Tómas Guðmundsson (6 January 1901 – 14 November 1983) was an Icelandic writer. He was known as

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...

's poet ''(Reykjavíkurskáldið, skáld Reykjavíkur)''. Tómas's parents were Steinunn Þorsteinsdóttir and Guðmundur Ögmundsson, living at Efri-Brú in Grímsnes. He soon got in touch with literature and poetry. He read

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 ...

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 ...

's poems and more. He also started to write his own poetry at a young age.

Career

He moved to Reykjavík and studied at

Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík (MR; official name in English: Reykjavik Junior College) is a junior college in Iceland. It is located in Reykjavík. The school traces its origin to 1056, when a school was established in Skálholt, and it remains o ...

, there he got in touch with many authors, including

Halldór Laxness Halldór Kiljan Laxness (; born Halldór Guðjónsson; 23 April 1902 – 8 February 1998) was an Icelandic writer and winner of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature. He wrote novels, poetry, newspaper articles, essays, plays, travelogues and s ...

(they formed a close friendship during the M.R. years), Guðmundur G. Hagalín and

Davíð Stefánsson ''Davíð Stefánsson'' (21 January 1895 – 1 March 1964) from Fagriskógur was a popular Icelandic poet and novelist, best known for his ten volumes of poetry. He was born on 21 January 1895, in Fagriskógur, Eyjafjördur, Iceland and he died ...

. Tómas graduated from M.R. in 1921. He then studied law at

Háskóli Íslands 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 ...

and graduated in 1926. During that time he got in touch with even more authors, including

Jón Thoroddsen junior Jón Thoroddsen (18 February 1898 – 1 January 1925) was an Icelandic poet and playwright. Early life Jón was born in Ísafjörður in the West Fjords region of Iceland. One of thirteen children, his parents were sýslumaður Skúli Thoroddse ...

. After his graduation he opened an office to practise law and in 1928 he started working at

Hagstofa Íslands Statistics Iceland ( is, Hagstofa Íslands) is the main official institute providing statistics on the nation of Iceland. It was created by the Althing in 1913, began operations in 1914 and became an independent government agency under the Prime ...

. He closed his office in 1929 and quit the bureau in 1943. From 1943 he mostly worked at poetry and authorship. He was one of the editors of the literary magazines ''Helgafell'' and ''Nýja Helgafell'', and also translated stories, plays and poems.

Death

Tómas died 1983 in Reykjavík, aged 82.

Legacy

Since 1994, the city of Reykjavík has made an award in memory of Tómas called the

Bókmenntaverðlaun Tómasar Guðmundssonar The Bókmenntaverðlaun Tómasar Guðmundssonar (Tómas Guðmundsson literature award) is an award which the city of Reykjavík awards in memory of the poet Tómas Guðmundsson. The award was first made in 1994, and thereafter every other year up to ...

(the Tómas Guðmundsson literature award). A statue of Tómas by the sculptor Halla Gunnarsdóttir was unveiled in 2010 at the southern end of the

Tjörnin Tjörnin () is a small, prominent lake in central Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland. Most visitors to the city pass along its shore, as it is situated in the city centre next to the Reykjavik City Hall and several museums. ''Tjörnin'' means "t ...

, a lake in Reykjavík centrum.

Works

Tómas's poems were mostly traditional and his style did not change much during his career. The poems are mostly about Reykjavík and his place of youth. The first three books he published, ''Við sundin blá'', ''Fagra veröld'' and ''Stjörnur vorsins'' belong to neoromanticism and so do his last two books, ''Fljótið helga'' and ''Heim til þín, Ísland'', but its signs are not as strong.

Publications

*1925: Við sundin blá, poems *1933: Fagra veröld, poems *1940: Stjörnur vorsins, poems *1950: Fljótið helga, poems *1977: Heim til þín, Ísland, poems

References

*''Musterissvipurinn mikli'' - Inngangur að ævi Tómasar Guðmundssonar og greining á ljóði hans Við höfnina -. 13 March 2004. Tómas Guðmundsson

DF {{DEFAULTSORT:Gudmundsson, Tomas 1901 births 1983 deaths Tomas Gudmundsson Tomas Gudmundsson Tomas Gudmundsson