Many of Iceland’s national treasures are on display in the Culture House’s featured exhibition Medieval Manuscripts – Eddas and Sagas. It includes the principal medieval manuscripts, such as Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda and the compendium Flateyjarbók, as well as law codices and Christian works, not to forget the Sagas of Icelanders. An important paper manuscript from later centuries is also displayed.

The old vellum manuscripts preserve the Northern classical heritage: unique sagas, poems and narratives which are often our sole written sources of information on the society, religion and world view of the people of Northern Europe from pagan times through the tumult of Viking Expansion, the settlement of the Atlantic Islands and the period of Christianisation.

The exhibition focuses on the period preceding the writing of the manuscripts, their origins and role, manuscript collecting, editions, and on their reception in Iceland and abroad. It also portrays the process of book making itself: preparing the vellum and ink, writing, illuminating etc. are explained in a special exhibit area.

www.thjodmenning.is

This summer Reykjavík City Library, in cooperation with Reykjavík UNESCO City of Literature, invites children and teenagers to take part in the library’s “Summer Reading”.

For every book you read you can add a “sunbeam” (paper slip available at the libraies)  with your name to a big sun that will shine in every branch of the library. In the end of the summer ten lucky readers will get a reward for their participation. The books read can be in any language.

The Reykjavík City Library branches are:

Main Library, Tryggvagata 15
Ársafn Branch in Árbær, Hraunbær 119
Foldasafn Branch in Grafarvogur Church
Kringlan Branch in Kringlan Shopping Centre
Sólheimar Branch in Sólheimar 27

Reykjavík City Library website

The Reykjavik City Library and Reykjavik UNESCO City of Literature jointly present an exhibition of drawings by author and artist Kristín Ómarsdóttir from her recent fictional book about two Hollywood legends, Marilyn Monroe and Greta Garbo.

Kristín’s fascination with the two starlets led her to first draw them in old books and then write about them, which in turn inspired more drawings. Now those drawings are presented to the public at Reykjavik City Library in Tryggvagata 15 in downtown Reykjavík.

The exhibition stands from Tuesday August 7th to Friday August 31, 2012.

The opening hours of Reykjavík City Library can be seen on its website.