During my doctoral studies in Old Norse-Icelandic literature from 1999-2003, I spent a number of months undertaking research at the Árni Magnússon Institute in Reykjavík, during which time I was guided by Professors Vésteinn Ólason and Úlfar Bragason. The Institute is the home of Iceland's manuscripts, as well as of scholars, libraries, and a thriving community of those who have an interest in the sagas, including international guest scholars.
At the time, the Institute was located in Árnagarður, a building named after the same eighteenth-century scholar and manuscript collector who gave the Institute its name, and something of brick in appearance: a long, rectangular construction that nevertheless exhibits the charm of late-sixties minimalism, or the "International Style" that makes it a recognisable, familiar building for most who see it.
Some twenty years ago, plans were made for a new building dedicated to Icelandic language and culture. Ground was broken, and big hole was dug near the National Library, and then the plans were undone by the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, which hit Iceland particularly severely.
Many in the country bemoan the impacts of tourism, but undoubtedly one is that the economy recovered sufficiently well for the plans for building projects like this one to be revisited and revived. The result, Edda House, has now been in use for a couple of years and offers a spectacular, more expressive reply to the former home of the manuscripts.
I got to see it for the first time this week, during a visit to Reykjavík:
