From the left: Guðrún Nordal, director of the Árnastofnun, Lilja Alfreðsdóttir, and Guðvarður Már Gunnlaugsson admire a manuscript in Edda.
mbl.is/Eyþór
About twenty manuscripts were moved from Árnagarður to
Edda
, the House of the Icelandic Language – earlier today.
The manuscripts will be on display there for the next few months as part of an exhibition about the worldview of the Middle Ages.
Boxes wrapped in plastic due to rain
The manuscripts had been packed in boxes, wrapped in plastic because of the pouring rain outside.
They were then driven over to Edda in a van, which was escorted by the police, according to Guðvarður Már Gunnlaugsson, research professor and director of the culture department at Árnastofnun, who adds that everything went well.
Happy minister
After the manuscripts had been transferred to Edda, Gunnlaugsson took
Flateyjarbók
out of the box, a medieval manuscript with
Snorra Edda
, and a medieval manuscript with
Margrétar Saga
and took them up to the manuscript reading room to show Lilja Alfreðsdóttir, Minister of Culture and Trade, and others who were present there.
“I couldn”t see better than that the minister was pleased with this. We are too. This is a turning point, the first manuscripts have arrived at Edda and are here to stay,” Gunnlaugsson says.
The rest of the manuscripts will later be transferred to Edda when the time is right.
“It’s a lot of boxes and a lot of trips,” he adds.