Jón Trausti

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Jón Trausti ( pseudonym for Guðmundur Magnússon ; born February 12, 1873 in Rif on the Melrakkaslétta peninsula (today the municipality of Norðurþing ); † November 18, 1918 ) was an Icelandic writer.

biography

Jón Trausti was born the son of a farm laborer. In the meager environment he was unable to attend school and initially earned his living as a farmhand and fisherman. At the age of 20 he started an apprenticeship as a printer in Seyðisfjörður and settled as a printer in Reykjavík . There he soon began to work for the theater as an actor and set designer. For his long trip to Europe, which he started in 1903, he received a state scholarship.

Between 1906 and 1912 Trausti wrote a large number of novels, short stories and poems as well as texts for the theater. He died of the Spanish flu on November 18, 1918.

His poem Íslandsvisur (Ég vil elska mitt land), set to music by Pastor Bjarni Thorsteinsson (1861–1938), is very popular as a patriotic song in Iceland.

His main work, the four-volume cycle of novels '' Der Heidenhof (Heiðarbýlið) '', was published in 1908–1911. As in his other prose works, the author shapes the country life of simple people into an inner cosmos. Together with Einar Hjörleifsson Kvaran , Trausti is considered to be Iceland's most important prose author at the beginning of the 20th century. However, apart from '' Skaftáfeuer '', which deals with the volcanic eruption of the Laki Fissure 1783–1784, none of his novels has been translated into German so far (as of August 2006).

literature

Works (selection)

  • Anna frá Stóruborg.
  • Halla
  • Leysing. Kaupstaðarsaga frá síðustu áratugum nítjándu aldar. Reykjavík: Arinbjörn Sveinbjarnarson og Þorsteinn Gíslason, (1907)
  • Heiðarbýlið (4 volumes, volume 1: Barnið, volume 2: Grenjaskyttan, volume 3: Fylgsnið, volume 4: Þorradægur (1908–1911), The Mountain Farm / The Mountain Cot)
  • When I was on the Frigate (orig .: Þegar ég var á fregátunni, Skírni, 1910). English translation by Arnold R. Taylor - the Gutenberg project
  • Ritsafn IV, Sögur frá Skaftáreldi, Holt of Skal (1911–1913). Reykjavík, Bókaútgáfan Þjóðsaga 1980. German translation by Susanne Beug: Skaftafeuer. Niebank-Rusch-Fachverlag, Bremen, 2012, ISBN 978-3-939564-36-2
  • Ferðasögur, Prentsmidjan Acta HF, 1930

Secondary literature (selection)

  • S. Einarsson, History of Icelandic Prose Writers, 1800-1940 (1948)
  • R. Beck, History of Icelandic Poets, 1800-1940 (1950)
  • S. Einarsson, A History of Icelandic Literature (1957)
  • G. Turville-Petre, Origins of Icelandic Literature (1953)

See also

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 .
personal data
SURNAME Jón Trausti
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Guðmundur Magnússon (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Icelandic writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 12, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Rif á Melrakkasléttu, Norðurþing , Iceland
DATE OF DEATH November 18, 1918