Laxness’s wives tell their stories

No twentieth-century Icelandic author has enjoyed success and popularity to rival that of Halldor Laxness. At the end of his writing career, Laxness wrote four books which he called “novels in essay form” or essais-romans, but which are generally considered to be memoirs, written with artistic licence. These books are: 7 tuninu heima (In the Field at Home) (1975), tJngur eg var (Young was I) (1976), Sjomeistarasagan (The Story of Seven Masters) (1978), and Grikklandsarid (The Year of Greece) (1980). They cover only a fraction of the author’s life, up to the age of twenty. Readers have learned of his subsequent experiences mostly through countless articles and interviews in the press, on radio and television. Laxness has, at least since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1955, been a public personality, although he has been reticent about his private life

The word and the world: A resonant textual fragment of Íslendinga saga

The paper investigates into the narratology of the Sturlunga compilation: how the events of the 12th and 13th centuries in Iceland are turn into narrative in the contemporary sagas. I will take examples of the ways of selecting and organizing the story material, and the principle of narration. I will argue that the recognition and appreciation of the narrative nature of the Sturlunga are long overdue and will show by the example of Islendinga saga by Sturla Thordarson that it is necessary to understand the narrative rules of the contemporary sagas before making use of them as sources of the history of the Sturlung Age

Har Norden råd til det? Samarbeidsnemnda for Norden-undervisning i utlandet (SNU)

Samarbeidsnemnda for Norden-undervisning i utlandet ble opprettet i 1970-årene som følge av et forslag fra Nordisk råd. Den er et samarbeidsorgan for lektoratsadministrasjonene i de fem nordiske land. Målet med samarbeidet er å forbedre kunnskapen om Nordens språk, kultur og samfunn og å øke interessenfor Norden hos lærere og studenter i dansk, finsk, islandsk, norsk og svensk ved universiteter i og utenfor Norden. Nemndas virksomhet skal skape forutsetninger for samarbeidet over emne-, institusjons- og språkgrensen og med det markere den nordiske samhørigheten. Samarbeidet ble støttet økonomisk av Nordisk ministerråd i perioden 1984–2013

Implementation of the Monarchy in the Kingdom of Iceland

Í greininni er gerð grein fyrir inntaki konungdóms í konungsríkinu Íslandi en allt fram til þess tíma er Ísland verður frjálst og fullvalda ríki eru konungbornir þjóðhöfðingjar áhrifamiklir gerendur við stjórn ríkja Norðurálfu, sér í lagi hvað varðar utanríkismál. Í greininni er rakið hvernig meðferð utanríkismála var kjarni konungdómsins í huga Kristjáns X, fyrsta og eina konungs konungsríkisins Íslands, en í hans huga kom ekki annað til álita en aðeins ein utanríkisþjónusta starfaði í hans umboði. Fyrst kastaðist verulega í kekki með konungi og íslenskum ráðamönnum þegar þeir hinir síðarnefndu léðu máls á uppsögn sambandslagasamningsins og þar með stofnun eigin utanríkisþjónustu. Í greininni eru hugtökunum persónusambandi og málefnasambandi gerð skil, leidd að því rök að milli Íslands og Danmerkur hafi verið persónusamband og um tvö aðskilin konungsembætti hafi verið að ræða.The article describes the implementation of the monarchy in the Kingdom of Iceland. Until the time Iceland became sovereign state, the royal heads of state were influential actors in the governance of European countries, especially in terms of foreign affairs. The article outlines how the handling of foreign affairs was the core of the monarchy in the mind of Christian X, the first and only king of the Kingdom of Iceland. He wished to direct it through a single foreign service working undir his authority. First, there was a serious falling out with the king and the Icelandic politicians when the latter demanded the termination of the union agreement and thus the establishment of an Icelandic foreign service. In the article, the terms personal union and real union are defined and lead to the argument that there was a personal union between Iceland and Denmark. Keywords: King of Iceland; Kingdom of Iceland; personal union; real union.Peer reviewe

Post-translational Protein Deimination in Cod (Gadus morhua L.) Ontogeny: Novel Roles in Tissue Remodelling and Mucosal Immune Defences?

Peptidylarginine deiminases (PADs) are calcium dependent enzymes with physiological and pathophysiological roles conserved throughout phylogeny. PADs promote post-translational deimination of protein arginine to citrulline, altering the structure and function of target proteins. Deiminated proteins were detected in the early developmental stages of cod from 11 days post fertilisation to 70 days post hatching. Deiminated proteins were present in mucosal surfaces and in liver, pancreas, spleen, gut, muscle, brain and eye during early cod larval development. Deiminated protein targets identified in skin mucosa included nuclear histones; cytoskeletal proteins such as tubulin and beta-actin; metabolic and immune related proteins such as galectin, mannan-binding lectin, toll-like receptor, kininogen, Beta2-microglobulin, aldehyde dehydrogenase, bloodthirsty and preproapolipoprotein A-I. Deiminated histone H3, a marker for anti-pathogenic neutrophil extracellular traps, was particularly elevated in mucosal tissues in immunostimulated cod larvae. PAD-mediated protein deimination may facilitate protein moonlighting, allowing the same protein to exhibit a range of biological functions, in tissue remodelling and mucosal immune defences in teleost ontogeny

Pentraxins CRP-I and CRP-II are post-translationally deiminated and differ in tissue specificity in cod (Gadus morhua L.) ontogeny

Pentraxins are fluid phase pattern recognition molecules that form an important part of the innate immune defence and are conserved between fish and human. In Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.), two pentraxin-like proteins have been described, CRP-I and CRP-II. Here we show for the first time that these two CRP forms are post-translationally deiminated (an irreversible conversion of arginine to citrulline) and differ with respect to tissue specific localisation in cod ontogeny from 3 to 84 days post hatching. While both forms are expressed in liver, albeit at temporally differing levels, CRP-I shows a strong association with nervous tissue while CRP-II is strongly associated to mucosal tissues of gut and skin. This indicates differing roles for the two pentraxin types in immune responses and tissue remodelling, also elucidating novel roles for CRP-I in the nervous system. The presence of deimination positive bands for cod CRPs varied somewhat between mucus and serum, possibly facilitating CRP protein moonlighting, allowing the same protein to exhibit a range of biological functions and thus meeting different functional requirements in different tissues. The presented findings may further current understanding of the diverse roles of pentraxins in teleost immune defences and tissue remodelling, as well as in various human pathologies, including autoimmune diseases, amyloidosis and cancer

Response to the letter to the editor: Venous oxygen saturation is reduced and variable in central retinal vein occlusion

To access publisher's full text version of this article click on the hyperlink at the bottom of the pag

Perennial Lymegrass (Leymus arenarius and L. mollis) as Potential Crop Species for Northern Latitudes

The aim of the present study is to improve the perennial lymegrass (L. arenarius and L. mollis) for cultivation as potential cereal crop for Iceland as well as for other regions of native lymegrass distribution. The study will also provide cereal breeders with broader genetic resource containing several characters of the wild species such as tolerance to extreme environments and perhaps resistance to pathological diseases

Peptidylarginine deiminase and deiminated proteins are detected throughout early halibut ontogeny - Complement components C3 and C4 are post-translationally deiminated in halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus L.)

Post-translational protein deimination is mediated by peptidylarginine deiminases (PADs), which are calcium dependent enzymes conserved throughout phylogeny with physiological and pathophysiological roles. Protein deimination occurs via the conversion of protein arginine into citrulline, leading to structural and functional changes in target proteins. In a continuous series of early halibut development from 37 to 1050° d, PAD, total deiminated proteins and deiminated histone H3 showed variation in temporal and spatial detection in various organs including yolksac, muscle, skin, liver, brain, eye, spinal cord, chondrocytes, heart, intestines, kidney and pancreas throughout early ontogeny. For the first time in any species, deimination of complement components C3 and C4 is shown in halibut serum, indicating a novel mechanism of complement regulation in immune responses and homeostasis. Proteomic analysis of deiminated target proteins in halibut serum further identified complement components C5, C7, C8 C9 and C1 inhibitor, as well as various other immunogenic, metabolic, cytoskeletal and nuclear proteins. Post-translational deimination may facilitate protein moonlighting, an evolutionary conserved phenomenon, allowing one polypeptide chain to carry out various functions to meet functional requirements for diverse roles in immune defences and tissue remodelling