ETHNOLOGY IN MUSEUMS IN ICELAND - A GENERAL VIEW Hallgerdur Gisladottir In this paper two themes will be treated roughly: the material collections on folk life in Iceland and the institutions which keep them - with special emphasis on the Ethnological Department of the National Museum - and the development of ethnological museums in Iceland. The collecting of folktales and folklore material began in Iceland in the mid-19* century, following a similar development in its neighbouring countries. At first collecting involved primarily all kinds of stories, riddles and old poetry. In the late 19* century and in the first half of the 20* century major collections of Icelandic folklore were published. The first decades of the 20* century saw the beginning of recording folk songs (e.g. hymn tunes and rimur - a distinctively Icelandic form of narrative poetry, half-simg when presented). This was mostly done by enthusiastic individuals and societies but also with foreign support. In 1930, The Icelandic State Broadcasting Service (RÜV) started its operation and on their initiative a considerable amount of material has been collected and is kept in the archives of RÜV. In the Manuscript Collection of the National Icelandic Library and in some of the local museums there are considerable collections of written ethnological material. The National Museum started its systematic collecting of folklore items and data on material culture in the late fifties. In 1963 the Ethnological Department of The National Museimi was founded and at about the same time The Icelandic Manuscript Institution (a musetim of medieval Icelandic manuscripts, now named The Amamagnaen Institute) also started recording folklore material. The division of areas of work between these two institutions is roughly as follows: the A. I. focuses more on music, poetry and narrative while the National Museum centres on material culture - according to the informative use it makes of the material for exhibitions. But the archives of both institutions overlap each other considerably, e.g. in the collections on dreams, rhymes, verses and supernatural phenomena. The interest dedicated to collecting folklore material and the fotmdation of The National Museum in 1863 were strongly inspired by the nationalist campaign 407 Hallgerdur Gisladóttir in Iceland, which was at that time part of Denmark. The Ethnological Department was established in 1963 to mark the Museum's Centenary. The first director was lor Magnusson who was appointed State Antiquarian and has occupied the function ever since. He is presently writing a book on silver and silversmiths in Iceland which is partly based on the department's collections. After 1968 the department was headed by Ami Bjömsson, Ph. D., who has made good use of the Archives in writing several books and articles on feasts and holidays in Iceland. Untu 1979, Ludvik Kristjânsson, Ph.D., was a member of the staff and he produced a five-volimie work on all aspects of fishing and on the uses of coastal resources in Iceland. After the retirement of Ludvik Kristjânsson, HaUgerdur Gisladóttir , M.A., joined the department's staff and has been its head for the last two years. Her specialist field is Icelandic food and she has written several articles and produced radio and TV programs on the topic. The department gathers information through tape-recorded interviews and questionnaires distributed by radio and television, but chiefly by means of questiormaires sent out to informants in all parts of the country. The density of coverage is close to one informant per thousand inhabitants of the total population of around 270,000. Historically speaking, there were 100,000 iiihabitants in 1900, when 80% of them lived in rural areas. Nowadays, less than 10% do so and Iceland's society has imdergone profound changes in a very short period. The scattered nature of the population and the difficult communications due to the country's geography, have led to individual developments of different kinds in different places - and these differences show clearly in the Ethnological Department's research. The subjects of the questionnaires cover topics such as the slaughtering of animals, fertilising meadows, death and burial, fuel, milk and milk products, the birth of a child and its first years, the visit of a guest to a farm, home-made shoes, wool-working crafts, turf-cutting, walls around homesteads, the first day of summer, the hay harvest, heavenly bodies, horse medicine, games, superstitions relating to the appearance of special distinguishing marks in individual persons, seasonal festivities and customs, weather and its prediction, sheep shelters and the feeding of animals, skating, skiing, beds and sleeping customs, processing horse-hair, children's games and toys, church life, the search for and the use of water, horse riding and transportation, smithies, road-making, kitchen and kitchen work, food and drink, bread-baking and the grinding of flour, the use of horn and bones, bird catching, riddles and jingles, dreams and omens, personal and home hygienics, dogs, naming of domestic animals, popular music life, learning to read and write, home-made clothes and fashion, evü animals, embroidery, the use of eider down, engagement and marriage, gardening and vegetables, fairies, feasts and holidays connected with historical nationalist meetings and the establishment of the Republic, poultry, folk medicine, fishing in lakes and rivers and Thorrablót (traditional feasts in the old winter month Thorri). 408 Ethnology in museums in Iceland - a general view During the first two decades, the emphasis of the collectors was mainly on the 1890-1930 period which preceded the so-called "technical revolution" and the introduction of radio, machinery, electricity etc. In this period, Iceland had an unusual community structure consisting of farmers with a remarkably thorough and up-to-date knowledge of literature and human sciences, but whose economic life and working methods also had an almost medieval character. After 1980 more emphasis has also been laid on collecting information about life in towns and villages and on the period up to 1950. Questionnaires have been issued about the migration from the coimtryside to the town and about the experience of growing up in a town, becoming a wage worker, of moving to a new home and establishing one's own family, social life and forms of entertainment there. The department has also been asking for information on the first cars in Iceland and in 1990 sent out elaborate questions about the 1940- 1945 occupation period. In addition, the work of Ludvik Kristjânsson has been continued by sending out questionnaires about fishery on sailing vessels, motor boats, and trawlers. In his five volumes Ludvik Kristjânsson's had reached the period when fishing in oared boats ended, that is around 1900. The department usually sends out two questionnaires a year and the average expansion of the archives in the last 5 years has been 438 manuscripts per year. More and more scholars and students have been using the Archive of the Ethnological Department, which now consists of some 13,000 manuscripts created by over 2,000 informants. Several academic papers and theses have been based on these resources, either entirely or to some extent. University students are the major users of the archive. For some years now a programme has been running in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Iceland which confers a degree in Folk-life studies. The emphasis in this programme is distinctly more on folklore than on material culture. Over the last years computerisation of the entire archive has been in progress, including a text retrieval software which enhances the options to search and access items. More than 80% of the materials in the archive is already computerised. Due to financial reasons the ethnological départirent has only one permanent employee - its head. The use of temporary employees, e.g. to tianscribe material, depends upon fund-raising. This has resulted in an increased emphasis on collecting material in co-operation with institutions capable of co- financing projects. A recent example was the sending out of questionnaires on road constiuction, in which funds from the Road Adminisfration were used to finance the transcription of the collected material. We are now gathering information on people's perceptions of the forces of nature in action (Iceland is a land of avalanches, earth slips, earthquakes, eruptions, glaciers etc.). The Icelandic Meteorological Office provides fimds for the programme. Throughout the country there are also local museums, varying in size, which mostly concentiate on local folklore and material culture. They primarily collect 409 Hallgerdur Gisladóttir and exhibit items from the 19* and 20* centuries and most of them are open only during the tourist season in summer. During the winter many of them are used by the local elementary schools. Some of these museums are located in traditional farmhouses, gabled stone-and-sod buildings, others are housed in more modem buildings, but only a few are purpose-designed to house a musettm. Although the local museums are as a rule owned by the local districts, many of them have actually up to now been run by a single individual, usually an old folklore enthusiast who has little or no scholarly education in the field. He (or she) has probably nm the museum for little or no money in his spare time. Both the housing and the education of the staff is rapidly changing in recent years and young, academically trained people are joining the staff of museums. Museology, folk-life studies and archaeology are mostly studied abroad. The official education system provides no programmes for museum staff but the Icelandic Association of Museums (whose members are almost exclusively staff members of ethnological musemns) organises itinerant 2-3 day courses every year, in which concrete themes are studied. Exhibitions, computerisation, conservation and marketing are some of the themes that have been discussed in the association's courses. Everyone who is employed in a museum has to carry out a great variety of tasks due to the lack of staff and the shortage of specialists. Until recently the Municipal Museimi of Reykjavik was the only open-air ethnological museum in Iceland, but several historical houses and monuments have now been moved to the locations of other museums in the country and new open-air museums are emerging with new exhibitions. We are witnessing a rapid growth in the museum sector in recent years, conconütant with the growing tourist industry. The role of ethnological museimis as educational institutions, especially for elementary schools, has also gained in importance. This progress in the museum world has been rather slow compared to our neighbours, and they delay is perhaps bigger than in other sectors of culture. A partial explanation may be foimd in the rapid transformation of the country's economy in the past decades. People who have lived through a era of poverty do not like to be reminded of it. Too little time has passed since we crawled out of our turf houses - although these houses are, on the other hand, Iceland's highly remarkable and particular contribution to world architecture. From its beginnings the National Museum has been collecting things people used in everyday life and to a great extent it can be seen as an ethnological museum, like all other national museums which deal with the history and culture of individual coimtries. It is by far the biggest cultural museum in the country and its duty is to set up exhibitions on Iceland's history from the period of settlement to the present. The permanent exhibitior\s are mostly arranged in the same way as when they were first established in the mid-20th century when the museum was moved to its current building - they provide a rough chronological order, grouping sünilar objects together with relatively spare written information. 410 Ethnology in museiims in Iceland - a general view Ten years ago a committee was foimded to prepare radical changes for the permanent exhibitions. But the future location of the National Museum has been uncertain and the staff has been living under the threat of moving for many years. Politiciar\s seem to be unable to find a solution and this imcertainty has been a major problem. Orüy moderate changes in the rather old fashioned permanent exhibitions have so far resulted. But there are also frequent special exhibitions of a more modem nature. In the local museums most permanent exhibitions were quite old-fashioned. They often presented Iceland's history in general, local history and the history of the fotmders and benefactors of the museum with a mixture of objects and pictures. Preferably, the entire holdings of a museum were exhibited. But, as said above, this is now rapidly changing with the generation shift of the staff. Even so rapidly that in a recent museum meeting the idea was put forward, that it might be a good idea to preserve some of these "old" exhibitions because they will soon become extinct. The division of areas of work between the museums has been thoroughly discussed in recent years and an acquisition policy had been adopted. Specialised museums seem to be the trend in Iceland's museum world these days - a trend which is met by the above mentioned wide range of occasional exhibitions. It is quite exciting to witness these changes in our small Icelandic museum world and I hope this conference will provide me with a lot of stimulating ideas to spread them at home. It is something we certainly need. 411 ETNOLOGIJA V ISLANDSKIH MUZEJIH - SPLOŠNI PREGLED Hailgerdur Gisladóttir Pričujoči prispevek obravnava dve temi: zbirke narodopisnega gradiva na Islandiji in ustanove, ki jih hranijo - s posebnim poudarkom na Oddelku za etnologijo v Narodnem muzeju - in razvoj etnoloških muzejev na Islandiji. Zbiranje ljudskih pripovedk in folklore se je na Islandiji začelo v sredini 19. stoletja po vzoru podobnega razvoja v sosednjih državah. Najprej so predvsem zbirali pripovedke, uganke in stare pesmi vseh vrst. Proti koncu 19. stoletja in v prvi polovici 20. stoletja so objavui obsežne zbirke islandske folkore. V prvih desetletjih 20. stoletja se je začelo zapisovanje ljudskih pesmi (npr. himničrdh napevov in "rimur" - svojstvene islandske oblike pripovednega pesništva, ki se deloma poje). Delo so povečini opravili posamezni ljubitelji in društva, bilo pa je tudi nekaj tuje pomoči. Leta 1930 je začel oddajati Islandski državni radio (RUV) in na njegovo pobudo so zbrali veUko gradiva, ki ga zdaj hranijo v arhivih RÜV. V Zbirki rokopisov Islandske narodne knjižnice in v nekaterih krajevnih muzejih so obsežnejše zbirke pisnega etnološkega gradiva. Narodni muzej je s sistematičnim zbiranjem ljudskega gradiva in podatkov o materialni kulturi začel proti koncu petdesetih let našega stoletja. Leta 1963 so v Narodnem muzeju ustanovili Oddelek za etnologijo in v istem času je tudi Islandski inštitut za rokopise (muzej srednjeveških islandskih rokopisov, ki se je medtem preimenoval v Inštitut Amamagnaean) začel zapisovati ljudsko gradivo. Delitev dela med tema dvema ustanovama je v grobem taka: Inštitut Amamag- naean se predvsem osredotoča na glasbo, pesništvo in pripovedništvo, medtem ko se Narodni muzej ukvarja predvsem z materialno kulturo v zvezi z uporabo gradiva za razstave. Arhivi obeh ustanov se precej prekrivajo npr. na področju zbirk sanj, pesmi in nadnaravnih pojavov. Prizadevanja za zbiranje folklomega gradiva in ustanovitev Narodnega muzeja leta 1863 je močno spodbujala nacionalna kampanja za neodvisnost Islandije, ki je bua takrat še del Danske. Oddelek za etnologijo so ustanovili leta 1963 ob stoletnici Narodnega muzeja. Prvi direktor je bil Tor Magnusson, ki je bü imenovan za državnega antikvarja, tj. za funkcijo, ki jo opravlja še danes. Trenutno piše knjigo o srebrn in o kovačih srebra na Islandiji, ki delno temelji na zbirkah 412 Etnologija v islandskih muzejih - splošni pregled oddelka. Od leta 1968 je oddelek vodU doktor filozofije Ami Bjömsson, ki so mu arhivi oddelka precej pomagali pri pisanju več knjig in člankov o praznovanjih in praznikih na Islandiji. Do leta 1979 je bil na oddelku zaposlen tudi doktor filozofije Ludvik Kristjânsson, ki je napisal delo v petih zvezkih o vseh vidikih ribištva in o vrstah uporabe priobalnih naravnih virov na Islandiji. Po njegovi upokojitvi se je na oddelku zaposlila mag. Hallgerdur Gisladottir, ki ga zadnji dve leti tudi vodi. Specializirala se je za islandsko hrano, o kateri je napisala več člankov in pripravila radijske in televizijske oddaje. Oddelek zbira podatke s posnetimi pogovori in z vprašalniki, ki jih razpošilja islandski RTV, vendar v glavnem z anketami, ki jih pošilja informatorjem po vsej državi. Gostota zajetosti prebivalstva znaša skoraj en informator na tisoč prebivalcev ob skupnem prebivalstvu okrog 270.000. Z zgodovinskega vidika moram omeniti, da je država leta 1900 štela 100.000 prebivalcev in da jih je 80% živelo na podeželju. Dandanes predstavlja prebivalstvo na podeželju samo še 10% in islandska dmžba je v kratkem obdobju doživela velike spremembe. Razpršenost prebivalstva in težavne komunikacije zaradi geografskih posebnosti dežele so povzročale različen razvoj v različnih krajih in prav te razlike ugotavljajo raziskave Oddelka za etnologijo. Ankete zajemajo celo vrsto tem: zakol živali, gnojenje pašnikov, smrt in progreb, goriva, mleko in mlečni izdelki, rojstvo otroka in njegova prva leta, obisk gosta na kmetiji, doma izdelani čevlji, pridelava in predelava volne, rezanje šote, zidane ograje okrog domačij, prvi dan poletja, košnja, nebesna telesa, zdravljenje konj, igre, praznoverje povezano s pojavom posebnih znamenj na posameznikih, praznovanja in šege letnih časov, vreme in napovedovanje vremena, zavetišča za ovce in krmljenje živali, drsanje, smučanje, postelje in. spalne navade, uporaba konjske žime, otioške igre in igračke, cerkveno življenje, iskanje in uporaba vode, jahanje in prevozna sredstva, kovačije, gradnja cest, kuhinja in kuhinjska opravila, hrana in pijače, peka kruha, mletje moke, uporaba roževine in kosti, lov na ptice, uganke in rime, sanje in znamenja, osebna in hišna higijena, psi, imenovanje domačih živali, ljudska glasba, učenje branja in pisanja, domača oblačila in moda, zle živali, vezenine, uporaba puha, zaroke ki poroke, vrtnarjenje in zelenjava, vile, praznovanja in prazniki v zvezi z zgodovinskimi narodnimi tabori in z ustanovitvijo republike, pemtruna, ljudsko zdravilstvo, ribarjenje v jezerih in rekah ter Thorrablót (tiadicionalno praznovanje starega zimskega meseca Thorri). V prvih dveh desetletjih so se zbiralci posvetili predvsem obdobju 1890- 1930, tj. času pred tako imenovano tehnično revolucijo in pojavom radia, stiojev, elektrike itd.. V tem času je Islandija imela nenavadno strukturo skupnosti: sestavljali so jih kmetje z izjemno temeljitim in tekočim znanjem književnosti, ki pa so gospodarili in delali na skorajda srednjeveški način. Po letu 1980 je bU večji poudarek tudi na zbiranju podatkov o življenju v mestih in vaseh, predvsem v obdobju 1930-1950. Ankete so potem vključevale tudi selitev s podeželja v mesta 413 Hallgerdur Gisladóttir in vprašanja o doživljanju odraščanja v mestu, o izkušnjah, ko postaneš mezdni delavec, o selitvi v nov dom in o ustvarjanju lastne družine in družabnega življenja ter o oblikah zabave v mestu. Oddelek je zbiral tudi podatke o prvih avtomobilih na Islandiji in leta 1990 razposlal zelo podrobna vprašanja o času okupacije (1940- 1945). Poleg tega so na oddelku nadaljevali delo Ludvika Kristjanssona z anketami o ribištvu na jadrnicah, na motornih ladjah in na ladjah z vlečno mrežo. V petem zvezku svojega dela je Kristjânsson namreč prišel do obdobja, ko se je končalo ribištvo v čolnih na vesla, tj. okrog leta 1900. Oddelek običajno razpošilja dve anketi letno in njen arhiv se je v zadnjih petih letih v povprečju povečal za 438 izpolnjeriih anket letno. Vedno več strokovnjakov in študentov si pomaga z arhivom Oddelka za etnologijo, ki sedaj obsega okrog 13.000 anket, ki jih je izpolnilo več kot 2.000 informatorjev. Številne znanstvene razprave in diplomska (in druga) dela temeljijo na teh virih, bodisi v celoti aH deloma. Univerzitetni študenti so glavni uporabniki arhiva. Že nekaj let poteka na Oddelku za družbene vede Islandske univerze program, ki podeljuje diplomo iz narodopisja. V programu je poudarek bolj na folklori kot na materialni kulturi. V zadnjih letih poteka pretvarjanje celotnega arhiva v elektronsko obliko skupaj s progranisko opremo za iskanje podatkov, kar močno poveča možnosti iskanja in dostopa. Več kot 80% gradiva je sedaj že v elektronski obliki. Iz finančnih razlogov ima Oddelek za etnologijo samo enega redno zaposlenega - vodjo oddelka. Honorarno zaposlovanje za prepisovanje gradiva je odvisno od dodatno zbranih sredstev. Zaradi tega je sedaj pri delu večji poudarek na zbiranju gradiva v sodelovanju z ustanovami, ki lahko sofinancirajo projekte. Nedaven primer tega je bila anketa o gradnji cest, pri kateri smo za prepisovanje zbranega gradiva uporabili sredstva Uprave za ceste. Sedaj zbiramo podatke o tem, kako ljudje dojemajo delovanje naravnih su (Islandija je dežela snežnih plazov, zdrsov zemlje, potresov, izbruhov, lederükov itd.). Program financira Islandski meteorološki zavod. Po vsej deželi so tudi različno veliki krajevni muzeji, ki se v glavnem ukvarjajo z lokalno folkloro in materialno kulturo. Povečini zbirajo in razstavljajo predmete iz 19. in 20. stoletja in večina teh muzejev je odprta samo v poletni turistični sezoni. Pozimi nmoge izmed njih uporabljajo lokalne osnovne šole. Nekateri domujejo v tradicionakdh domačijah s hišno čelo, v stavbah zgrajenih iz kamna in pokritih z rušami, drugi so v sodobnejših objektih, vendar je le peščica namensko zgrajenih. Čeprav so krajevni muzeji praviloma v lasti lokalnih okrajev, so jih do sedaj pogosto upravljali posamezniki, običajno ljubitelji folklore z malo strokovne izobrazbe ali brez nje. Delo so ponavadi opravljali v prostem času in proti skromnemu plačilu ali zastonj. V zadnjih letih je v teh muzejih zaposlenih vedno več mladih strokovnjakov z visoko izobrazbo. Muzeologijo, narodopisje in arheologijo so povečini študirali na tujem. Uradni izobraževalni sistem namreč nima programov za muzejske delavce, vendar Islandsko združenje 414 Etnologija v islandskih muzejih - splošni pregled muzejev (njegovi člani so skoraj izključno zaposleni v etnoloških muzejih) vsako leto organizira dvo- ali tridnevne tečaje, na katerih obravnavajo konkretne teme. Razstave, oblikovanje računalniškega arhiva, konzerviranje in trženje je le nekaj tem, ki so jih obravnavali na tečajih združenja. Vsakdo, ki je zaposlen v nekem muzeju, mora zaradi pomanjkanja kadrov in strokovnjakov po sili razmer opravljati vrsto različnih nalog. Se nedavno je bil Mestni muzej Rejkjavika edini etnološki muzej na prostem na Islandiji, vendar so sedaj že preselili več zgodovinskih hiš in spomenikov na lokacije drugih muzejev v deželi in pojavljajo se novi muzeji na prostem z novimi razstavami. V zadnjih letih smo priče hitrega razvoja muzejske "sfere", ki sovpada z rastjo turistične industiije. Tudi vloga etnoloških muzejev kot izobraževalnih ustanov, zlasti za osnovne šole, je sedaj bolj pomembna. Napredek v svetu muzejev je bil dokaj počasen, če ga primerjamo z razvojem v sosednjih državah in zamuda je morda večja kot v drugih segmentih kulture. Delno razlago lahko iščemo v hitii gospodarski preobrazbi države v preteklih desetletjih. Ljudje, ki so dolgo živeli v revščini, se tega neradi spominjajo. Premalo časa je minilo od takrat, ko smo "prilezli" izpod ruš svojih hišk, čeprav moramo na drugi stiani poudariti da so prav te stavbe izjemen in svojstven prispevek Islandije k svetovni arhitekturi. Narodni muzej že od začetka zbira predmete, ki so jih ljudje uporabljali v vsakdanjem življenju in v veliki meri na ta muzej lahko gledamo kot na etnološki muzej, ki je takšen kot vsi drugi narodni muzeji, ki obravnavajo zgodovino in kulturo posameznih držav. Narodni muzej je zdaleč največji muzej v državi in njegova naloga je pripravjanje razstav o islandski zgodovini od selitve do današnjega časa. Stalne razstave so povečini postavljene tako, kot so jih postavili prvič, tj. v petdesetih letih tega stoletja, ko so muzej preselili v sedanjo stavbo: razstave okvirno predstavljajo posamezna obdobja s skupinami podobnih predmetov in z dokaj skromnimi pisnimi razlagami. Pred desetimi leti so ustanovili komisijo, ki bi naj pripravila korenite spremembe za stalne razstave. Vendar je bila bodoča lokacija Narodnega muzeja negotova in njen stiokovni kader je dolga leta živel pod pritiskom možne selitve. Zdi se, da politiki niso bili sposobni najti rešitve in ta negotovost je muzej spremljala ves čas. Zato je v dokaj zastarelih postavitvah prišlo le do skromnih sprememb. So pa na drugi stiani pogoste posebne razstave, ki so oblikovane bolj sodobno. Tudi v lokalnih muzejih so bile stalne razstave povečini zastarele. Pogosto so splošno zgodovino Islandije, lokalno zgodovino in zgodovino ustanoviteljev in dobrotiükov muzeja predstavljale z mešanico predmetov in slik. Veljalo pa je tudi načelo, da so razstavljali celotni muzejski fond. Vendar se položaj, kot smo že omenili, sedaj hitio spreminja z zamenjavo generacij v muzejih. Razvoj gre tako hitro, da se je na nedavnem sestanku muzeologov celo pojavil predlog, da bi bilo dobro ohraniti nekaj teh starinskih razstav, ker jih kmalu ne bo več. Delitev dela med muzeji je bila zadnja leta predmet temeljitih razprav in sprejeli smo 415 HaUgerdur Gisladóttir skupno politiko pridobivanja gradiva. Zdi se, da so danes na Islandiji v modi specialni muzeji in na ta trend se odzivamo z zgoraj omejenim širokim spektrom občasnih razstav. Zelo prijetno je spremljati vse te spremembe v našem majhnem islandskem svetu muzejev in upam, da bom na tej konferenci slišala veliko spodbudnih zamisli, ki jih bom lahko doma širila. Idej namreč ni nikoli preveč. BESEDA O AVTORICI HaUgerdur Gisladóttir, mag., vodja Oddelka za etnologije v Narodnem muzeju Islandije od 1995. Pred tem (od 1981) je bUa kustodinja na tem oddelku in se je predvsem ukvarjala z zbiranjem narodopisnega gradiva s pomočjo anket in z organizacijo razstav. Z dve- ma kolegoma strokovnjakoma je v devetdesetih letih sodelovala v projektu o umetnih jamah na Islandiji, iz katerega sta nastala knjiga in televizijski film za 1. kanal Islandske državne televizije. Napisala je več člankov in scenarijev o islandskih prehrambenih navadah za radio in televizijo. Skoraj vsa njena objavljena dela so v islandščini z izjemo The Use of Whey in Islandic Households, v : Milk in Milk Products from Medieval to Modern Times. Uredila Patricia Lysaght. Edinburgh 1994; in Kvinner eg matstell paa Island I middelalderen Kvinne- arbeid 1 Norden fra vikingtiden tu reforma- sjonen. Bergen 1985. Od leta 1992 predava o prehrambenih navadah na tečajih Univerze Islandije. V letih 1992 in 1993 je bua predsednica Islandskega združenja muzejev. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Hailgerdur Gisladóttir, M.A., Head of The Department of Ethnology at The National Museum of Iceland since 1995. Earlier (i.e. from 1981) she was a curator in the department, engaged mostly in collecting material on folk life by means of questiormaires but also in preparing exhibitions. Together with two other scientists she participated in a project on man- made caves in Iceland which in the 1990s resulted in a book and a film for channel I of the Icelandic State Television. She has written several articles and programs on Iceland's food traditions for radio and TV. Nearly all her works are written in Icelandic with the exception of The Use of Whey in Icelandic Households. Milk and Milk Products from Medieval to Modem Times. Edited by Patricia Lysaght. Edinburgh 1994 and Kvinner og matstell paa Island I middelalderen Kvinnearbeid I Norden fra vikingtiden til reformasjonen. Bergen 1985. She has lectured in courses on food traditions at the University of Iceland since 1992. She was chairman of the Icelandic Association of Museums in 1992 and 1993. 416