Konráð Gíslason

Portrait of Konráð Gíslason

Konráð Gíslason (born July 3, 1808 in Skagafjörður , Iceland ; † January 4, 1891 in Copenhagen , Denmark ) was an Icelandic-Danish linguist .

life and work

Konráð gíslason attended from 1826 to 1831 the high school to Bessastaðir and then moved into the University of Copenhagen to get the law to devote. However, since he showed a greater interest in German studies, he eventually became professor of Old Norse languages at the University of Copenhagen. As such, he undertook extensive linguistic research. He was also a thorough expert on Norse literature .

Already as a young man he was involved with three other young Icelanders, the "Fjölnismen" (Fjölnismenn), in the language maintenance movement of Icelandic linguistic purism and founded with them the magazine Fjölnir , which was published in Copenhagen from 1835 to 1839 and from 1844 to 1847 Annual editions appeared. With Jónas Hallgrímsson he also took over the editing of the cultural magazine Skírnir, which was founded in 1827 and is still published for one year, in 1836 .

The first fruits of his philological studies were a critical elementary teaching of Old Icelandic based on the oldest manuscripts ( Um frumparta Islenzkrar túngu i fornöld, 1846) and the first Danish-Icelandic dictionary (1851). An (unfinished) Old Norse theory of forms followed in 1858. Konráð Gíslason has also made an outstanding contribution to editions of Icelandic writings ( Gísla saga , 1849; Njála , 1875–79, 2 volumes), commentaries on skald poetry and general linguistic treatises.

Konráð Gíslason was a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences .

literature

• Finnur Jónsson: Konráð Gíslason . In: Axel Kock, et al. (Ed.): Arkiv för nordisk filologi (ANF) . New episode, volume 3 (= band 7 of the complete edition). CWK Gleerups förlag, Lund 1891, p. 293-303 (multilingual, runeberg.org ).
• Finnur Jónsson: Gíslason, Konráð . In: Christian Blangstrup (Ed.): Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon . 2nd Edition. tape 9 : Friele gradient . JH Schultz Forlag, Copenhagen 1920, p. 728-729 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
• Gislason, Konrad . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 7, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, pp. 367–367.

Web links

• Literature by and about Konráð Gíslason in the bibliographic database WorldCat
• Works by and about Konráð Gíslason  in the German Digital Library

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 .