One of the world\u2019s largest collections devoted to Icelandic literature and civilisation grew from a young student\u2019s enthusiasm for Scandinavian languages. Today, Cornell University Library\u2019s Fiske Icelandic Collection connects readers with sources ranging from early printed sagas to modern fiction, poetry and drama.<\/p>\n
According to Cornell, Willard Fiske began building his Icelandic library during his first Scandinavian journey in 1850, while studying Danish and Swedish. Money was scarce, but collecting became a lasting pursuit. Fiske, who lived from 1831 to 1904, would become Cornell\u2019s first university librarian, as well as an accomplished linguist.<\/p>\n
He visited Iceland only once, in 1879. That journey and his residence in Florence during the final two decades of his life gave him opportunities to expand the library considerably. Young Icelandic assistants helped classify the books, preparing a collection that would eventually reach Cornell in 1905.<\/p>\n
One assistant, identified by Cornell as Halld\u00f3r, became its first curator. His 1914 catalogue of the books bequeathed by Fiske remains, in the library\u2019s assessment, an outstanding achievement of Icelandic bibliography.<\/p>\n
The holdings extend well beyond the sagas. They support research into North Atlantic settlement, runes, Norse mythology and the arrival of Christianity in Scandinavia. Books on religious life, social conditions and foreign travel also document Iceland\u2019s later history.<\/p>\n
Cornell says the collection quadrupled during its first century at the university. Collecting continues, although the volume of publishing about Iceland has made comprehensive acquisition impractical.<\/p>\n
The collection offers different routes into that material. Older and rare books can be requested for consultation in the Rare and Manuscript Collections reading room. Modern books are available to Cornell borrowers and through interlibrary loan, keeping a collector\u2019s personal fascination accessible to subsequent generations of readers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One collector\u2019s fascination became a remarkable resource for Icelandic history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}