Jónas Kristjánsson (10 April 1924 – 7 June 2014) 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 ...

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...

and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

, and one-time director of the

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 ...

. In this position, he played a crucial role in the return of Icelandic manuscripts to Iceland from Denmark, representing Iceland in negotiations with the Danish authorities from 1972-86.R ryW. McT rk 'Jónas Kristjánsson 10 April 1924-7 June 2014', ''Saga-Book'', 38 (2014), 113-15 (at 114).

Career

Jónas was a teacher at the Samvinnuskóli from 1952–55, archivist at the National Archives of Iceland from 1957–63, and the director of the

from 1972-94 (from which position he retired upon reaching the age limit).Fjársjóður Íslands Jónas Kristjánsson er að láta af störfum forstöðumanns
''

Morgunblaðið ''Morgunblaðið'' (, ''The Morning Paper'') is an Icelandic newspaper. ''Morgunblaðið''s website, mbl.is, is the most popular website in Iceland. History ''Morgunblaðið'' was founded by Vilhjálmur Finsen and Ólafur Björnsson, brother of ...

'' (in Icelandic), August 7, 1994 (long article on his career); R ryW. McT rk 'Jónas Kristjánsson 10 April 1924-7 June 2014', ''Saga-Book'', 38 (2014), 113-15 (at 114). He spent 1978-79 in the UK. Jónas was also a member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Univer ...

. On May 31, 1991 he received an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

from the Faculty of Humanities at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

Works

Jónas was best known for his works on

Icelandic 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 ...

, laying emphasis on their literary nature and working on several stylistic and syntactic problems.Davies, Karin
Iceland works to preserve its own folk tales
''

Lawrence Journal-World The ''Lawrence Journal-World'' is a daily newspaper published in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, by Ogden Newspapers. History Though the ''Journal-World'' title came into existence in 1911, the paper dates itself to 1858, according to the ...

'' (

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

), November 17, 1991Second Viking site sought
''

The Record (Kitchener, Ontario) The ''Waterloo Region Record'' (formerly ''The Record'') is the daily newspaper covering Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada, including the cities of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge, as well as the surrounding area. Since December 1998, the ''Re ...

'', November 12, 2001 ("Prof Jonas Kristjansson an expert on the Norse sagas")New Clues Emerge on the Vikings' Voyage
''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'', February 4, 2000 ("Jonas Kristjansson one of Iceland's foremost scholars of the sagas") His 1972 doctoral thesis, ''Um fóstbræðra sögu'' presented new arguments about the dating of '' Fóstbræðra saga'' (arguing that it was not, as had previously been thought, relatively archaic, but relatively late). Jónas was an important editor of Icelandic texts, namely ''

Dínus saga drambláta ''Dínus saga drambláta'' (also known, ''inter alia'', as ''Saga af Dínus ok Philomena'') is an Old Norse chivalric saga, assumed to have been composed first in the fourteenth century. The saga is noted for its scholarly, highbrow style. Summa ...

'', ''

Viktors saga ok Blávus ''Viktors saga ok Blávus'' is a medieval Icelandic romance saga from the fifteenth century. Summary Kalinke and Mitchell summarise the saga thus: The saga relates the adventures of the foster-brothers Viktor, son of the king of France, and Blá ...

'', and a number of sagas for the

Íslenzk fornrit Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, or The Old Icelandic Text Society is a text publication society. It is the standard publisher of Old Icelandic texts (such as the Sagas of Icelanders, Kings' sagas and bishops' sagas) with thorough introductions and c ...

series, on whose editorial board he sat from 1979, including ''

Svarfdæla saga ''Svarfdæla saga'' () is one of the sagas of Icelanders. It was first recorded in the first half of the 14th century. It describes disputes which arise during the early settlement of Svarfaðardalur, a valley in central north Iceland. The saga ...

'', overseeing the editions of the '' biskupa sögur'' with

Þórður Ingi Guðjónsson Þórður is a given name. Notable people with the name include: *Þórður Friðjónsson (Thordur Fridjonsson), Vice President of Iceland Stock Exchange and President of NASDAQ OMX Iceland *Þórður Guðjónsson, (Thordur Gudjonsson), (born 1973) ...

,''Biskupa sögur'', Íslenzk fornrit, 15-17 (Reykjavík: Hið Íslenzka Fornritafélag, 2002-3) and co-editing the 2014 edition of the

Poetic Edda The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems, which is distinct from the ''Prose Edda'' written by Snorri Sturluson. Several versions exist, all primarily of text from the Icelandic me ...

with Vésteinn Ólason. Jónas wrote two historical novels, one of which, ''The Wide World'', is set in Viking age North America, and he translated Will Durant's ''The Life of Greece'' and

Arthur Miller's Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are '' All My Sons'' (1947), ''Death of a Salesman'' ( ...

Death of a Salesman ''Death of a Salesman'' is a 1949 stage play written by American playwright Arthur Miller. The play premiered on Broadway in February 1949, running for 742 performances. It is a two-act tragedy set in late 1940s Brooklyn told through a montag ...

'' into Icelandic.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jonas Kristjansson Kristjansson, Jonas Kristjansson, Jonas 20th-century Icelandic novelists Icelandic scholars Icelandic male novelists Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters