Jón Atli Benediktsson, Rector of the University sent the following summer greetings to students and staff on 19 April
"Dear students and colleagues,
Country, nation and tongue, the true trinity.
The words of the national poet Snorri Hjartarson have seldom rung truer as today marks the end of an era in many ways. We are not only saying goodbye to a long and harsh winter but also accepting a beautiful and long-awaited gift – a new and magnificent building dedicated to the Icelandic language. The building is, furthermore, dedicated to our cultural heritage, Sagas and ancient rhymes, preserved orally through countless generations before the medieval scribes wrote them down in the manuscripts that Icelanders safeguard for humanity.
This new and magnificent house, in the middle of campus, provides the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies and Icelandic studies at the University of Iceland with excellent facilities to conduct research and reflect on the Icelandic language. This includes gathering, disseminating and preserving knowledge of the Icelandic language, literature, history, culture and traditions; the key to sensing our past and ourselves.
It is thus fitting to bid winter farewell by the inauguration of this new and beautiful house and giving it a name. It was on the last day of winter in 1971 that Flateyjarbók, the largest medieval Icelandic manuscript and a cultural treasure, was repatriated to Iceland. Helge Larsen, the Danish Minister of Education, delivered the manuscript to his Icelandic colleague, Gylfi Þ. Gíslason, who in turn handed it over to Magnús Már Lárusson, rector of the University of Iceland for safekeeping.
Tomorrow, we celebrate summer by opening the House of Icelandic Studies between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. You are all welcome.
May the new building and all the important work that will be conducted there inspire us all to follow the encouragement of the poet Margrét Jónsdóttir who said that it is the role of all Icelanders to preserve the Icelandic language, our true heritage.
Congratulations, dear students and colleagues.
Happy summer!
Jón Atli Benediktsson, Rector"