Konráð Gíslason (3 July 1808 – 26 January 1891) 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
grammarian and
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 one of the ''
Fjölnismenn'', a group of Icelandic intellectuals who spearheaded the
revival of Icelandic national consciousness in the 19th century. He was by royal appointment member of the 1849
Danish Constituent Assembly.
Early life
Konráð was born in
Langamýri in
Skagafjörður
Skagafjörður () is a deep fjord and its valley in northern Iceland.
Location
Skagafjörður, the fjord, is about 40 km long and 15 km wide, situated between Tröllaskagi to the east and the Skagi Peninsula to the west. There are t ...
, Iceland. He was the oldest child of chronicler
Gísli Konráðsson
Gísli () is an Icelandic and Faroese masculine given name. Gisle is the Norwegian variant of the name. Notable people with the name include:
* Gisli Sursson, the protagonist of ''Gísla saga''
* Gisli (contemporary musician), Icelandic solo ...
and his wife Efemía Benediktsdóttir. In his early years he was instructed in
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
,
arithmetic
Arithmetic () is an elementary part of mathematics that consists of the study of the properties of the traditional operations on numbers— addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, and extraction of roots. In the 19th ...
and
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
by pastor
Jón Konráðsson and his daughter, but otherwise received no formal schooling, herding sheep on his father's farm.
At the age of 17 Konráð travelled south to seek employment in the fisheries, and worked in
Álftanes
Álftanes () is the name of a town and a collection of small peninsulas in Iceland. It means ''swan peninsula''.
The best known of these peninsulas extrudes from the eastern part of Reykjanes with the town of the same name in the Capital Regio ...
over the summer as a manual labourer for
Hallgrímur Scheving, a teacher at the
Bessastaðir
Bessastaðir () is the official residence of the president of Iceland. It is situated in Álftanes, about from the capital city, Reykjavík
Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, ...
school. Soon Hallgrímur called on his young employee to assist him in philological analysis of medieval Icelandic texts and taught him
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
. Konráð proved a gifted pupil and Hallgrímur obtained a stipend for him to study at Bessastaðir.
In 1831, Konráð finished his education at Bessastaðir and travelled to Denmark to study 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 initially studied
jurisprudence
Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...
but soon abandoned the law to focus on
Nordic and Icelandic
philology
Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...
.
Jónas Hallgrímsson
Jónas Hallgrímsson (16 November 1807 – 26 May 1845) was an Icelandic poet, author and naturalist. He was one of the founders of the Icelandic journal Fjölnir (journal), ''Fjölnir'', which was first published in Copenhagen in 1835. The mag ...
,
Brynjólfur Pétursson
Brynjólfur Pétursson (15 April 1810 – 18 October 1851) was an Icelandic lawyer and government official. He was one of the '' Fjölnismenn'', a group of Icelandic intellectuals who spearheaded the revival of Icelandic national consciousness an ...
and
Tómas Sæmundsson
Tómas Sæmundsson (7 June 1807 – 17 May 1841) was an Icelandic priest, and one of the '' Fjölnismenn'', a group of Icelandic intellectuals who spearheaded the revival of Icelandic national consciousness and gave rise to the Icelandic Independ ...
had been his fellow students at both Bessastaðir and the University of Copenhagen. In 1834, the four of them—collectively known as the ''
Fjölnismenn''—founded the Icelandic journal ''
Fjölnir
Fjölnir ( non, Fjǫlnir ) is a legendary king in Norse mythology said to have been the son of Freyr (Frey) and his consort Gerðr (Gertha). The name appears in a variety of forms, including Fiolnir, Fjölner, Fjolner, and Fjolne. He was claime ...
'' and published the first issue in the following year. Later, in 1847, Konráð and Brynjólfur were the first to publish the poems of
Jónas Hallgrímsson
Jónas Hallgrímsson (16 November 1807 – 26 May 1845) was an Icelandic poet, author and naturalist. He was one of the founders of the Icelandic journal Fjölnir (journal), ''Fjölnir'', which was first published in Copenhagen in 1835. The mag ...
.
Academic work
Konráð wanted to adapt Icelandic spelling to actual pronunciation and introduced a new system of Icelandic spelling in the second copy of ''Fjölnir''. However, his ideas never caught on and he would later abandon the project. In 1839 he received a grant from the
Arnamagnæan Institute
The Arnamagnæan Institute ( da, Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, formerly ''Det Arnamagnæanske Institut'') is a teaching and research institute established in 1956 to further the study of the manuscripts in the Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection, th ...
and spent the following years working on a Danish-Icelandic dictionary alongside research into the
Icelandic language
Icelandic (; is, íslenska, link=no ) is a North Germanic language spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national language. Due to being a West Scandinavian language, it is most closely re ...
. Konráð's contributions to the development of Icelandic as a written language were extensive.
Konráð was a pioneer in the field of Icelandic dictionaries, publishing a Danish-Icelandic dictionary in 1851. He also contributed to an Icelandic-English dictionary by
Richard Cleasby
Richard Cleasby (1797–1847) was an English philologist, author with Guðbrandur Vigfússon of the first Icelandic-English dictionary.
Life
He was eldest son of Stephen Cleasby, and brother of Anthony Cleasby, born on 30 November 1797. He was ed ...
and
Guðbrandur Vigfússon
Guðbrandur Vigfússon, known in English as Gudbrand Vigfusson, (13 March 1827 – 31 January 1889Jón þorkelsson, "Nekrolog över Guðbrandur Vigfússon" in ''Arkiv för nordisk filologi'', Sjätte bandet (ny följd: andra bandet), Lund, 18 ...
. He studied
Old Icelandic
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...
and was the first scholar to distinguish
Old Icelandic
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...
from
Modern Icelandic
Icelandic (; is, íslenska, link=no ) is a North Germanic language spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national language. Due to being a West Scandinavian language, it is most closely re ...
in his seminal work
Um frumparta íslenzkrar túngu í fornöld' (English: "On the constituent parts of the Icelandic tongue in ancient times") (1846).
Konráð also published several Old Icelandic texts, among them ''
Njáls saga
''Njáls saga'' ( ), also ''Njála'' ( ), ''Brennu-Njáls saga'' ( ) or ''"The Story of Burnt Njáll"'', is a thirteenth-century sagas of Icelanders, Icelandic saga that describes events between 960 and 1020.
The saga deals with a process of ...
'', in conjunction with the society ''
Det nordiske Literatur-Samfund'' (English: The Nordic Literature Foundation) and ''
Veraldar saga''. His publications of the
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 ...
did much to introduce medieval Icelandic literature to the Danish reading public.
In 1846 he was granted a teaching position at the
Learned School of Reykjavik, which he later declined, having been promised a lectureship in
Nordic philology
Scandinavian studies is an interdisciplinary academic field of area studies, mainly in the United States and Germany, that primarily focuses on the Scandinavian languages (also known as North Germanic languages) and cultural studies pertaining to ...
at the University of Copenhagen. He was granted this position in 1848 and was made full professor in 1853, a position which he held until 1886.
Personal life
Konráð's Danish fiancée died in 1846, shortly before the intended date of their wedding, leaving him grief-stricken. Nine years later he married her widowed sister and the two lived together until her death in 1877. She had a mentally handicapped son from her previous marriage, whom Konráð is said to have treated kindly.
He is often referred to as "the last of the ''
Fjölnismenn''", in reference to the fact that he was the only one of the four who did not die at a young age. Konráð was known as a stubborn and difficult man, and in later life he grew gradually more isolated from the Icelandic community in Copenhagen.
In his will, Konráð stipulated that all his property, including his books and medieval manuscripts, should be donated to the
Arnamagnæan Institute
The Arnamagnæan Institute ( da, Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, formerly ''Det Arnamagnæanske Institut'') is a teaching and research institute established in 1956 to further the study of the manuscripts in the Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection, th ...
.
Sources
* Aðalgeir Kristjánsson, ''Bréf Konráðs Gíslasonar'' (Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, 1984)
Æfiágrip Gísla sagnfræðings Konráðssonar, ritað af honum sjálfumKonráð Gíslason síðasti Fjölnismaðurinn
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gislason, Konrad
19th-century philologists
Indo-Europeanists
Linguists of Indo-European languages
1807 births
1891 deaths
Konrad Gislason
Konrad Gislason
Icelandic independence activists