Eggert Ólafsson

Eggert Ólafsson (also Eggert Olafsen, born December 1, 1726 the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, Iceland, † May 30, 1768 ) was an Icelandic poet, naturalist, philologist, archaeologist, historian and economist. He was one of the first Icelandic representatives of the European Enlightenment.

Biography

Eggert, who came from an old farming family, went to Denmark in 1746 and studied at the University of Copenhagen, science and philosophy. In 1750 he returned with his fellow students Bjarni Pálsson to Iceland, where both accumulated Icelandic books and natural objects. Both climbed first the nearly 1500 m high volcano Hekla, which was regarded as the gateway to hell, and undertook extensive travels 1752-1757 by Iceland, where they supported financially by the Danish Crown, on behalf of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Humanities Research hired on the physical geography and the Islands mineral deposits. Your impressions and experiences they described in the influential work of travel igiennem Iceland ( "Journey through Iceland " ), a comprehensive presentation of the country and its population, to which has mainly Eggert share. The book was completed in 1766 but published only after Eggert's death, in 1772, at the public expense. It first appeared in Danish, but was soon translated it into German, French and English. In Icelandic it first appeared in 1943.

From 1760 Eggert lived with his brother in law, the farmer Björn Halldórsson at Sauðlauksdalur near Patreksfjörður; Eggert's most important poetic work Búnadarbálkur ( " cycle of country life " ), in which he an idealized portrait of a farmer designs in 160 verses, is inspired by his admiration of modern Hofwirtschaft the brother in law.

In the fall of 1767 Eggert married in a lavish, to professional end to old Icelandic traditions ceremony his cousin Ingibjörg Guðmundsdóttir with which he moved into a private courtyard with Hofsstadir in the spring of 1768.

On May 30, 1768 both sailed from Skor, a jetty in the north of Breiðafjörður in two overloaded boats going and probably drowned after they had fallen into bad weather.

Importance and appreciations

With his compatriots Eggert's work reached a strong emotional impact; His death sparked a major concern in the Icelandic population, numerous Lamentations and works that were reminiscent of the fate Eggert were written. Among the most important Jónas Hallgrímssons 1847 published song Hulduljóð heard ( " The Song of the Hulda "). Jónas referred Eggert as the most important man that Iceland has produced in the last few centuries and idealized him in Hulduljóð a father figure, which took place in the sequence in young Icelandic patriots appeal.

The poet and creator of the Icelandic national anthem, Matthías Jochumsson, wrote a poem that bears the name of Eggert Ólafsson.

In honor Eggert and his wife Ingibjörg Guðmundsdóttir a monument by the artist Páll Guðmundsson in 1998 in Ingjaldshóll, north of the Snæfellsnes peninsula, built.

Works (selection)

• Travel igiennem Iceland ( "Journey through Iceland ", 1772, digitized )
• Búnadarbálkur ( " cycle of country life " )
• Ofsjónir ( poem, 1752, is the first time a mountain woman described )