Finnur Jónsson (May 29, 1858 – March 30, 1934) was an Icelandic-Danish

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

and Professor of Nordic Philology at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

. He made extensive contributions to the study of

Old Norse literature Old Norse literature refers to the vernacular literature of the Scandinavian peoples up to c. 1350. It chiefly consists of Icelandic writings. In Britain From the 8th to the 15th centuries, Vikings and Norse settlers and their descendants colon ...

. Finnur Jónsson was born at

Akureyri Akureyri (, locally ) is a town in northern Iceland. It is Iceland's fifth-largest municipality, after Reykjavík, Hafnarfjörður, Reykjanesbær and Kópavogur, and the largest town outside Iceland's more populated southwest corner. Nicknamed ...

in northern

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

. He graduated from

Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík (MR; official name in English: Reykjavik Junior College) is a junior college in Iceland. It is located in Reykjavík. The school traces its origin to 1056, when a school was established in Skálholt, and it remains o ...

in 1878 and went to Denmark for further studies at the

. He received a doctorate in philology in 1884 with a dissertation on

skaldic poetry A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: , later ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry, the other being Eddic poetry, which is anonymous. Skaldic poems were traditionally ...

. He became a

docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de conf ...

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. He was elected member of the

Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg The Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskaps- och Vitterhets-Samhället i Göteborg, abbreviated KVVS and often known simply as ''Samhället'') is a Swedish Royal Academy. Its predecessor was founded in Gothenburg ...

in 1905 and corresponding member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities also called simply the Royal Academy of Letters or Vitterhetsakademin abbreviated KVHAA ( sv, Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien Historie och Antikvitets Akademien or or ) is the Swedish royal ...

in 1908. Finnur's principal area of study was

Old Norse poetry Old Norse poetry encompasses a range of verse forms written in Old Norse, during the period from the 8th century (see Eggjum stone) to as late as the far end of the 13th century. Most of the Old Norse poetry that survives was preserved in Iceland ...

. 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 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 The sagas of Icelanders ( is, Íslendingasögur, ), also known as family sagas, are one genre of Icelandic sagas. They are prose narratives mostly based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the ninth, tenth, and early el ...

Kings' sagas Kings' sagas ( is, konungasögur, nn, kongesoger, -sogor, nb, kongesagaer) are Old Norse sagas which principally tell of the lives of semi-legendary and legendary (mythological, fictional) Nordic kings, also known as saga kings. They were compo ...

, ''

Rímur In Icelandic literature, a ''ríma'' (, literally "a rhyme", pl. ''rímur'', ) is an epic poem written in any of the so-called ''rímnahættir'' (, "rímur meters"). They are rhymed, they alliterate and consist of two to four lines per stanza. T ...

'' (along with a dictionary of ''rímur'') and the

Edda "Edda" (; Old Norse ''Edda'', plural ''Eddur'') is an Old Norse term that has been attributed by modern scholars to the collective of two Medieval Icelandic literary works: what is now known as the ''Prose Edda'' and an older collection of poem ...

s. A skilled

polemic Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topics ...

ist, he defended his belief in the historical accuracy of the sagas and the antiquity of the Eddic poems in debates with other scholars.

References

Other sources

* Jón Helgason (1934). "Mindeord om Finnur Jónsson" in ''Aarbøger for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie'', 1934, pp. 137–60.

External links

''Det gamle Grønlands beskrivelse af Ívar Bárðarson (Ivar Bårdssön)''
(translated by Finnur Jónsson. published by Levin & Munksgaard Forlag. 1930)
Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning
(translated by Finnur Jónsson. published by Gyldendal, Nordisk forlag 1912–1915)
Old Norse editions
List includes several works by Finnur Jónsson

A partial online edition

A partial online edition {{DEFAULTSORT:Finnur Jonsson Finnur Jonsson Finnur Jonsson 19th-century Danish philologists 20th-century Danish philologists Danish translators Danish scholars Finnur Jonsson Finnur Jonsson Finnur Jonsson Finnur Jonsson Finnur Jonsson Old Norse studies scholars Members of the Royal Society of Sciences and Letters in Gothenburg Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy Finnur Jonsson