at a full meeting of the Ad-
ministrative Board on 10 April 2006. The Board voted to endorse the sub-
committee’s conclusion that Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson’s allegations are “utterly
without merit” and that my dissertation “is indeed a scrupulous piece of
scholarly work.” The subcommittee
[...] examined every one of Mr. Sveinbjarnarson’s 103 allegations,
compared in detail the relevant parts of the thesis against the dis-
sertation, and received Dr. Ingólfsson’s specific and detailed re-
sponses. We found Mr. Sveinbjarnarson’s repeated claims of “priority”
over historical events, personages, music and other concepts in the
public domain to be disingenuous. As stated earlier, Mr. Sveinbjarnar-
son’s allegations of plagiarism with respect to certain common subject
materials were wholly unsupported; indeed, to the contrary, we note
that the two documents treated these materials in absolutely divergent,
non-overlapping ways.
The outcome of Harvard University’s investigation is emphatic and un-
equivocal, and speaks for itself.
Árni Heimir Ingólfsson
Rau›alæk 73
105 Reykjavík
arniheimir@lhi.is
262