Sigurður Breiðfjörð

The drawing was made by Helgi á Melum after Sigurður's death, as far as you know he was never drawn while he was still alive. The engraving after the drawing was done by HPHansen.

Sigurður Eiríksson Breiðfjörð (born March 4, 1798 on an island in Breiðafjörður ; † 1846 in Reykjavík ) is an Icelandic poet who is not only famous for his works, but not least for his adventurous career in his country.

Life

Sigurður was born on an island in Breiðafjörður - hence the stage name - which belongs to the Rifseyjar archipelago and is located at the point where the side fjord Hvammsfjörður branches off. At Helgafell and Bíldsey he grew up. At the age of 16 he went to Copenhagen where he was trained as a carpenter. There he also got to know the Danish poetry of the time and from then on was particularly under the influence of Jens Immanuel Baggesen .

Back in Iceland again, he first settled in Ísafjörður . There he worked as a carpenter and at the same time gained fame as a folk poet, especially since he was quick-witted and appeared as an occasional poet.

When Sigurður Breiðfjörð was 26 years old, he moved to the Westman Islands . He married Sigríður Níkulásdóttir and had a child with her. At the same time he acquired a reputation as a womanizer, as he was also awarded two children by other women who were born in the same year. In 1828 he left the Westman Islands, initially only to meet someone, but it later turned out that he would never come back.

After a short stay in Helgafell he went back to Copenhagen and from there to Greenland , where he worked for the Danish merchants for 3 years, but also as a carpenter, and also taught the Greenlanders to fish sharks the Icelandic way .

After that he settled in Stykkishólmur , where, thanks to a wealthy patron, the merchant Árni Ó. Thorlacius , at last could only work as a poet. In 1836 no fewer than 5 books were published under his name. With that he finally achieved fame.

This fame brought him into contact with a rich, young widow who, in turn, liked to write poetry and was called Kristín Illugadóttir. She lived on the now defunct Grímsstaðir farm near Arnarstapi on Snæfellsnes . This woman wrote him a love letter in 39 stanzas and the advertisement ended with a wedding on January 7, 1837 in Helgafell. Sigurður had not yet legally dissolved the previous marriage with the woman on the Westman Islands. However, since double marriages were not allowed in Iceland and were punished with death, a lawsuit that lasted for years followed, which meant the couple's financial ruin.

Sigurður left the Grímsstaðir farm in 1840 and died impoverished in Reykjavík a few years later . His grave is there in the cemetery on Suðurgata Road.

Works

Under the influence of Romanticism , Sigurður especially composed Rímur , a kind of Nordic ballad , and is considered a specialist in it. Is known z. B. the ballad about the legendary figure Gísli Súrsson .

See also

• History of Iceland

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 .