Jón Helgason (June 30, 1899 - January 19, 1986) was an

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 ...

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 poet. He was head of the Danish

Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies ( is, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum ) is an institute of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Iceland which conducts research in Icelandic and related academic s ...

from 1927 to 1972 and professor of Icelandic studies 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 ...

from 1929 to 1969. He made significant contributions to his field. As a poet he was not prolific but noted for his highly polished and effective traditional poetry. His best-known poems are ''Áfangar'' and ''Í Árnasafni''. One of his discoveries at the institute is the pair of glossaries that are the only documentation on

Basque–Icelandic pidgin The Basque–Icelandic pidgin ( eu, Euskoislandiera, Islandiera-euskara pidgina; is, Basknesk-íslenskt blendingsmál) was a Basque-based pidgin spoken in Iceland in the 17th century. It consisted of Basque, Germanic and Romance words. Ba ...

. In 1923 he married Þórunn Ástriður Björnsdóttir (1895-1966) and in 1975 married

Agnete Loth Agnete Loth (18 November 1921 – 2 June 1990) was an editor and translator of Old Norse-Icelandic texts. She is notable for editing late medieval romance sagas, which she published in five volumes intended "to provide a long-needed provisional bas ...

(1921-1990).

References

Höfundur: Jón Helgason
Helgason, Jon Helgason, Jon Icelandic male poets 20th-century Icelandic poets 20th-century male writers {{Iceland-writer-stub