Jón Thoroddsen (writer, 1818)

Jón Thoroddsen

Jón Þórðarson Thoroddsen (born October 5, 1818 or 1819 in Reykhólar , † March 8, 1868 in Leirá , Borgarfjarðarsýsla ) was an Icelandic writer . His work Piltur og stúlka , published in 1850, is considered the first modern novel in Icelandic literature. He also wrote poetry .

Life

Jón was the son of the cooper Þórður Thoroddsen . He grew up with friends of his father's, including on the Eyvindastaður farm near Akureyri . From 1837 to 1840 he attended high school in Bessastaðir . In 1841 he went to Denmark , where he studied law in Copenhagen . There he was friends with Gísli Brynjúlfsson and together with him published the political yearbook Norðurfari . In 1848 he fought as a volunteer on the Danish side in the Schleswig-Holstein war . In 1850 he returned to Iceland and was an administrative officer there, until 1861 in Austur-Barðastrandarsýsla and later in Borgarfjarðarsýsla . His son was the geologist Þorvaldur Thoroddsen .

Act

In 1848 Jón published the story Dálitil ferðasaga in the yearbook Norðufari , which was later translated into German under the title Die Steinerne Frau . But he only became known with the novel Piltur og stúlka published in 1850 . This is considered to be the first modern novel in Icelandic literature. Although had Jónas Hallgrímsson on a novel with the title in 1835 Grasaferð worked but it remained unfinished and was published in 1847 as a fragment. Piltur og stúlka ( Eng .: youth and girl ) was very successful and was reissued several times. A German translation by Josef Calasanz Poestion was published by Reclam-Verlag in 1883 . In 1890 a translation into English was published , and the novel was also translated into Danish and Dutch . Thoroddsen's second novel, Maður og kona , was only published unfinished after his death.

He is also known for his folk, humorous poems, which were published in anthologies and magazines, but were only collected posthumously and published in book form.

literature

• Josef Calasanz Poestion: Icelandic poets of modern times in characteristics and translated samples of their poetry , Leipzig 1897
• Horst Bien (Ed.): Meyers Taschenlexikon Northern European Literatures, Leipzig 1978
• Jón Thoroddsen: Young man and girl - a story . Translated from the New Icelandic, introduced and annotated by Joseph Calasanz Poestion. Leipzig: Printed and published by Philipp Reclam jun, 1900. Fourth, reviewed edition. (Universal Library, 2226–2227.)

Web links

• Jón Thoroddsen in the online edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica

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 .