Málþing / Symposium

Report on Rímur 2026: New Directions in Rímur Research

Málþing á vegum Miðaldastofu Háskóla Íslands — A University of Iceland Centre for Medieval Studies Symposium

Föstudaginn 23. janúar 2026 kl. 14.00-16.30 — Friday, January 23, 2026, at 14.00-16.30

Fyrirlestrasal Eddu (E-103) — Edda auditorium (E-103)

Dagskrá — Programme

• 14.00–14.30 Lena Rohrbach (University of Basel/University of Zürich): Kveða eins og fellur í buccam: Critical Approaches to Rímur in the Eighteenth Century
• 14.30–15.00 Natalie M. Van Deusen (University of Alberta): From Saga to Rímur: The Case of St. Agnes of Rome
• 15.00–15.30 Kaffihlé — Coffee break
• 15.30–16.00 Teresa Dröfn Freysdóttir Njarðvík (Stofnun Árna Magnússonar): The Neverending Story: Kaleidoscopic Narrative Elements and Cultural Memory in Rímur and Rímur-Derived Prose
• 16.00–16.30 Katelin Marit Parsons (University of Iceland/Stofnun Árna Magnússonar): Riches to Rag Paper: Rímur in Manuscript Culture After 1550

 

In 1955, Stefán Einarsson published the first “Report on Rímur” in the journal JEGP. Twenty-five years later came Shaun Hughes’ “Report on Rímur 1980,” which covered developments in the field after 1955. Recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in rímur, with new studies, editions and translations opening up the field to a wider range of students and researchers than ever before. Our “Report on Rímur 2026” showcases recent work on rímur and rímur traditions in their material, medial and academic context. See abstracts below.

Fundarstjóri / Chair: Brynja Þorgeirsdóttir

Kvæðamaður: Þorsteinn Björnsson

Málþingið verður haldið á ensku og er öllum opið. / The symposium will be held in English and is open to all.

Miðaldastofa Háskóla Íslands — The University of Iceland Centre for Medieval Studies

—o—o—o—

Lena Rohrbach

Kveða eins og fellur í buccam

Critical Approaches to Rímur in the Eighteenth Century

The first half of the eighteenth century is the time in which the Arnamagnæan manuscript collection was organized in its final shape following Árni Magnússon’s death in 1730. It is also the period during which the first attempts at histories of Icelandic literature were composed. This paper will approach both these developments with regard to what they reflect about learned approaches to rímur in this first period of Old Norse scholarship.

The placement and categorization of manuscripts containing rímur in the manuscript collection as can be discerned from the first catalogue of the collection by Jón Ólafsson úr Grunnavík and comments on individual manuscripts give insights into conceptualizations of rímur within the overall corpus of texts. The literary histories offer more expansive views of the status and character of this poetic tradition, with considerations of a general kind on the contents, language, metrics, style and (lack of) virtuosity of these poems in relation to both medieval and other contemporary poetic texts, as well as assessments of individual poems.

These early categorizations, definitions and evaluations of rímur both in the organization of the Arnamagnæan archive and in the early literary-historical writings are not only testimonies to the development of Old Norse scholarship at a specific moment in time, but have profoundly influenced and shaped later approaches to this part of Icelandic literary history over the centuries.

Lena Rohrbach is Professor of Scandinavian Studies at the Universities of Basel and Zürich. Her research focuses on late medieval and early modern Icelandic literary traditions in their material and medial context and on premodern critical approaches to this tradition.

—o—o—o—

Natalie M. Van Deusen

From Saga to Rímur

The Case of St. Agnes of Rome

The legend of St. Agnes, the thirteen-year-old Christian virgin who was martyred in Rome in ca. 303–304 CE, survives in three Old Norse prose redactions, all of which are translations of the Pseudo-Ambrosian Passio Agnetis. Agnes was the co-patron of two churches in medieval Iceland, and hers was a Holy Day of Obligation during the country’s Catholic period; her prose legend, like those of the other virgin martyrs, seems to have been especially popular among women in religious orders, for whom the legends of virgins probably had their largest audience. There are also several poetic renderings of the legend of St. Agnes in Iceland, from both the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. One of these is a rímnaflokkur, Agnesarrímur, composed in the seventeenth century by Rev. Eiríkur Hallsson í Höfða (1614–1698) for his friend’s young daughter, Hólmfríður Benediktsdóttir; the rímur in four fits are extant in only one manuscript (Lbs 705 4to, ca. 1825–34), but are important, both because they represent a larger trend in adapting the stories of saints and other holy women to rímur but also because they likely were the source for the highly popular Agnesarkvæði, allegedly composed ca. 1725 by Þorvaldur Magnússon and extant in over one hundred manuscripts and audio recordings.

This paper provides an overview of Agnesarrímur and its adaptation of Agnes’ vita and passio. It focuses especially on the relationship between Eiríkur’s rímur and the three extant redactions of Agnesar saga. It also considers the other Latin and vernacular works named in the rímur, on which Eiríkur drew when composing his work. The paper considers when, where, and in what form Eiríkur would have had access to these sources, which by extension lends important insight into the availability of Latin texts and works translated from Latin in early modern Iceland. The paper concludes with a consideration of how the sources Eiríkur consulted for his rímur are reflected – or not – in Þorvaldur Magnússon’s Agnesarkvæði, which became the rímur’s greatest measurable legacy.

Natalie M. Van Deusen is a Professor at the University of Alberta. Her area of research specialization is Old Norse and early modern Icelandic paleography and philology, hagiography, and religious literature, with a focus on women, gender, and disability. She has published several books and numerous book chapters and journal articles related to these topics.

—o—o—o—

Teresa Dröfn Freysdóttir Njarðvík

The Neverending Story

Kaleidoscopic Narrative Elements and Cultural Memory in Rímur and Rímur-Derived Prose

The aim of this paper is to shed light on kaleidoscopic narration within the Icelandic rímur tradition and the rímur-derived prose in post-medieval Icelandic literature. Discussing how kaleidoscopic narration manifests within the tradition and pointing out how it can also be seen as an integral part of the tradition itself. It is an established opinion that rímur are usually based on pre-existing narratives, often already recorded in prose form. Most commonly narratives based in legendary sagas, chivalric sagas, king’s sagas and Íslendingasögur were transformed into a rímur composition. In a few cases no prose narratives are preserved pre-dating the rímur composition, suggesting that they are based on now lost narratives. In later rímur, the tradition is expanded and rímur are composed based on material within oral tradition, eddic poetry or other types of narrative poetic forms.

The rímur form itself suggests a kaleidoscopic narrative element – where a narrative in prose form is recast into a poetic form. However, the narrative within the rímur is not slavishly bound to its prose narrative precursor. The rímur narrative might contain a change of emphasis, additional narrative plots, play on generic traits or boundaries or in other ways makes use of the narrative material at hand in an innovative way. These changes within the rímur tradition have even at times resulted in a new prose redaction of the narrative material – even in cases where older prose narratives are preserved. This suggests a certain fluidity within the literary tradition, where narratives flow freely between literary forms, adapting or adding narrative elements all along the way.

Teresa Dröfn Freysdóttir Njarðvík holds a PhD in Icelandic Literature from the University of Iceland and is currently a researcher at the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies, where she is part of the research project “Riches to Rags: The Popularisation of Rímur Poetry in Post-Medieval Iceland.”

—o—o—o—

Katelin Marit Parsons

Riches to Rag Paper

Rímur in Manuscript Culture After 1550

The introduction of rag paper in Icelandic manuscript culture had a transformative impact on poets’ ability to gain access to copies of other poets’ work and to disseminate their own compositions in written form. While premodern rímur are associated with strong performance traditions, late medieval rímur manuscripts seem to have been mainly produced for elite patrons in northwestern Iceland. The publication of the Vísnabók [Book of Verses] at Hólar in 1612 marks a milestone in the development of rímur as a form of popular poetry: for the first time, mass-produced printed books containing rímur became available to households around the island. Prior to this, most Icelanders’ exposure to rímur would have been through encounters with rímur performance.

In my talk, I will introduce the project “Riches to Rags: The Popularisation of Rímur Poetry in Post-medieval Iceland” (Project Leader: Margrét Eggertsdóttir), funded by the Icelandic Research Council (grant no. 2511601-051). Among the project goals is the development of a database of rímur poets active during the period from approximately 1550 to 1725, surviving rímur and associated manuscripts. Building on the extensive work of Finnur Sigmundsson on premodern rímur and rímur poets, we hope to demonstrate the versatility of rímur as a poetic form after 1600 and the increasingly prominent presence of rímur in non-elite manuscript culture.

Katelin Marit Parsons is a co-PI on the project “Riches to Rags: The Popularisation of Rímur Poetry in Post-medieval Iceland” (2025–2028) at the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies and an adjunct lecturer at the University of Iceland. She holds a PhD in Icelandic Literature from the University of Iceland.

Miðaldastofa Háskóla Íslands — The University of Iceland Centre for Medieval Studies

—o—o—o—

 

Fyrirlestrar / Lectures

Helgi Þorláksson

Klofasteinar fyrir norðan

Geta klofasteinar sagt eitthvað um landnám Íslands og þá hvað helst?

Fimmtudaginn 27. nóvember 2025 kl. 16.30 / Thursday, November 27, 2025, at 16.30

Frestað vegna veikinda; nýr tími auglýstur síðar.

Fyrirlestrasal Eddu (E-103) / Edda auditorium (E-103)

Fyrirlesari birti grein árið 2023 þar sem settar eru fram ábendingar um að stórtækir landnámsmenn á Íslandi muni hafa getað ákveðið hvar mörk skyldu vera milli svæða eða stórra jarða sem þeir námu og útdeildu. Vísbendingar um þetta taldi fyrirlesari vera allstóra, klofna steina, svonefnda klofasteina, á mörkum á Suðurlandi, suðvesturhorni landsins og í Borgarfirði, alls 34 dæmi. Hann rökstuddi að steinarnir hefðu iðulega fengið þetta hlutverk á elstu tíð. Fyrirlesari ber núna saman við 39 klofasteina á mörkum í þremur sýslum nyrðra, Húnavatnssýslu, Skagafjarðarsýslu og Eyjafjarðarsýslu.

Helgi Þorláksson er prófessor emeritus í sagnfræði við Háskóla Íslands. Hann fékkst í kennslu og rannsóknum einkum við Íslands- og Norðurlandasögu frá um 900 til um 1800, svið pólitískrar sögu, félagssögu og hagsögu. Doktorsritgerð hans fjallar um hagsögu Íslands á 13. og 14. öld og náin tengsl við Noreg.

Fyrirlesturinn verður haldinn á íslensku og er öllum opinn. / The talk will be delivered in Icelandic and is open to all.

—o—o—o—

Fyrirlestrar / Lectures

Martin Roček

From String to Meaning

Applying Semantic AI to Find Textual Similarities Between Medieval Dreambooks in Bohemia

Fimmtudaginn 6. nóvember 2025 kl. 16.30 / Thursday, November 6, 2025, at 16.30
Fyrirlestrasal Eddu (E-103) / Edda auditorium (E-103)

This talk discusses the application of a custom-trained Artificial Intelligence model for the semantic analysis of medieval Latin texts, using a corpus of Somniale Danielis (Dreambook of Daniel) manuscripts as a case study. Traditional digital philological tools are often limited to lexical or string-level comparisons, failing to identify passages with similar meaning but different wording. To address this “semantic gap,” I developed “Scribtum,” a workspace powered by a custom Sem-BERT model fine-tuned on a Latin corpus. This model is designed to generate contextual sentence embeddings, allowing for a nuanced comparison of semantic similarity.

The methodology was tested by comparing several medieval manuscripts of the Somniale Danielis. The AI demonstrated high efficacy, correctly identifying 58 out of 59 identical dream interpretations across the manuscripts, a task that is significantly more time-consuming through traditional manual analysis.

However, the study also highlights the inherent limitations of such models, including biases derived from training data and the challenge of distinguishing subtle semantic nuances, which requires further validation. The conclusion is that while AI cannot replace the critical judgment of a researcher, it serves as a powerful and efficient assistant for the initial large-scale analysis of manuscript corpora, accelerating the identification of textual variants and potential filiations.

Martin Roček is a researcher affiliated with both the Institute for Medieval Research (IMAFO) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Faculty of Arts at Charles University, where he received his PhD in 2025. His doctoral dissertation, “Unraveling the Contaminated Tradition: Medieval Dreambooks in Bohemical Manuscripts,” laid the groundwork for his current research. He now focuses on the field of Digital Humanities, specifically investigating how thoughtful design can make digital tools and applications more approachable and effective for academic use.

Fyrirlesturinn verður haldinn á ensku og er öllum opinn. / The talk will be delivered in English and is open to all.

Fyrirlestrar / Lectures

Már Jónsson

Ný útgáfa Grágásar

Fimmtudaginn 30. október 2025 kl. 16.30 / Thursday, October 30, 2025, at 16.30
Fyrirlestrasal Eddu (E-103) / Edda auditorium (E-103)

Hið íslenzka fornritafélag áformar að á aldarafmæli þess árið 2028 komi á markað útgáfa á íslenskum lögum miðalda í þremur bindum. Í þriðja bindinu verða Járnsíða, kristinréttur Árna Þorlákssonar og Jónsbók ásamt helstu réttarbótum og fáeinum öðrum skjölum. Grágásarhandritin tvö, Konungsbók (GKS 1154 fol.) og Staðarhólsbók (AM 334 fol.), verða gefin út hvort í sínu bindi ásamt varðveittum skinnbókarbrotum. Útgefendur eru Patricia Pires Boulhosa og Már Jónsson. Í erindinu verður Grágásarútgáfunni lýst og helstu úrlausnarefni reifuð, með hliðsjón af fyrri útgáfum hins mikla lagasafns.

Már Jónsson er prófessor í sagnfræði og sérhæfir sig í útgáfu eldri texta, ekki hvað síst réttarheimilda. Nýjust bóka er Þessi frægu glæpamál. Morðin á Sjöundá og Illugastöðum (2024) í samvinnu við Jón Torfason. Núna vinnur Már að nýrri útgáfu miðaldalaga eins og hann lýsti í greininni „Ný útgáfa íslenskra miðaldalaga,“ Tímarit lögfræðinga 74:4 (2023), bls. 775-813.

Fyrirlesturinn verður haldinn á íslensku og er öllum opinn. / The talk will be delivered in Icelandic and is open to all.

—o—o—o—

Fyrirlestrar / Lectures

Fyrirlestrar / Lectures

Stjórnspeki Snorra Sturlusonar

The political philosophy of Snorri Sturluson

Þriðjudaginn 23. september 2025 kl. 16.30–18.00
Tuesday, September 23, 2025, at 16.30–18.00
Fyrirlestrasal Eddu (E-103) / Edda auditorium (E-103)

Fundur Miðaldastofu í samstarfi við Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag og RSE, Rannsóknamiðstöð um samfélags- og efnahagsmál, í fyrirlestrasal Eddu 23. september 2025 (á dánardegi Snorra Sturlusonar) kl. 16.30–18.00. Tilefnið er útgáfa á riti prófessors Sigurðar Líndals, Stjórnspeki Snorra Sturlusonar eins og hún birtist í Heimskringlu, en það var upphaflega ritgerð í Úlfljóti 2007. Prófessor Ditlev Tamm mun ræða um réttarsögu Norðurlanda og framlag Sigurðar Líndals til hennar. Dr. Tom G. Palmer mun ræða um Snorra Sturluson frá sjónarmiði nútíma frjálshyggjumanns. Á eftir erindum þeirra verða umræður og á milli kl. 18 og 19 móttaka á staðnum fyrir fundargesti. Garðar Gíslason, fyrrv. hæstaréttardómari, stjórnar umræðum.

A symposium hosted by the University of Iceland Centre for Medieval Studies (Miðaldastofa Háskóla Íslands) in collaboration with the Icelandic Literary Society (Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag) and The Centre for Social and Economic Research (Rannsóknamiðstöð um samfélags- og efnahagsmál, RSE) September 23, 2025 (Snorri Sturluson’s death day), in the auditorium in Edda (E-103) at 16.30-18.00. The symposium is to celebrate the re-issue of the late professor Sigurður Líndal’s work, Stjórnspeki Snorra Sturlusonar eins og hún birtist í Heimskringlu, which originally appeared in Úlfljótur in 2007. Professor Ditlev Tamm will discuss Scandinavian legal history and Sigurður Líndal’s contributions to the field. Tom G. Palmer will talk about Snorri Sturluson from the point of view of a modern libertarian. Their presentations will be followed by general discussion, and light refreshments will be served. Supreme Court Judge Emeritus Garðar Gíslason will chair the symposium.

Ditlev Tamm

With the law the land shall be built: King, people, law, and parliaments in the Nordic legal tradition

The Nordic countries today share democratic values and welfare-state mentality. Similarities between the Nordic countries are often stressed. However, different roads have led to present day conditions. Starting with the medieval period that interested Sigurður Líndal, I will reflect on the history of the main Nordic institutions of democracy, on Nordic attitudes towards absolutism and democratic traditions and the historical differences which mark the Nordic liberal legal tradition.

Ditlev Tamm (f. 1946) lauk doktorsprófum í lögfræði frá Kaupmannahafnarháskóla 1977 og í sagnfræði frá Háskólanum í Óðinsvéum 1984. Hann kenndi réttarsögu og aðrar greinar í lagadeild Kaupmannahafnarháskóla frá 1978 og er nú prófessor emeritus. Voru þeir Sigurður Líndal góðir kunningjar. Tamm situr í fulltrúaráði hugveitunnar CEPOS í Kaupmannahöfn Hann hefur birt fjölda bóka á fræðasviði sínu, meðal annars Rettens rødder – hvordan lov og ret har skabt Danmark (2022), Konseilspræsidenten – Jacob Brønnum Scavenius Estrup – 1825-1913 (1996) og Retsopgøret efter besættelsen (1984).

Ditlev Tamm (b. 1946) has a doctoral degree in law from the University of Copenhagen (1977) and in history from the University of Odense (1984). He taught legal history and related subjects in the University of Copenhagen Law School from 1978 and is now professor emeritus. The late Sigurður Líndal and he were good friends. Tamm is a member of the CEPOS think tank in Copenhagen. He has published several books, including Rettens rødder – hvordan lov og ret har skabt Danmark (2022), Konseilspræsidenten – Jacob Brønnum Scavenius Estrup – 1825-1913 (1996), and Retsopgøret efter besættelsen (1984).

Tom G. Palmer

Deliberation, Liberty, and Democracy: Comments on Sigurður Líndal’s contribution to the Understanding of Nordic Liberal Democracy

My comments will focus on an aspect of democratic liberty that Professor Sigurður Líndal touches on repeatedly, but which he does not make thematic. Sigurður Líndal stipulates, “When a society is called democratic, what is primarily meant is that political power is controlled by its people; and political institutions are thought to be democratic to the extent that they conduce to such an arrangement.” That is, as he notes, somewhat vague and could be improved by focusing on what is arguably the key to being conducive to the public weal and which was characteristic of the Nordic legal tradition, which is discussion and deliberation before public decision. Discussion and deliberation are found throughout the ancient traditions he discusses, obviously including the Nordic tradition, but also those of classical Athens and republican Rome. Democracy is, I submit, better understood as at base not merely an enumeration and tabulation of votes, such that, in Sigurður Líndal’s words, “political power is controlled by its people,” but rather, as Frank Knight phrased it, “government by discussion.” Discussion, rather than diktat, was a principle of Athenian and Roman republicanism, as well as of the Germanic societies.

I will also offer a wider appreciation of Sigurður Líndal’s interpretation of the role of Roman law, as in the essays before us he identifies as the key Roman law principle Quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem (what pleases the prince has the force of law) (derived from the preface to the Institutes of Justinian, that is, from the teaching manual), which became a mainstay of royal power and absolutism. He does not treat the competing principle that Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbetur (what touches all must be approved of by all), which became a principle of European constitutionalism and popular government, e.g., the slogan of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic of Nobles (Nic o nas bez nas, Nothing concerning us can be settled without us), Magna Carta’s no scutage or aid shall be imposed in our realm unless by the common counsel of the realm, and the American’s no taxation without representation, among other instances. The thorough resistance of Icelanders to the principle that the king is absolute and above the law is a testimony to an ancient principle that was only later, and through much struggle, revived and defended elsewhere.

Tom G. Palmer (f. 1956) lauk doktorsprófi í stjórnmálafræði frá Oxford-háskóla og er forstöðumaður alþjóðamála hjá Atlas Network, sambandi nær sex hundrað hugveitna um heim allan, þar á meðal CEPOS í Danmörku og RSE á Íslandi. Hann er áhugamaður um íslensk fornrit, hefur margsinnis komið til Íslands og var góður kunningi Sigurðar Líndals. Hann hefur gefið út eða ritstýrt fjölda bóka, þ. á m. safni ritgerða eftir hann sjálfan, Realizing Freedom: Libertarian Theory, History, and Practice (2009).

Tom G. Palmer (b. 1956) has a doctoral degree in political science from the University of Oxford and is director of international affairs at Atlas Network, a network of nearly six hundred think tanks worldwide, including CEPOS in Denmark and RSE in Iceland. An acquaintance of the late Sigurður Líndal, Palmer is interested in medieval Icelandic literature and he has visited Iceland multiple times. Palmer has published and edited many books, including a volume of his papers, Realizing Freedom: Libertarian Theory, History, and Practice (2009).

Málstofan verður haldin á ensku og er öllum opin. / The symposium will be conducted in English and is open to all.

—o—