Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, or The Old Icelandic Text Society is a

text publication society A text publication society is a learned society which publishes (either as its sole function, or as a principal function) scholarly editions of old works of historical or literary interest, or archival documents. In addition to full texts, a text p ...

. It is the standard publisher of Old Icelandic texts (such as the

Sagas of Icelanders The sagas of Icelanders ( is, Íslendingasögur, ), also known as family sagas, are one genre of Icelandic sagas. They are prose narratives mostly based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the ninth, tenth, and early el ...

Kings' sagas Kings' sagas ( is, konungasögur, nn, kongesoger, -sogor, nb, kongesagaer) are Old Norse sagas which principally tell of the lives of semi-legendary and legendary (mythological, fictional) Nordic kings, also known as saga kings. They were compo ...

and bishops' sagas) with thorough introductions and comprehensive notes. The Society was founded in 1928 by

Jón Ásbjörnsson Jón is an Old Norse common name still widely used in Iceland and the Faroes. According to Icelandic custom, people named Jón are generally referred to by first and middle names and those without a middle name are referred to with both first nam ...

and launched its text series of

medieval Icelandic literature Icelandic literature refers to literature written in Iceland or by Icelandic people. It is best known for the sagas written in medieval times, starting in the 13th century. As Icelandic and Old Norse are almost the same, and because Icelandic wo ...

known as ''Íslenzk fornrit'' in 1933. The series was founded as an

Icelandic language Icelandic (; is, íslenska, link=no ) is a North Germanic language spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national language. Due to being a West Scandinavian language, it is most closely re ...

edition along the lines of the

German language German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...

series ''Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek'' (published 1892–1929). The Society's publications are distributed by the

Icelandic Literary Society The Icelandic Literary Society (Hið Íslenzka Bókmenntafélag), founded in 1816, is a society dedicated to promoting and strengthening Icelandic language, literature and learning. The society was founded in 1816, when the Icelandic independence m ...

(''Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag''). The president of the company (2019) is

Halldór Blöndal Halldór Blöndal (born 24 August 1938, Reykjavík, Iceland) is a politician of the Independence Party (Iceland). He is the son of Kristjana Benediktsdóttir, Bjarni Benediktsson's sister. He worked as a teacher and a journalist from 1959 until ...

External links

Official site

Íslenzk fornrit series catalogue in English
(PDF; 847 kB) (includes a detailed history of the society, 1928–2018) Academic publishing companies Sagas of Icelanders 1928 establishments in Iceland Text publication societies {{publish-company-stub