Finnur Jónsson (philologist)
Encyclopedia
Old Norse literature
Old Norse literature refers to the vernacular literature of the Scandinavian peoples up to ca. 1350. It chiefly consists of Icelandic writings.See:* Old Norse poetry* Edda* Norse saga* Icelanders' sagas* Kings' sagas* Legendary sagas...
.
Finnur graduated from Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík
Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík
Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík is the oldest gymnasium in Reykjavík, Iceland....
in 1878 and went to Denmark for further studies at the University of Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...
. He received a doctorate in philology in 1884 with a dissertation on skaldic poetry. He became a docent
Docent
Docent is a title at some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks below professor . Docent is also used at some universities generically for a person who has the right to teach...
at the University in 1887 and a professor in 1898, serving until 1928. After retiring he continued work on his subject with new publications until the year he died.
Finnur's principal area of study was Old Norse poetry
Old Norse poetry
Old Norse poetry encompasses a range of verse forms written in Old Norse, during the period from the 8th century to as late as the far end of the 13th century...
. His three most important works are Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning, an edition of the entire corpus of skaldic poetry in two parts - one which gives the text of the manuscripts with variants and one which gives a normalized text and a Danish translation. Another of Finnur's major works is Lexicon Poeticum, a dictionary of Old Norse poetry, ostensibly an update of a work with the same name by Sveinbjörn Egilsson
Sveinbjörn Egilsson
Sveinbjörn Egilsson was an Icelandic theologian, classicist, teacher, translator and poet. He is best known for the work he did during his time as the rector of The Learned School of Reykjavík , particularly his translations of Homer's Odyssey and Iliad into Icelandic.-Life:Sveinbjörn was born in...
but in effect an original work. The third principal work is Den oldnorske og oldislandske litteraturs historie, a detailed history of Old Norse literature.
Finnur was an unusually prolific scholar, preparing editions of, among other works, numerous Icelanders' sagas
Icelanders' sagas
The Sagas of Icelanders —many of which are also known as family sagas—are prose histories mostly describing events that took place in Iceland in the 10th and early 11th centuries, during the so-called Saga Age. They are the best-known specimens of Icelandic literature.The Icelanders'...
, kings' sagas
Kings' sagas
The kings' sagas are Norse sagas which tell of the lives of Scandinavian kings. They were composed in the 12th to 14th centuries in Iceland and Norway....
, rímur
Rímur
In Icelandic literature, a ríma is an epic poem written in any of the so-called rímnahættir . They are rhymed, they alliterate and consist of two to four lines per stanza...
(along with a dictionary of rímur) and the Edda
Edda
The term Edda applies to the Old Norse Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, both of which were written down in Iceland during the 13th century in Icelandic, although they contain material from earlier traditional sources, reaching into the Viking Age...
s. A skilled polemicist, he defended his belief in the historical accuracy of the sagas and the antiquity of the Eddic poems in debates with other scholars.
External links
- Finnur Jónsson Several of his works
- Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning by Finnur Jónsson
- Old Norse editions Includes several works by Finnur Jónsson
- Lexicon Poeticum A partial online edition
- Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning A partial online edition