Because of the Kalmar Union, Iceland had been under the control of the Crown of Denmark since 1380,[1] although formally it had been a Norwegian possession until 1814.

[2] In 1874, one thousand years after the first acknowledged settlement, Denmark granted Iceland home rule.

The constitution, written the same year, was revised in 1903 and the extent of home rule increased in 1904.

[9][10] From September 1945 on, Iceland demanded the return of the sagas and codexes, which Árni Magnússon had collected and brought to University of Copenhagen.

[11] Between 1971 and 1992, Denmark returned thousands of works to Iceland including the Codex Regius and Flateyjarbók.