ArngrÃmur JÃ³nsson

Arngrímur Jónsson the scholar (Icelandic: Arngrímur Jónsson lærði; * 1568 Auðunarstaðir in Víðidalur, † June 27, 1648 in Melstaður in Vestur - Húnavatnssýsla ) was an Icelandic scholar.

Life

He was the son of Jón Jónsson large farmers and his wife Ingibjörg Loptsdatter. He was raised by his relatives Guðbrandur Þorláksson, Bishop in Hólar. He called soon after his home area " vidalin ", a name which retained its descendants. He was married twice: in 1598 Solveig Gunnar Datter. From this marriage came three children. 1628 Sigríður Bjarnadatter. With her he had nine children, the last of which was born in the age of 79. For his assigned livelihoods agriculture, he showed little interest.

Career

At age 17, he came for four years at the University of Copenhagen. After his return he became rector of the Latin school in Hólar and Episcopal chaplain. The rectorate he held until 1598th from 1596 to 1628, he served as episcopal vicar of the bishop and representatives managed the diocese during the prolonged illness of the bishop until his death in 1627 the diocese. During this time he also became pastor of Melstaður, where he settled. He was the closest confidant of the bishop in whose fierce litigation. In this role, in 1592 he traveled via Hamburg to Copenhagen, where he remained until 1593. This and a subsequent trip abroad in 1602 to Denmark were given great importance by the connections made there. At home, he was considered arrogant and hard sense. Despite his eminence due to his prudent management of the diocese he created through his little sociable creatures so many enemies, that when he was already regarded as a natural successor to the bishop, the clergy of the diocese quickly chose another.

Aftereffect

While he was perceived by his contemporaries only as a capable prelate, posterity emphasized its national significance, as it formerly equal proved to be other than the Icelandic foreign scholars. He drew attention of foreign scholars in Iceland early days and its ancient literature. He therefore considered the founder of " Icelandic Renaissance". He wrote for abroad in Latin. The Danish government gave him the task of collecting the old writings and send for translation and evaluation to Copenhagen. For this he received a portion of the royalties from the royal crown lands in Iceland. This led him to correct the prevailing representations Icelandic relations with the foreign authors. He also translated several Icelandic sagas for the Danish scholars into Latin, such as the Jómsvíkinga saga and the Norwegian and Danish royal sagas. You do not have importance because of its now lost sources today. He was in constant correspondence with the Danish scholar Ole Worm and Stephan Stephanius. His literary activity began with his work Brevis commentarius de Islandia ( Hafniæ 1593), a critique of the contemporary views on Iceland. The occasion was the Low German poem of the hamburger Gories Peerses in which this made the Icelanders and their habits contemptuously. While this poem himself had found any great attention to Dithmar Blefken appeared to rely on this poem in his work Islandia, immersive populorum et mirabilium, quae in ea insulation reperiuntur, accuratior descriptio, cui de Groenlandia sub finem quaedam adiecta (Leiden 1607). As he wrote in Latin, it was widely spread in several editions and translations into Dutch and German. In contrast, Arngrímur turned with his writing Anatome Blefkiana and when the descriptions Blefkens services still other authors as a basis, with the font Epistola pro patria defensive soria. In this work he tore bitter and polemical and without distinction between essential and non-essential errors, sentence by sentence Blefkens.

Outside of these pamphlets is his main work Crymogæa (Hamburg 1609 and often). This shows that it was the story in more detail than the description of the nature and geography of the country. The contemporary situation can only be touched. Instead, the language, literature and society of antiquity are presented in detail. He developed the theory that the spoken language is Icelandic in his time the old language of the Norsemen, the same language, as is to be found in the ancient runic inscriptions, a branch of the ancient Gothic language. He put it to the classical Latin and Greek to the side and asked that the language had to be kept pure. This view found its support in the fact that Icelandic students could easily medieval manuscripts that had been discovered in Iceland read. This view prevailed until the 19th century, where it reaffirmed Rasmus Christian Rask again. Although he described the old contract as a loss of freedom, but have not yet thought about the restoration of the Free State. Instead, he praised the Danish kings for their caring for Iceland. His last writing was Specimen Islandiæ historicum (Amsterdam 1643). In it, he outlined the acquisition of land and turned against the view that Iceland is identical with the " Ultima Thule ". Previously, he had not written the more personal writing Apotribe columniæ (Hamburg 1622).

He also tried his hand as Icelandic and Latin poet and also wrote legal writings in the mother tongue and other text in Latin.

Arngímur Jónsson is also considered as the pioneer of the Icelandic humanism.