Manuscript exhibition

The Institute's exhibition, which is located in the Culture House (Þjóðmenningarhús), focuses on the cultural and political role played by the Icelandic medieval manuscripts from their earliest days to the present. The poetry and prose works preserved in these manuscripts are the richest evidence on the culture and mentalities of Northern Europeans in pagan times - traditions and lore which in their oral form served as the sources of knowledge and entertainment both at royal courts and among the commoners.

The advent of written Christian culture made possible the organised recording of this knowledge, producing books which were of value in political struggles for wealth and social influence. Ownership of land was attested to with reference to written reports of the settlement of Iceland, written legal provisions replaced the memory of the lawspeakers, and the poems and stories which previously lived in constantly changing oral form became fixed works of literature.