The Passionate Collector

Willard Fiske’s fascination with Norse myth and his unusual capacity for languages inspired him to make his way to Scandinavia in 1850. He learned Danish and Icelandic in Copenhagen; in Uppsala, he enrolled at the university and eventually delivered his own lectures on British and American literature in fluent Swedish. Fluent also in German and competent in French, Fiske could easily read the academic literature in Nordic studies. Unable to sail to Iceland in July 1852 as he had intended, Fiske continued to maintain a passionate interest in the island nation, and organized large donations of books for Icelanders while he was a professor at Cornell.

In July 1879, Willard Fiske was finally able to travel to Iceland. Landing at Húsavík in the north, he journeyed on horseback to Reykjavík in the southwest. Along the way, he absorbed the fantastic landscape, with its waterfalls and rugged fells. Throughout his journey, Fiske was fêted by appreciative Icelanders. Two Americans, Arthur Middleton Reeves and William Carpenter, joined Fiske; Matthías Jochumsson, one of the nation’s great poets, was prominent among his many hosts.

Jón Sigurðsson was the leading figure of the Icelandic independence movement in the mid-nineteenth century. The letter, in Danish, suggests contacts in Iceland for Fiske should he travel there.

Included in this collection of unpublished, handwritten copies of letters compiled by Rafn’s daughters and presented to Willard Fiske, is this letter from Fiske himself to Rafn dated April 23, 1853, mentioning his progress with Old Norse.

Willard Fiske had hoped to visit Iceland during the island’s millennial celebration of its Norse settlement. Bayard Taylor, the scholar and translator of Goethe’s Faust, was a friend of Fiske’s.

This description of the island of Grímsey was copied from a manuscript in Copenhagen by Bjarni Jónsson, assistant to Willard Fiske.

This recent history of Grímsey and its families includes a number of photographs from the Fiske Icelandic Collection, and narrates Willard Fiske’s generosity toward this island community, which he never visited.