The Saga Manuscripts

Almost everything known about the Norse settlement of the North Atlantic comes from books written on calfskin in Iceland in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries: the family sagas, the law texts, the poems of the Edda. Most of them left for Copenhagen in the hands of the collector Arni Magnusson, and their return to Iceland, which began in 1971 and took decades to complete, was treated as a national occasion. A selection is on public display in Reykjavik, and seeing the actual objects, small and dark and cramped with abbreviations, changes how the stories read.

Highlights

• The vellum pages - calfskin books written and copied by hand on Icelandic farms.
• Flateyjarbok - the largest and most decorated of the medieval Icelandic codices.
• The Edda poems - the manuscript tradition that carries the Norse myths.
• The story of the return - how the books went to Copenhagen and came back.

When to go

Year-round; this is indoor work and suits a bad-weather day. Exhibition hours are shorter in winter, so check before making a special trip. Reading a saga first, or even a summary of one, is the difference between looking at brown pages and recognising what is actually in front of you.

Things to know

They are small, dim objects behind glass, and the lighting is kept low to protect them, so nobody should expect visual drama. Without some preparation the display feels thin for the price. Which manuscripts are shown changes, so a particular famous book may not be out. An hour is usually enough.

Nearby

The university area, the National Museum and the city centre sit close together.