It’s hard not to catch soccer fever during World Cup season. Even if you are not a regular fan, during the national contests it’s very fun to watch a match, puzzle over the rules, marvel at the fitness of the players, and learn the names of some of the star footballers.

This summer, it was impossible to miss Erling Braut Haaland, a striker on the Norwegian national team. He usually plays for the Premier League team Manchester City, and he is currently one of the most skilled and successful players in the game. When you see his face and the intensity with which he plays soccer, it’s hard not to think of Vikings and raiding.

I was charmed to learn that this man seems to have a passion for Norwegian history as well. He and his father (also a famous footballer) donated a rare, 16^th-century first printed edition of Snorri Sturluson’s chronicles (usually known as the Heimskringla or “Sagas of the Kings of Norway”) to the library in their home town of Byrne in southwest Norway.

The book was bought at auction for $134,000! Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and political figure, and his works include the best-known Viking sagas. The edition that Haaland donated was the first one that translated Snorri’s Old Norse into the Norwegian vernacular of 1594. It is the only surviving copy of this particular work.

Special Collections & Rare Books (SCRB) at the University of Minnesota doesn’t have any Snorri works quite this old, but I was excited to find several that I think Erling and his father would enjoy seeing if they ever came to Minnesota!

The first is an amazing, massive, facsimile of one of the original medieval manuscripts of the Heimskringla (known as the Codex Frisianus). The unique manuscript is held in the University Library of Copenhagen in Denmark, and this facsimile was produced in 1932.

The oldest unabridged, printed version we have in SCRB, Heims-kringla; eller, Snorre Sturlusons nordlänkske konunga sagor was published in Stockholm in 1697. It includes the original Old Norse with Latin and Swedish translations.

The second oldest one, Norske kongers krønike, is in Danish, and was published in Copenhagen in 1757.

Twenty years later, Heimskringla edr Noregs konunga-sögor: Norske kongers historie. Historia regum Norvegicorum, conscripta a Snorrio Sturlae filio, was also published in Copenhagen, this time a large folio edition, in a Latin translation made by the archivist Gerhard Schöning.

There are several other 20^th-century editions in the SCRB collection, as well as interesting early modern parts and fragments of the sagas published separately. Here, the last version I’ll mention is, Norges kongesagaer: 1914-utgaven, edited by Gustave Storm, published in Norwegian in Kristiana in 1914. It is a four-volume work, and the first two volumes are Snorri’s Heimskringla. These books were illustrated in the iconic Norse style of the early 20^th century and are visually stunning.

When he donated the 1594 edition of Snorri’s chronicles to the Byrne Library, Erling Braut Haaland stipulated that the book should always be on public display. He spoke about the significance of old books: “It’s easier to feel drawn to reading when you can recognise yourself in the people and places being written about.” And later: “Books give so many more people the chance to dream big, see new possibilities, and find their own path.”

I was sad to see Norway knocked out the World Cup in the quarter finals, but luckily, I can’t help it, I’m a Messi fan, and Argentina is still in the running!

And, in case, any star soccer players who love old books are reading my blog – YES – I do have a wish-list for the collection – contact me any time!