Dr Jón Stefánsson (1862-1952) was an Icelandic scholar. He wrote many books, articles and contributions to periodicals. Stefánsson was born in Grundarfjordur in 1862 and went on to study at Reykjavík Grammar School and then the

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

. At Copenhagen he produced a doctoral thesis (1891) on Robert Browning. Shortly after he left Copenhagen for London where he was to spend much of the next 50 years. In 1897 he took the British artist and scholar W. G. Collingwood on a tour of Iceland. Jón and Collingwood co-authored ''A pilgrimage to the saga-steads of Iceland'' with illustrations by Collingwood. They also collaborated on a translation of one of the sagas. In October 1918 he married a widowed French Mauritian woman, Adrienne de Chazal. Shortly after their marriage they moved to Mauritius but Jon became ill and returned to Iceland and then back to London. In London he spent much of his time in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

writing but he was also an acquaintance of a wide range of scholars including

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William Paton Ker William Paton Ker, FBA (30 August 1855 – 17 July 1923), was a Scottish literary scholar and essayist. Life Born in Glasgow in 1855, Ker studied at Glasgow Academy, the University of Glasgow, and Balliol College, Oxford. He was appointe ...

, James Bryce and Israel Gollancz. In London he worked for a few years as a lecturer in Icelandic and Danish at King's College. During the early years of

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, following the occupation of Denmark, Stefánsson, speaking as a key figure among Icelanders in the UK suggested to

Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1 ...

that Icelanders might welcome the occupation of Iceland by the British. In his old age Stefánsson wrote an autobiography or memoir which was published in 1949. ''Úti í heimi: endurminningar'' (Out in the World).Jón Stefánsson. (1949). ''Úti í heimi: endurminningar''. Reykjavík: Bókfellsútgáfan.

References

1862 births 1952 deaths Jón Stefánsson Jón Stefánsson Academics of King's College London {{Iceland-academic-bio-stub