Jón Árnason (author)
Jón Árnason | |
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Born | |
Died | 4 September 1888 Reykjavík, Iceland | (aged 69)
Education | Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík |
Occupations |
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Jón Árnason (17 August 1819 – 4 September 1888)[1] was an Icelandic author, librarian, and museum director who made the first collection of Icelandic folktales.
Career
Jón Árnason was educated at the Latin School in Bessastaðir.[2]
From 1848 to 1887, he was the first librarian at what became the
He was also the first curator of the Forngripasafns Íslands (Icelandic Antiquities Collection), which became the National Museum of Iceland, when it was founded in 1863.[2] For a long time he ran both the museum and the library.
In addition, he supplemented his small salary[4] by working as secretary to the Bishop and as a teacher and custodian of the library at the Latin School, which had moved to Reykjavík.[2] In 1877, when he was put forward as one of two Icelandic representatives to the centennial celebration of Uppsala University, the government in Copenhagen objected to a "porter" representing Iceland because he was "janitor of the Iceland High School", as Guðbrandur Vigfússon anonymously worded it in an obituary.[5]
Folk tales and other publications
Inspired by the
Jón and Magnús lacked the time and means to travel much to collect tales, instead relying on present and former pupils and other contacts to send them tales in writing.[4] Also either they or Jón may have "touched up" the wording. However, the changes he is known to have made are slight, and the universal admiration for the saga style and relative lack of educational and class differences in Iceland mean that stylistic tastes differed less there than elsewhere in Europe in the 19th century.[9]
Jón Árnason also wrote biographies of Martin Luther (1852), Charlemagne (1853), and Sveinbjörn Egilsson.[10]
Personal life
Jón married late in life but his son died before he did.[10] He died after a long illness.[1]
Influence
The survey of Icelandic folklore and early modern scholarship about elves (álfar) in the introduction to Jón's Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri provided the framework for J. R. R. Tolkien's conception of elves in his fantasy fiction.[11]
Publications
- Jón Árnason and Magnús Grímsson (Ed.) Íslenzk Æfintýri. Reykjavík, 1852.
- Jón Árnason. Íslenzkar Þjóðsögur og Æfintýri. 2 vols. Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs, 1862, 1864.
- Jón Árnason. Ágrip af æfisögu Dr. Marteins Lúters. Reykjavík, 1852. OCLC 52435258
- Jón Árnason. Sagan af Karlamagnúsi keisara. Copenhagen, 1853. OCLC 264953221
References
- ^ a b Mannslát (Obituary) in Ísafold, 5 September 1888. (in Icelandic)
- ^ et al., Volume 2, New York: Peale and Hill, 1896, OCLC 1182898, p. 802.
- ISBN 1-57958-244-3, pp. 77-80, p. 78.
- ^ ISBN 0-7134-1120-1, p. 2.
- ^ [Guðbrandur Vigfússon], "Obituary: Jon Arnason", The Academy No. 856, September 29, 1888, p. 205, OCLC 64040322.
- ^ "Íslenzkar thjódhsögur og Æfintýri safnadh hefir Jón Árnason. Fyrsta bindi". Publication notice in Anzeiger für Kunde der deutschen Vorzeit (1862) p. 304. (in German)
- ^ According to the Anzeiger, pp. 304-05, with arrangement modelled on Maurer's Isländische Volkssagen der Gegenwart and with corrections overseen by him.
- ^ In 1971 the manuscript was discovered in Munich: "Ósegjanlegur fengur segir þjóðskjalavörður: Þjóðsaga lætur filma og gera vinnuhandrit fyrir Íslendinga", Morgunblaðið November 4, 1971. (in Icelandic)
- ^ Simpson, pp. 11-12.
- ^ a b Obituary, The Academy.
- .
External links
- Selected folktales from Jón Árnason's collection at Netútgáfan (in Icelandic)
- Íslenzkar Þjóðsögur og Æfintýri (1862 ed.) reproduced online at bækur.is (in Icelandic)
- Works by or about Jón Árnason at Internet Archive
- Works by Jón Árnason at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)