From the late 18th century onwards, Old Icelandic text editions increased vastly, in tandem with the rise of Nordic nationalism. Interest in the sagas as sources for the ancient history of Scandinavia had emerged in the 17th century, with Denmark and Sweden vying for primacy. Most of Iceland’s medieval manuscripts were taken out of the country during this century; amidst various collections all over northern Europe, the Danish one assembled by the Copenhagen University librarian Árni Magnússon (1663–1730) was by far the most important. Editorial work on the sagas also started in the 17th century with editions of the fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda, stories of the ancient history of Scandinavia. Now known to be largely fictional, these were then believed to offer factually historical information. Another early edition was Johan Peringskjöld’s edition of Snorri Sturluson’s history of the Norwegian kings, Heimskringla (Stockholm, 1697-1700), the first printed edition of this text, with a Latin translation.

The end of the 18th century saw the emergence of important saga editions, such as Ólafur Olavius’s edition of Njáls saga (1772). This year also saw the first edition (Kristni saga) to emerge from Árni Magnússon’s “Arnamagnæan” collection, under the auspices of a dedicated committee which was consequently to become one of the most important publishers of Old Norse editions. In the 1770s, Gerhard Schøning published another Heimskringla; the involvement of Jón Ólafsson and Skúli Thorlacius marked a new participation of Icelandic nationals in editions of Old Norse texts. Most of this activity took place in Copenhagen. At this time, very few Old Norse texts were being printed in Iceland: in 1804 Magnús Stephensen started printing Heimskringla, but only one volume appeared, containing about a third of the text.

One of the foremost saga editors of the 19th century was Carl Christian Rafn who founded Det kongelige Nordiske Oldskriftselskab (“Royal Society for Ancient Nordic Manuscripts”) in Copenhagen in 1825 and published both a pivotal edition of the Fornaldarsögur Norðrlanda(1829-30) and the 12-volume Fornmanna sögur (1825-37). Among Rafn’s collaborators were learned Icelanders such as Finnur Magnússon and  Þorgeir Guðmundsson, as well as Rasmus Rask. Among the editors for Det kongelige Nordiske Oldskriftselskab was Jón Sigurðsson, later to become Iceland’s national hero; his most important early work was an edition of Íslendingabók and Landnámabók (1843). He then undertook an authoritative edition of the bishops’ sagas (1858). The first volume of his Diplomatarium Islandicum, a key text for emerging Icelandic national consciousness, appeared in 1857-76.

For Icelanders, the edition of Old Norse texts was not merely of philological, but also of national interest. Although most Icelandic saga editors lived and worked in Copenhagen, they were committed nationalists. Thus, Jón Sigurðsson Diplomatarium at many points offers interpretative comments on the demise of the medieval Icelandic Commonwealth, a cornerstone of his campaign against Danish rule in Iceland.

At the end of the 19th century, two of the most important text series were the editions of Samfund til udgivelse af gammel nordisk Litteratur (“Foundation for Old Norse text editions”), active in Copenhagen, and the Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek in Halle. In Oslo, C.R. Unger was a prolific editor, publishing not only sagas but also translated hagiographical texts such as the Heilagra manna sögur. Under the influence of the Grimm brothers, the study of Old Norse gravitated towards Pan-Scandinavianism or a Pan-Germanic fetishization of “Nordic” traditions. For this reason, the Old Norse texts became not only an essential part of Icelandic nationalism but also that of other European national movements.

Foreign interest also had an impact in Iceland itself. The end of the 19th century saw the first mass production of Old Norse texts designed for the Icelandic market, in the form of the 38-volume series of Sagas of Icelanders published by bookseller Sigurður Kristjánsson (1891–1902). This was a cheap and accessible edition intended for the general public rather than the scholarly community; its main editor was Valdimar Ásmundsson, editor of the Reykjavík newspaper Fjallkonan. The success of this edition paved the way for a second edition in 1909-31. Sigurður was again the driving spirit, but the main editor was now Benedikt Sveinsson, journalist and radical nationalist politician. Editing sagas thus became an integral part of the Icelandic political-nationalistic agenda in the early 20th century.