Einar Benediktsson

Einar Benediktsson ( born October 31, 1864 in Elliðavatn; † 12 January 1940 in Herdísarvík ) was an Icelandic poet and civil servant. In Iceland also be short name Einar Ben is familiar.

Life

Einar came from an influential family and was the son of a lawyer. The father was also temporarily deputy and district administrator ( sýslumaður ).

He himself studied law in Copenhagen, and then became a lawyer and civil servant in Reykjavík. For a long time he lived in England and Denmark.

In 1896, Einar Benediktsson founded the first Icelandic newspaper and called it Dagskrá. Through this and his popular poems he had influence on the Icelandic national movement and supported accordingly the party Heimastjórnarflokkur. Later he was also involved in the publication of further papers: Þjóðin ( 1914-15 ), Þjóðstefna ( 1916-17 ) og Höfuðstaðurinn ( 1916-17 ).

The author also represented the matter of technical progress and was about to determine whether it would be profitable to build power plants on the Þjórsá. He also became interested in the iron mining and cement production.

Between 1907 and 1921, traveled Einar Benediktsson much about Norway, London and Copenhagen. Later he held, inter alia, to hold in Germany.

He died in Herdísarvík on Reykjanes and is buried in Þingvellir next Jónas Hallgrímsson.

The sculptor Ásmundur Sveinsson made ​​a statue of Einar Benediktsson, standing at Miklatún, in the city park of Reykjavík.

Work

The work of Einar Benediktsson is associated with the neo-Romanticism. His poems follow the features of symbolism. He adheres to the bound form. The influence of Nietzsche is obvious.

He also translated Peer Gynt and English literature into Icelandic.

Important works:

• Sögur above kvædi (1897 )
• Hafblik (1906 )
• Hrannir (1913 )
• Vogar ( 1921)
• Hvammar (1930)

Swell

• Horst Bien uA: Meyers Taschenlexikon North European literatures, Leipzig 1978