Jónas HallgrÃmsson
Jónas Hallgrímsson ( born November 16, 1807 in Hraun in Öxnadalur, now the town Hörgársveit, † May 26, 1845 in Copenhagen) was an Icelandic poet and natural scientist, who is revered as a national hero in Iceland.
Life and career
His parents were the chaplain Hallgrímur Þorsteinsson in Bægisá in Hörgárdalur district Eyjafarðarsýsla and his wife Rannveig Jónasdóttir. He spent his childhood on the farm Steinstaðir.
At age 16 he came to the Latin school in Bessastaðir, which he left in 1829. He then worked in the years of the provincial governor in Reykjavík office. In 1832 he passed the entrance examination for the University in Copenhagen. He began to study law, but he soon gave up. Then he studied literature and zoology.
He soon made contact with the other Icelandic students in Copenhagen and joined the National progressive movement. He was co-founder of the annual publication " Fjölnir ", the organ of the patriotic revival movement, and opened the first year with a program poem " Iceland ", which identified him as a poet of the first rank: swarms Generic enthusiasm for the past, atmospheric description of nature and painful sadness about the demise in the presence of melted together here a radiant romantic praise of the motherland, as it was and as it should be again. In the other articles in the following vintages he aspired to, to inspire his countrymen for the aesthetics and science.
In 1837 he undertook with government support a scientific research trip through Iceland with particular attention to geology and zoology. It should be preparatory work for a scientific description of the country. On one of his expeditions he lost his way, was surprised by bad weather with sleet and pulled to a pneumonia that is no longer healed.
After his return, he went to the evaluation initially for one year at the Academy of Soro, but then went back to Copenhagen, where he died of a stair fall with a complicated leg fracture.
His energy did not meet his talents. Alcohol and brought from the Iceland trip abducted pneumonia weakened his creativity. Therefore, his description Iceland was slow and was not far advanced in his death. Of significance was only his essay " De Islandske Vulkaners History " ( History of the Icelandic volcanoes). The manuscript was used by many later researchers.
Significance and factory
Jónas was the most important poet of the Icelandic romance. His poetry is still very popular, many of his poems were set to music in the meantime and are considered traditional Icelandic songs, such as Heiðlóarkvæði, Ég Bid að Heilsa and Álfareiðin.
Jónas was an admirer of the German poet and writer Heinrich Heine and translated some of his songs into Icelandic. Heine also had influence on his poetry, both in form as well as in the steep mood swings. He has also written the first Icelandic reviews, so his devastating critique of S. Breiðfjörðs " Rímur " in " Fjölnir " as well as the entire Rímur seal for him and his circle was considered a receipt for the mindless savagery of decline. Few poems have appeared during his lifetime, especially in Fjölnir. After his death in 1847, the unpublished poems have been published in the book of poetry " Ljóðmæli ". 1883 appeared another edition, which also contained his prose writings. His zoological works and a short biography appeared with French translation of LO Gaillard: Jónas Hallgrímsson ses travaux zoologiques. Copenhagen 1890.
His early death was felt as a severe blow to the Icelandic literary culture.
The life and work of the Icelandic poet and naturalist Eggert Ólafsson, to whom he dedicated a song ( Hulduljóð ), had an influence on Jónas. He saw him as the most important man Islands of the last centuries.
Hallgrimssons role as " favorite son of the nation" caricatured Halldór Laxness in his novel nuclear station.
Works (selection)
- Heiðlóarkvæði
- Ég Bid að Heilsa
- Álfareiðin
- Hulduljóð, is revered Jónas the poet and naturalist Eggert Ólafsson