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Erling Haaland Donates Rare 1594 Norse Sagas to Bryne Library

The gift secures public access to a unique Norse volume at Bryne Library with a push for local reading.

Overview

  • Haaland and his father bought the two-volume 1594 edition for 1.3 million Norwegian crowns, a price reported as a national record for a book sale.
  • The donation requires the only known copy to remain on permanent display at Bryne Library with public access.
  • Time Municipality tied the gift to a school reading contest that offers a trip to watch Norway at Oslo’s Ullevaal Stadium.
  • The book came from collector Johan Fredrik Odfjell through SD Auction, with the buyers named by the municipality only after the sale.
  • The volume is Mattis Størssøn’s vernacular translations of Snorri Sturluson’s sagas plus Sverri’s and Håkon Håkonsson’s histories, first printed in Denmark years after Størssøn’s death.