At his local library in the southern Norwegian town of Bryne, the father of superstar striker Erling Haaland made a confession. The spontaneous act in question was the purchase of the only surviving privately owned edition of a 1594 book, Snorre Sturlasons Kongesagaer (Snorre Sturlason’s Royal Sagas). The auction purchase for 1.3m Norwegian kroner (£103,000) was Norway’s most expensive ever book sale.
The Haalands then shocked and delighted their local librarian last December with the information that they planned to donate the exceptionally rare book to them so that it could go on permanent display in their home town. The book was on Monday unveiled to an audience of excited schoolchildren at the Time library in Bryne. Many of the children are in the midst of a reading frenzy in the hope of winning a competition to see Haaland and his teammates play a match at the national stadium in Oslo.
He also led a rendition of the Norwegian football team’s trademark Viking row with a drum. His son, who could not be there in person, was shown in a video interview in which he talked about his interest in Vikings from a young age. Despite not being a big reader, he said that he did read a lot to his one-year-old son.
Snorri’s royal sagas chronicle the history of the Old Norse Viking and medieval kings of Norway, regarded by many Norwegians as a key document of national identity. The stories, about kings, queens, farmers and warriors, were first told orally and then written down by the Icelander Snorri Sturlason in the mid-13th century. The book is the first printed edition of the sagas in Danish-Norwegian – Norway was under Danish rule between 1536 and 1814 – translated from the original Old Norse.
At the time, there were no printing presses in Norway, so the edition was printed in Copenhagen and based on the translation of Mattis Størssøn. The national librarian of Norway, Åse Wetås, said there were no known copies of the book like it. A very special gem.” The book will be on public view in a display case at the library in Bryne and a digitised version of the full text is also available with explanatory notes.
Wetås said the gift was unlike anything she had ever come across and was especially important at a time when reading, writing and democracy were in crisis. Their record-breaking run inspired visitors from across Norway and the world to visit the town in which he grew up and trained. As well as providing Bryne with yet another Haaland tourist attraction, the gift of the Royal Sagas book has further deepened his relationship with his home town.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
