Footballer donates Norway’s most expensive book to home town
Manchester City star footballer Erling Haaland and his father, retired footballer Alf-Inge Haaland, have donated the most expensive Norwegian book ever sold to their hometown of Time, southwestern Norway. It is the only known surviving copy of the 1594 edition of the Viking royal sagas by Icelander Snorri Sturluson, translated and printed for the first time in Norwegian at a time when there were no printing presses in Norway. It sold at auction in December for 1.3 million krone ($134,000), the highest price ever paid for a Norwegian book.
The book was an abridged collection of Snorri’s sagas translated by magistrate, military commander and historian Mattis Størssøn. It is the oldest printed history of Norway, published in Copenhagen by Jens Mortensen 25 years after Størssøn’s death from a manuscript owned by historian Arild Huitfeldt.
Haaland bought it with the intention of giving it to the Time Municipality so it could be placed on public display in the town’s library and inspire people to read and develop connections to their shared cultural heritage. The municipality is working with the EH9 Foundation to create a secure permanent exhibit for the precious volume.
“I want the book always to lie open so that people can read about those who came from where I come from, from Bryne and Jæren,” Erling Braut Haaland says in a comment. “It’s easier to feel drawn to reading when you can recognise yourself in the people and places being written about.”
To help achieve the goal, the Haalands are sponsoring a reading competition with a pretty sweet prize.
The competition, which will be organised by Time Municipality, will begin in the 2026/2027 school year. Pupils in middle school and lower secondary school in Time will then be invited to read as much as they can, and the classes that eventually win will be invited to Ullevaal Stadium for a match together with Erling Braut Haaland and the rest of the national team. […]
It is the schools in Time that will organise the reading competition, and it is no coincidence that this effort is starting here. Alfie’s parents and several others in the family have been teachers in the schools here, and both Erling and Alfie attended school in Time. “Roots are important,” Alfie Haaland says in a comment. “Our roots are here in the municipality, and we also all have deep roots that can be found in the stories in Snorri’s royal sagas. We hope that both the book and the competition can bring joy and help form the roots of new generations in Time.”
6 thoughts on “Footballer donates Norway’s most expensive book to home town”
Maybe a small step for the Haalands, but certainly a great achievement for Time!
– I’ll kick it off then 
… Feeling myself invited to read ‘as much’ as I possibly could.
The royal sagas by Snorri Sturluson seem to be the ‘Heimskringla’. However, king Haakon IV Haakonsson seems to have died in 1263AD.
Frankly, I do not speak Old Norse nor Danish, and I am so far unaware of Jens Mortensen. The work may have been translated and printed in Norwegian, but on the title page of this 1594 edition, it claims that the list of kings ended in 1263 with the death of ‘Haag/ken’, and that it was translated from Old Norse (‘gammel norske’) into Danish and printed by Hans Stockelman.
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Maybe of interest is also the handwritten Latin on the left:
‘Islandie Episcopus Isleph vir sanctissimus’ apparently refers to the first Icelandic bishop Isleifur Gissurarson (d. 1080) and it mentions ‘Adam of Bremen’ (d. 1081/1085).
Something like ‘Vetus Norvegiae Chronicon ab illustri olim Vitveldio vernacule editum. Bonta? Danica p. 176. cf. M? ad Bartholinum p. 18.’ indicates that M. corresponded to Caspar Bartholin or one of his descendants.
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Isleifur Gissurarson was maybe the first bishop of Iceland and Greenland, but not the first bishop ‘in’ Iceland. The Saxon Frederic (Friðrekur) baptised Þorvaldur Koðránsson (Þorvaldur víðförli) buying prisoners in Northern Germany, and both spent 981 to 986 in Iceland.
However, Þorvaldur kills some of his pagan opponents, and they visit in Norway king Olaf Tryggvason, who himself had introduced Christianity in 995. Olaf sends Thangbrand (Þangbrandr) to Iceland, who after some deadly encounters is outlawed and has to return to Norway.
Olaf gets angry and threatens to kill all pagan Icelanders, until Gizurr the White Teitsson and Hjalti Skeggjason talk him out of it. They explain that Þangbrandr had failed because he had proceeded with murders, and the conversion of Iceland was sealed at the Alþing of 999/1000.
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Thangbrand is himself mentioned six times in the Heimskringla (cf. ‘Olafs saga Tryggvasonar’).
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Maybe one final thought, …i.e. as far as I would be concerned 
My guess would be that the handwritten ‘Maderi’ may in fact be a librarian’s notice referring to teacher and historian ‘Joachim Johann Mader’ (1626–1680), who also was active for the Herzog August Library of Wolfenbüttel (cf. Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg Augustus II, 1579–1666).
The Herzog August Library (HAB), however, is known for its collection from the Middle Ages and early modern Europe, and the book may -or may not!- have been part of its collection.
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‘Vitveldio’ obviously refers to Arild Huitfeldt (1546–1609), though unsure of ‘Bontannus’ and ‘Molitor’/ Moeller/ Müller – There is one B. and a whole lot of Molitors.
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The hugely popular goal scoring Norwegian footballer Erling Braut Haaland is keeping the Viking spirit of enterprise alive. Historical accounts depict the Vikings as extraordinary human beings, amazing globetrotters, and tireless good doers.
During the peak years of the Viking dominance and over centuries thereafter, the descendants of the Vikings with Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish roots have left a trail of memories and artifacts across the British Isles, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, the Baltic lands, Germany, Poland, Turkey, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Italy, Malta, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Canada, North America, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, the Levant, parts of the Middle East region, and even in Eastern India.
The Dano-Norwegian East India Trading Company (1620-1869) consisted of trading outposts in India at Tharangambadi (Tranquebar), Serampore in Bengal and on the Nicobar Islands. The Tranquebar Settlement was known as Fort Dansborg (1620), and the 1755 settlement of Serampore (Frederiksnagore) became a cultural hub.
In 1706 the educational arm of the Dano-Norwegian mission completed the printing of the first Tamil Bible in 1714. In 1806, Saint Olaf’s Church building was completed in Serampore. Like the oldest Saint Olaf’s Church, Kirkjubøur in Streymoy, Faroe Islands, the Serampore place of worship is the oldest prayer house in India dedicated to the memory of the Viking saint.
Saint Olaf II Haraldsson (995-1030) was the King of Norway from 1015 to 1028, known for consolidating the kingdom and establishing Christianity. He was canonized in 1031. Thereafter churches have been constructed and dedicated to the memory of Saint Olaf in several cities and towns in Norway, England, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, Sweden, Scotland, Finland, Spain, Russia, Estonia, Italy, Canada, and in the US.
