Old Norse-Icelandic Philology and National Identity in the Long Nineteenth Century ed. by Gunnlaugsson Gylfi and Clarence E. Glad (review)

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Reviewed by:

• Old Norse-Icelandic Philology and National Identity in the Long Nineteenth Century ed. by Gunnlaugsson Gylfi and Clarence E. Glad
• Roderick McDonald

Gylfi Gunnlaugsson and Clarence E. Glad, eds, Old Norse-Icelandic Philology and National Identity in the Long Nineteenth Century (National Cultivation of Culture, 28), Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2022; hardback; pp. x, 478, R.R.P. €123.00; ISBN 9789004499652.

We seldom get the chance to explore the origins, politics, alliances, and antagonisms that lie behind the scholarly fields that we so readily take for granted. Old Norse scholars learn the craft with an awareness of the many nineteenth-century Norwegian, Danish, and German editions of Old Norse-Icelandic [End Page 226] manuscripts, but seldom do we engage with these in any meaningful way. Even rarer is an understanding of where they came from and how their presence reflects the forces that shaped the field. This volume explores this topic, arising from the 2014–17 research project ‘Icelandic Philology and National Culture 1780–1918’, led by editors Gylfi Gunnlaugsson and Clarence E. Glad.

Romantic nationalism, patriotism, and international conflict over the rightful ownership of the manuscript heritage are in the DNA of Old Norse-Icelandic studies, yet this is often elided in our work. And then we find neo-Nazis appropriating it and wonder how to deal with that. No field is objective and apolitical, and this history is important for understanding what we do when working in Old Norse-Icelandic language, literature, and manuscripts. Indeed, the field was from the outset explicitly political, tied closely to burgeoning Icelandic statehood and the subject of bitter arguments for and against wars, Nordic nationalisms, and pan-Scandinavianism. Power swirled around nineteenth-century Copenhagen, causing tensions for Norwegians, Swedes, Icelanders, and Germans alike. This volume explores much of this. It is highly descriptive, biographical, and of great utility. In twelve chapters, the fortunes and misfortunes of scholars and their motivations for claiming authority are explored. People otherwise lost to time and known only from the title pages of old volumes are brought to life, their work placed in context, and their connections, roles, and struggles made clear.

The chapter order is chronological, commencing with Gunnlaugsson’s thorough mapping of scholarly work prior to 1830. In Chapter 2, Alderik H. Blom examines the weighty influence of Rasmus Rask (1787–1832) in asserting Icelandic as a language worthy of study and respect. Next, Annette Lasson looks at Peter Erasmus Müller’s (1776–1834) work protecting Icelandic from both Danish and German influences (who knew Jacob Grimm urged war against Denmark based on historical linguistics?). Glad follows with an exploration of relations between Danish and Icelandic scholars between 1816 and 1858. Finnur Magnússon (1781–1857), Carl Christian Rafn (1795–1864), and Sveinbjörn Egilsson (1791–1852) are noteworthy figures of the period. Glad then devotes a chapter to Sveinbjörn Egilsson’s role in education in Iceland. Jon Gunnar Jørgensen then provides a chapter on Rudolf Keyser’s (1803–1864) use of Old Norse texts in Norwegian nationalist discourse, and Glad returns with his third chapter seeking evidence that Jón Sigurðsson (1811–1879) considered Old Icelandic a nationalist cause. The differentiation between classical and Nordic scholarship played out in a number of intriguing ways through the nineteenth century, and Gylfi explores the relationship of Grímur Thomsen’s (1820–96) Hegelian aesthetics and classical learning to his approach to Old Icelandic. The final four chapters bring us to later years in the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, when the nationalist and independence movements were bearing fruit. Hjalti Snær Ægisson examines Benedikt Gröndal’s (1826–1907) association with Classics and his dissent from the mainstram independence movement, and this is followed by Ragnheiður Mósesdóttir’s examination of Guðbrandur Vigfússon’s (1827–1889) professional [End Page 227] trajectory, embracing both rejection from Copenhagen and a laudable career in Oxford. Matthew James Driscoll’s chapter on the contentious Finnur Jónsson (1858–1934) and his role in consolidating Norse scholarship in Copenhagen follows, and Simon Halink rounds off the volume with a detailed exploration of the fraught relationship between Finnur Jónsson...