Jón Thoroddsen (18 February 1898 – 1 January 1925) 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 ...

ic poet and playwright.

Early life

Jón was born in

Ísafjörður Ísafjörður (pronounced , meaning ''ice fjord'', literally ''fjord of ices'') is a town in the northwest of Iceland. The oldest part of Ísafjörður with the town centre is located on a spit of sand, or ''eyri'', in Skutulsfjörður, a fjord ...

in the West Fjords region of Iceland. One of thirteen children, his parents were

sýslumaður (; plural: ; non, sýslumaðr , no, sysselmann, da, sysselmænd) is a governmental office or title used in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Norway. The position originated in Norway in the Middle Ages, where it was used as a noble title, and ...

Skúli Thoroddsen Skúli Thoroddsen (6 January 1859 – 21 May 1916) was an Icelandic judge and politician. Career Thoroddsen was a Speaker of the Althing. Family He was married to poet Theodóra Thoroddsen. His great-granddaughter is Katrín Jakobsdóttir, ...

and poet Theodóra Guðmundsdóttir Thoroddsen. Jón graduated from Reykjavík Junior College in 1918, studied 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 ...

in 1919, and completed the law exam at the

University of Iceland The University of Iceland ( is, Háskóli Íslands ) is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servants' s ...

in 1924.

Career

In 1922, Jón published ''Flugur'', a collection of short texts that scholars have since identified as the first collection of prose poetry in the Icelandic language. Prior to the publication of ''Flugur'', prose poetry was rare in Icelandic literature. Thus, Jón's work was an important contribution to Icelandic modernism. The same year, he also published the three-act play ''María Magdalena'' and he published a number of other pieces in the Icelandic periodicals ''Eimreiðin'', ''Iðunn'', and ''Skírnir''. Outside of his literary activities, Jón was an active member of Iceland's

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

. He was the party's candidate in the

Norður-Ísafjarðarsýsla Iceland was historically divided into 23 counties known as ''sýslur'' (), and 23 independent towns known as ''kaupstaðir'' (). Iceland is now split up between 24 sýslumenn (magistrates) that are the highest authority over the local police ( ...

district in the 1923 parliamentary election but lost, receiving 30.67% of the vote.

Death and legacy

Jón was hit by a tram in Copenhagen on December 24, 1924. He died a week later at the age of just 26 on January 1, 1925. In 1933,

Tómas Guðmundsson Tómas Guðmundsson (6 January 1901 – 14 November 1983) was an Icelandic writer. He was known as Reykjavík's poet ''(Reykjavíkurskáldið, skáld Reykjavíkur)''. Tómas's parents were Steinunn Þorsteinsdóttir and Guðmundur Ögmundsson, liv ...

composed the elegy "Jón Thoroddsen. Cand. jur. In Memoriam," which is thought to be one of Iceland's greatest elegies. ''Flugur'' was republished in 1986 and again in 2002 by Icelandic publisher JPV. The collection was also translated into English and published alongside the work of his mother Theodóra in 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jon Thoroddsen Thoroddsen, Jon Thoroddsen, Jon Icelandic writers Modernist writers Icelandic poets