ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the Norwegian collections, although the main focus will be on the National Archives. The medieval manuscript fragments in the National Archives of Norway are kept in envelopes which are stored in boxes in a metal cupboard, several stories underground. The perspective is European, tied together with an acknowledgement that the imported and local books all in their own way contain information about the medieval cultural connections that linked Norway with the rest of Europe. Some fragments in Norway do, however, seem to match fragments in Copenhagen, even among those which never left Norway, and this is an important observation. As we saw in the Gyldenstjerne example, the fragment collections will never take the shape of a neat and orderly jigsaw puzzle, but rather a mix and match of several puzzles, some of which will never connect to others.
