Janus Djurhuus
Encyclopedia
Tórshavn
Tórshavn is the capital and largest town of the Faroe Islands. It is located in the southern part on the east coast of Streymoy. To the north west of the town lies the high mountain Húsareyn, and to the southwest, the high Kirkjubøreyn...
– 1 September 1948, Tórshavn) was the first modern Faroese
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands are a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, along with Denmark proper and Greenland...
poet. He and his younger brother Hans Andreas Djurhuus, also a poet, are called the Áarstova brothers after the house where they grew up.
Life and work
Djurhuus' parents were Óla Jákup Djurhuus (1832–1909) und Else Marie née Poulsen, from HósvíkHósvík
Hósvík is a village in the Faroe Islands. It has 281 inhabitants and is located on a bay on Streymoy's east-coast.*Population: 281*Postal code : FO 420*Location: *Municipality: Sunda Kommuna...
(1847–1897). He was a great-grandson of Jens Christian Djurhuus
Jens Christian Djurhuus
Jens Christian Djurhuus or Sjóvarbóndin was the first poet who wrote in Faroese. He composed several Faroese ballads in traditional style on historical themes. The best known is Ormurin langi...
.
Djurhuus said that his "poetic baptism" came in school, when he heard Jákup Dahl
Jákup Dahl
Jákup Dahl was a Faroese Provost and Bible translator. In 1908 he became known as a linguist with the first Faroese grammar lessons for school students.- Life and work :...
(later a provost
Provost (religion)
A provost is a senior official in a number of Christian churches.-Historical Development:The word praepositus was originally applied to any ecclesiastical ruler or dignitary...
and Bible translator and author of the first school grammar of the Faroese language) declaim Jóannes Patursson
Jóannes Patursson
Jóannes Patursson was a Faroese nationalist leader and poet.He was the great-grandson of the Faroese national hero Nólsoyar Páll. His brother Sverre Patursson was an important writer and his sister Susanna Helena Patursson the first feminist of the Faroe Islands.-Background:Jóannes was born in...
's Nú er tann stundin komin til handa (Now is the hour come for acting), the anthem of the Christmas Meeting.
Djurhuus trained as a lawyer. After passing the preliminary examinations in 1897, he went to Denmark for university preparation, first in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
and then in Bornholm
Bornholm
Bornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea located to the east of the rest of Denmark, the south of Sweden, and the north of Poland. The main industries on the island include fishing, arts and crafts like glass making and pottery using locally worked clay, and dairy farming. Tourism is...
. He passed the qualifying examinations in 1900, graduated with the cand. jur. degree in 1911, and then practised in Copenhagen until the late 1930s, when he returned to the Faroes to practise there. However, he kept in touch with his homeland through students.
His first published poem was "Blíð er summarnátt á Føroya landi", in 1901. In 1914 he published Yrkingar (Poems), the first collection of a single poet's work published in Faroese. He published four further collections of poems.
Djurhuus had also studied Classical philology
Classical philology
Classical philology is the study of ancient Greek and classical Latin. Classical philology has been defined as "the careful study of the literary and philosophical texts of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds." Greek and Latin literature and civilization have traditionally been considered...
, and also published accomplished Faroese translations of Ancient Greek and Latin works, including some of Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
's Dialogues and poetry by Sappho
Sappho
Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life...
, and (posthumously) a poetic translation of the Iliad
Iliad
The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
. (He also published translations of poetic works by Goethe, Dante
DANTE
Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
, Heinrich Heine
Heinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...
and Gustaf Fröding
Gustaf Fröding
Gustaf Fröding was a Swedish poet and writer, born in Alster outside Karlstad in Värmland. The family moved to Kristinehamn in the year 1867. He later studied at Uppsala University and worked as a journalist in Karlstad....
). There is a story that on one occasion when a Greek steamer called at Tórshavn, he went on board and sent a cabin boy for the captain. On his arrival, he began to recite the Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
in Ancient Greek. The astonished captain joined in.
His poetry combines Classical and Norse mythology
Norse mythology
Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...
. The language of his poems draws on both modern Faroese and the language of the traditional ballads
Kvæði
Kvæði are the old ballads of the Faroe Islands, accompanied by the Faroese dance....
, as well as ancient and modern poetry in other Scandinavian languages; their rhythm is also influenced by ancient Greek and modern German poetry.
Literary reputation
Djurhuus' poetry represented the breakthrough into modern literature in Faroese. His poetry has been judged "among the best" of modern Scandinavian writing, "splendid . . . of great vision and musicality" and some consider him the greatest Faroese poet, "the first Faroese writer of genius", "without a doubt a great poet".He was a national romantic, but his works show what has been described as poetic idealisation and love of his homeland conflicting with "something of a revulsion from [its] reality" and as "doubt and pessimism, a result of the clash between [his] powerful, pathetic dream of beauty and petty, miserable reality". "Útlegd" (Exile—referring to his many years in Denmark) is an example of this pessimism.
Poetry
- Yrkingar. Copenhagen: Hitt Føroyska Studentafelagið, 1914. Rev. ed. 1923. OCLC 41390587
- Nyggjar Yrkingar. Copenhagen: Hitt Føroyska Studentafelagið, 1938. OCLC 465720164
- Carmina. Tórshavn: H.N. Jacobsen, 1941. OCLC 729143860
- Moriendo. Tórshavn: Norrøna forlagið, 1944. OCLC 19884120
- Yrkingar 1898-1948. Ed. Christian Matras. Copenhagen: Mentunargrunnur Studentafelagsins, 1988. OCLC 25370149 (Collected edition)
Translations
- Plato. Symposion—Gorgias. Copenhagen: Føroyingafelag, 1938. OCLC 44024260
- Homer. Ilionskvæði. Tórshavn, 1967. OCLC 559676478
Honours
On 20 September 2004, the Faroese post officePostverk Føroya
Posta is the postal service of the Faroe Islands and was founded on 1 April 1976 under the Home Rule of the Faroe Islands. On 16 December 2005, it became a public joint stock company under the name P/F Postverk Føroya ....
honoured Djurhuus with a block of ten stamps, designed by Anker Eli Petersen
Anker Eli Petersen
Anker Eli Petersen is a Faroese writer and artist.He is most known for his many Faroe Islands postage stamp designs under the name Anker Eli. Many of his stamps depict scenes from Norse mythology, Christianity, or interpretations of other Faroese authors or poets...
, depicting ten of his poems. It was chosen as the popular favourite amongst their stamp issues for the year.
Sources
- Chr. Holm Isaksen. Føroyskur skaldskapur í 19. øld: Páll Nólsoy; Jóannes Paturrson; J. H. O. Djurhuus. Bókmentagreinir 1. Tórshavn: Fannir, 1981. OCLC 472830743
- Hanus Andreassen. J.H.O. Djurhuus: ein bókmentalig ævisøga. Volume 1 1881 – 1904, Volume 2 1904 – 1929, Volume 3 1929 – 1948. Tórshavn: Mentunargrunnur Studentafelagsins, 1994–97. ISBN 9789991843025
- Hanus Kamban, tr. Kirsten Brix. J. H. O. Djurhuus: en litteraer biografi Volume 1 1881 – 1922, Volume 2 1922 – 1948. Odense University studies in Scandinavian languages and literatures 46. Odense: Odense University, 2001, 2002. ISBN 9788778386045 (translation of above)
External links
- J.H.O. Djurhuus at Rithøvundafelag Føroya (Writers' Association of the Faroes), 7 March 2007.
- Janus, Faroeartstamps, Faroepost, 21 November 2005: the 2004 stamp sheet, with translations of many of the poems