Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1941, Side 294

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LE NORD
therefore to preserve the language, literature and knowledge in the island
I have invited all lovers of learning in the country to establish a society
with annual gifts to publish such masterpieces as are written in later times
and to procure such new books as are wanting but necessary to keep up
and increase learning and useful information in every way of life, and
they have subscribed in considerable number in proportion to the scanty
population. But as the Icelandic or old Scandinavian is the source of part
of the English and Scottish, and besides the Anglosaxon (the chief-source
of both) is so very nearly related to it, and in itself so difficult and con-
fused, owing only to the incessant irruptions of the ancient Scandinavians,
that, if I may believe my own experience at the compiling of a new
Anglosaxon Grammar, it will never be sufficiently extricated but through
perpetual succour from the Icelandic: I thought the Britons, the most
wealthy of all the gothic nations, ought not to be altogether unconcerned
about its conservation. Besides, although a Dane myself, I thought it an
injury to the poor Icelanders, and perhaps to the English generosity and
zeal for every kind of knowledge, if I should not invite the British lovers
of Northern antiquities and patrons of the poor but most respectable
people of Iceland to partake in this society.
Any contribution great or little, annual or not, will be received with
gratitude. The subscribers will be pleased to write beneath their name,
situation, place of residence and the amount and kind of the assistance they
intend to bestow, and the collectors of subscribers will please to send back
the list either to the Rev. Mr. Árni Helgason minister at the Cathedral of
Reykiawick in Iceland, the president of the society, or to me.”
Leith the 21’ of Sept. 1815.
R. Rask,
Under-librarian of the university
in Copenhagen.
Nach Kopenhagen zuriickgekehrt trat Rask sein neues Amt
an der Universitat an, setzte jedoch gleichzeitig seine Arbeit fiir
die Griindung einer islándischen Gesellschaft fort. Wenn sich
hinreichend viele fánden, die sich fiir die Sache interessierten,
beabsichtigte Rask, eine Ortsgruppe der Gesellschaft in Kopen-
hagen zu errichten.
Der von Rask abgefasste Aufruf wurde von insgesamt 33 Is-
lándern — Beamten, Kandidaten, Studenten, Kauflauten und
Handwerkern, die jeder den Wert von 3—20 Reichstalern in
Silber versprachen — mitunterzeichnet; das waren ca. 230 Reichs-
taler Silber jáhrlich. Unter der Voraussetzung, dass die Gesell-
schaft die »Sturlunga« herausgábe, versprach ausserdem Profes-
sor Birgir Thorlacius, der sich unter den Islándern eingeschrieben
hatte, einen jáhrlichen Beitrag von 100 Reichstalern fiir die Dauer
dieser Herausgabe. Diese Beitráge boten der Gesellschaft eine
grosse Sicherheit, und ungefáhr gleichzeitig erliess Rask einen
Aufruf folgenden Wortlauts an seine Landsleute: