Benedikt Sveinbjarnarson Grondal

Benedikt Sveinbjarnarson Gröndal, painting by Ólaf Th.Ólafsson (1978)

Benedikt Sveinbjarnarson Gröndal (born October 6, 1826 in Bessastaðir , † August 2, 1907 in Reykjavík ) was an Icelandic writer .

Life

Benedict was the son of the teacher Sveinbjörn Egilsson . His maternal grandfather was Benedikt Jónsson Gröndal .

He attended school in Bessastaðir and received his Abitur in 1846. He then studied in Copenhagen , but returned to Iceland without a degree. From 1850 to 1857 he lived in Reykjavík and then returned to Copenhagen, where he met the Catholic missionary Paul Marie Étienne Djunkowsky through his friend Ólafur Gunnlaugsson . This brought Gröndal to Kevelaer , where he converted to Catholicism in 1859 .

Benedict then went to Leuven , where his friend Ólafur was just doing his doctorate. In Louvain, Benedict wrote the satirical story Heljarslóðarorrusta after the Battle of Solferino , which was published in 1861. In 1859, Benedict returned to Copenhagen again, where he finally received a degree in Old Norse Philology in 1864 .

He then worked as a journalist, publicist, translator and from 1874 to 1883 as a teacher at the Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík . He also published several textbooks and was a co-founder of the natural history association Hið íslenska náttúrufræðifélag .

In 1923 his autobiography Dægradvöl appeared posthumously .

literature

• Benedikt Sveinbjarnarson Gröndal in Stefán Einarsson: History of Icelandic prose writers . Cornell University Press, Ithaca 1948

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ernst Walter: Gröndal, Benedikt Sveinbjarnarson in Horst Bien (ed.): Meyers Taschenlexikon Nordeuropean Literaturen , Leipzig 1978

Note: Icelanders are referred to by their first name or first and last name, but not just their surname. Further information can be found under Icelandic personal name .