On April 17, 1971, two packets of animal hides left Copenhagen for Iceland on a Danish warship. They were dried and treated animal skins on which medieval Icelanders had written pagan myths, the biographies of Norwegian kings, accounts of the Christianization of Scandinavia, and the story of the discovery of Vinland by Leif Eriksson. The two manuscripts, the so-called Book of Flatey and the Royal Codex, as well as many others that were subsequently returned to Iceland, are Iceland’s chief cultural heritage. In this lecture Marianne Kalinke, an international authority on European culture and literary relations, addresses the history of Scandinavian myth and its transmission from an oral practice to a written tradition.
Please note: tickets for this lecture are $5, FREE for CHF members.
Read the CHF Blog post about this program.
