Hallgrímur Pétursson

Hallgrímur Pétursson (* 1614 Gröf, † October 27, 1674 in Ferstikla ) was one of Iceland's best known poet and a Protestant minister in the Hvalneskirkja on Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula and in Saurbær on Hvalfjörður. The Hallgrimskyrka in Reykjavík and Hallgrímskirkja in Saurbær are named after him. He was also one of the most influential preachers of the so-called age of Orthodoxy in Iceland ( 1580-1713 ). Because of its highly significant Psalm seals that are sung and read a lot today, he stands on a par with the German poet Paul Gerhardt.

Biography

Origin

Hallgrímur Pétursson was born in 1614 in Gröf á Höfðaströnd, the son of the couple Pétur Guðmundsson and Sólveig Jónsdóttir. The father was a tenant of the bishop of Hólar, the then Bishop Guðbrandur Þorláksson his uncle. The poet came so far from poor family.

Youth and Education

He grew up in Hólar, an intellectual center of Iceland at this time, and attended school there, who had a reputation as a training center. First, he showed good talents, but later turned out to be so difficult that he was sent for further education for happiness city in Schleswig -Holstein, which at that time belonged to Denmark. There he was at a blacksmith in the teaching and learning Brynjólfur Sveinsson, who later became Bishop of Skálholt, know who heard him curse in Icelandic and recognized him in this way as a country man.

Brynjólfur helped him to a place in a training center for Protestant pastor in Copenhagen. There Hallgrímur lived a good.

Guðríður Símonardóttir

1636 he was in the graduating class, as he was commissioned to instruct some Icelanders in the faith and in the Icelandic language, the Turks attack (see history of Iceland ) had been stolen in 1627 and had since lived in Muslim countries in slavery. Among these people there was a married woman of the Westman Islands, Guðríður Símonardóttir. Hallgrímur and 16 years older Guðríður fell in love, he abandoned his studies and returned to her home to Iceland. When they arrived, Guðríður was pregnant. Her husband had since died and she could marry Hallgrímur.

Activity in Iceland

First Hallgrímur brought the family as a laborer rather than more poorly. But then the place of the priest in Hvalsnes 1644 free and Brynjólfur Sveinsson, now bishop in Skálholt in southern Iceland, entrusted Hallgrímur with this office, even though he had stopped his theological studies. Until 1651 the family lived in Hvalsnes. Hallgrímur and his wife had a daughter who he baptized in the name Steinunn and died quite young. This paved Hallgrímur severe suffering and he struck himself a grave stone for her and pounded into an inscription. This stone can still be seen today in the Church of Hvalsnes.

In 1651 Hallgrímur received the coveted parish Saurbær on Hvalfjörður. He enjoyed great popularity as a preacher and wrote there the famous Passion Psalms, the best-selling book of Icelandic Literature (60 runs).

Hallgrímur Pétursson died in 1674 in Ferstikla on Hvalfjörður at a leprosy.

Works

Hallgrímur Pétursson was a most inspired poet. In addition to his most famous work, the Passion Psalms ( Isl Passíusálmar ), which appeared in 1659, many poems and religious hymns by him were printed, which are often known and familiar today. He was strongly influenced by pietism.