Athugið að fyrirlesturinn er á ensku.

Birna Lárusdóttir: Place Names in the Making: Surtsey as an Experimental Space

Iceland has a long-standing tradition of treating place names as an integral part of cultural heritage, stated clearly under modern law.  Yet the practice of naming and safeguarding names is not without its social and political complications.

This talk explores naming processes: how place names come into being, what they reveal about our perception of the world, and how they reflect cultural authority in spatial contexts. Focusing on the island of Surtsey, formed during a volcanic eruption between 1963-1967, it examines how names have been created and recorded over time, providing a rare opportunity to observe the temporal process of naming on a newly formed landscape, a phenomenon seldom documented. The study engages with the conceptual challenge of what is seen as a valid place name, highlighting the fluid and contested nature of naming practices and the dynamics between different cultural groups in asserting, negotiating, or contesting names.

The project is informed by philosophical theories drawn from Deleuze and Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus, particularly their idea about smooth and striated space which frames the landscape as a dynamic field shaped by human (and more-than-human) action and social organization. Place naming is thus understood not simply as labeling, but as an active process.

Multiple methdologies were used to capture these dynamics, including examining published written sources alongside guestbooks from the scientists’ hut on Surtsey to understand the context of place names in different situations. A field trip was central to the study and involved participatory observation with a group of scientists on the island, thus offering firsthand insights into how place names are formed and used.

By documenting naming processes in a newly formed landscape, this talk contributes to ongoing discussions about the heritage value of names, the role of communities in naming, and how cultural authority and protection of names operate in practice.

English below

Í þessum fyrirlestri mun  bandaríski rithöfundurinn Nancy Marie Brown sýna fram á hvernig og hvers vegna íslenskar fornbókmenntir og þjóðsögur eiga enn erindi við nútímalesendur en hún heldur því fram að þar megi finna ráð til að bregðast við umhverfis- og þjóðfélagsvá samtímans.

Nancy talar út frá eigin reynslu en hún hefur bæði skrifað um íslenska miðaldasögu og þjóðfræði.

Meðal fræðibóka hennar má nefna The Far Traveler, sem fjallar um ferðalög norrænna manna til Norður-Ameríku frá sjónarhorni konu; Songs of the Vikings, um rithöfundarferil Snorra Sturlusonar; Ivory Vikings, þar sem því er haldið fram að Margrét hin haga hafi skorið út taflmennina frá Ljóðhúsum (e. Lewis chessmen) fyrir Pál Jónsson biskup; The Real Valkyrie, rannsókn á veröld stríðskonu sem grafin er í Birka í Svíþjóð (gröf Bj 581) og Looking for the Hidden Folk, um álfatrú Íslendinga.

Viðburðurinn er á vegum Vinafélags Árnastofnunar.

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In this lecture, sponsored by the Friends of the Árni Magnússon Institute, American author Nancy Marie Brown will speak from her personal experience, as a writer whose work has centered on medieval Icelandic literature and folklore. 

Her critically acclaimed nonfiction books include The Far Traveler, which tells the story of the Viking exploration of North America from a woman's point of view; Song of the Vikings, a biography of Snorri Sturluson as a writer; Ivory Vikings, which argues that Margrét the Adroit carved the Lewis chessmen for Bishop Páll; The Real Valkyrie, an exploration of the world of the warrior woman buried in Birka grave Bj 581; and Looking for the Hidden Folk, an investigation into Icelanders' belief in elves. 

She will show how – and why – Icelandic sagas and folktales remain relevant to readers today, arguing that they hold keys to how we should react to our current environmental and social crises.

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Styrkur til rannsóknardvalar við Árnastofnun í Reykjavík er laus til umsóknar.

Umsóknarfrestur er til 1. júní 2026.

Umsóknareyðublað og nánari upplýsingar.

Haukur Þorgeirsson flytur fyrirlestur í tengslum við sýninguna Heimur í orðum.

Nánari upplýsingar síðar.