Gunnar Gunnarsson Institute in collaboration with Þórbergur Þórðarson centre held a hybrid seminar on 20th February to present projects in promoting and preserving cultural heritatge. Þorbjörg Arnórsdóttir and Fjölnir Torfason from the Þórbergssetur spoke about a successful project in locating and researching on visual remains of old buildings in Suðursveit. Information about the project are accessible in Icelandic on the website www.busetuminjar.is. Skúli Björn Gunnarsson presented various projects, funded by East Iceland Structual Fund and the Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme,  that GG Institute is working on concerning the heritage of the medieval monastery, for example visual content from all the farms and sites that the 16th century monastery owned in East Iceland, along with that a fishing site in Suðursveit. After the hybrid online seminar the attendees at Skriðuklaustur could explore VR and other multimedia options for the monastic heritage. The online seminar is accessible on Skriðuklaustur's Youtube channel.

Now we have closed the cultural centre for the winter. But ahead are annual events that will be onsite this year instead of online last winter. Some of it will be streamed on our Youtube-channel for those who can not visit us.

• 30. Oct. 14:30. - Memorial program about Oskar Halldorsson, a scholar from the region, with tales and presentations. (live-stream)
• 14. Nov. 14:00. - Writers reading. Icelandic authors read from their newly published books.  (live-stream)
• 27. Nov. 15:00 - Adventa - concert. The band Mógil performs a musical piece inspired by the classic book of Gunnar Gunnarsson.
• 28. Nov. 14:00 - The Gryla Festival. Annual event with songs and tales of the monsterous troll lady Gryla, the mother of the Yule-lads.
• 12. Dec. 14:00 - The Good Shephard read in the author's office. (live-stream)

To keep track on our events, please follow us on Facebook.

The film Sons of the Soil marks the beginning of film-making in Iceland. It was produced by Nordisk Film, based onGunnar Gunnarsson’s novel Guest the One-Eyed which brought him fame when it was published in Denmark in 1912-1914. The film was largely shot in Iceland in autumn 1919 and premiered a year later, one of the great films of Nordic film history during the silent movie era.

Sons of the Soil drew a lot of attention for its landscape scenes and was shown in fifteen countries upon its release. In Iceland, it premiered early in 1921 and has been dear to the Icelandic nation since. 

To celebrate the film’s 100th anniversary, the film has been digtally restored in high definition. And on its centennial the film has finally got its own original score by composer Þórður Magnússon, recorded by SinfoniaNord.

The restored film with new original music will premiere simultaneously 3rd. October at 15:00, in Bíó Paradís in Reykjavík, in the Hof Culture House in Akureyri and in Herðubíó in Seyðisfjörður. The film is shown in collaboration with the Icelandic Film Museum, Gunnar Gunnarsson Institute and Akureyri Culture Company.