Tómas Sæmundsson (7 June 1807 – 17 May 1841) 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 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 Independence Movement The Icelandic Independence movement (Icelandic: ''Sjálfstæðisbarátta Íslendinga'') was the collective effort made by Icelanders to achieve self-determination and independence from the Kingdom of Denmark throughout the 19th and early 20th ...

. According to author Daisy Neijmann, he was "one of the era's most fervent nationalists". Tómas is quoted by

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...

as saying "''Málin eru höfuðeínkenni þjóðanna...''" (Languages are the chief distinguishing marks of peoples ...): Tómas travelled around Europe from 1832 to 1834, and he became the pastor in Breiðabólsstaður in Fljótshlíð in 1835. Among other things, Tómas wrote the fifth annual issue of the 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 claim ...

''.

References

External links

''Tómas Sæmundsson''; grein í Lesbók Morgunblaðsins 1941''Tómas Sæmundsson''; minningargrein í Fjölni 1843
Saemundsson, Tomas Saemundsson, Tomas Icelandic writers Icelandic priests 19th-century Icelandic people Icelandic independence activists {{iceland-writer-stub