A mouse-click away from the Middle Ages
From the production of parchment to modern interpretations of centuries-old texts, a new website opens a door to the ancient world of Icelandic manuscripts.
The fascinating world of Icelandic manuscripts, listed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register, is now just a mouse-click away. The website Handritin heima (“The Manuscripts at Home”), which aims to illuminate this important part of Icelandic culture in an informative and interesting way, has been translated into German. At a gathering in the Nordic Institute of Christian-Albrechts University on June 23, the German website was launched, with Icelandic ambassador Gunnar Snorri Gunnarsson present.
Professor Klaus Böldl, director of the Nordic Institute, expressed hope that the website would not only be an invaluable source of information for students, but also for everyone interested in the texts of the Middle Ages. At the site's launch, Laufey Guðnadóttir, lector of Icelandic at the Nordic Institute, demonstrated the diversity and breadth of the information contained on the site, ranging from descriptions of how the ancient parchments were produced to modern transcriptions and interpretations of the manuscripts' texts.
Addressing the gathering, ambassador Gunnarsson said that a small country like Iceland was constantly in search of an identity, and that the Icelandic manuscripts formed an essential part of Iceland's self-image, especially because of the international recognition they had received, such as the listing on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.
Two students of Nordic philology – Sarah Strühning and Michael Schäfer – translated the website's content into German. Professor Böldl and Laufey Guðnadóttir supervised the project. The authors of the original Icelandic website are Guðnadóttir and Soffía Guðný Guðmundsdóttir.
Sagenhaftes Island, which supported the project, applauds this successful effort to bring the world of the Icelandic Middle Ages into the realm of modern media.
The website can found at: