Jón Thoroddsen elder

Jón Þórðarson Thoroddsen (* October 5, 1818 or 1819 in Reykhólar; † March 8, 1868 in Leiria, Borgarfjardarsysla ) was an Icelandic writer. His published work in 1850 Piltur above stúlka is considered the first modern novel in Icelandic literature. He also wrote poetry.

Life

Jón was the son of Fassbinder þórðar Thoroddsen. He grew up with his father's friends, including on the farm Eyvindastaður in Akureyri. From 1837 to 1840 he attended high school in Bessastaðir. In 1841 he went to Denmark, where he studied law in Copenhagen. There he was friends with Gisli Brynjúlfsson and gave together with this political yearbook Norðurfari out. In 1848 he fought as a volunteer on the Danish side in the Schleswig- Holstein war. In 1850 he returned to Iceland, where he was administrative officer until 1861 in Austur - Bardastrandarsysla and later in Borgarfjardarsysla. His son was the geologist Þorvaldur Thoroddsen.

Work

1848 Jón published in the Yearbook Norðufari the narrative Dálitil ferðasaga, which was later under the title The stone woman also translated into German. He became known stúlka but only with the 1850 novel, Piltur above. This is considered the first modern novel in Icelandic literature. Although Jónas Hallgrímsson had worked in 1835 on a novel with the title Grasaferð, this remained unfinished and was published in 1847 as a fragment. Piltur above stúlka (German: boy and girl) was very successful and has been reprinted several times. A German translation of Joseph Calasanz Poestion appeared in 1883 in the Reclam publishing house. 1890 appeared a translation into English, still the novel was also translated into Danish and the Dutch. Thoroddsens second novel, Madur above kona, was published unfinished until after his death.

He is known beyond for his popular, humorous poems published in anthologies and magazines, but were posthumously collected and published in book form.