Ásgrímur Magnússon (died 1679) was a poet and farmer in North Iceland. He farmed for many years at

Höfði Höfði () is a house in Reykjavík, Iceland, built in 1909, and best known as the location for the 1986 Reykjavík Summit meeting of President Ronald Reagan of the United States and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Ge ...

Höfðaströnd is a region on the coast around Hofsós on the eastern side of Skagafjörður, Iceland. Its southernmost farm is Gröf, and the closest to the sea is Höfði. The region is named after Þórðarhöfði, which is a predominant feature of the la ...

but eventually moved to Kvíabekkur in

Ólafsfjörður Ólafsfjörður () is a town in the northeast of Iceland located at the mouth of the fjord Eyjafjörður. The town is connected to Dalvík on Eyjafjörður by the 3.5 km one-lane Múli tunnel (the ''Múlagöng'') and to Siglufjörður by the ...

, where he died. Ásgrímur Magnússon's first wife was Erlendsdóttir, sister of fellow poet Guðmundur Erlendsson of Fell in Sléttuhlíð. died as a young woman. They had at least one child, (c. 1626–after 1703). After 's death, Ásgrímur married . Their children were (1636–1706), Herdís (1638–after 1709) and Erlendur (c. 1644–after 1705). Ásgrímur composed

rímur In Icelandic literature, a ''ríma'' (, literally "a rhyme", pl. ''rímur'', ) is an epic poetry, epic poem written in any of the so-called ''rímnahættir'' (, "rímur meters"). They are rhymed, they alliterative verse, alliterate and consist of ...

poetry and is believed to have co-composed in c.

1640 Events January–March * January 6 – The Siege of Salses ends almost six months after it had started on June 9, 1639, with the French defenders surrendering to the Spanish attackers. * January 17 – A naval battle over ...

with his brother-in-law . Ásgrímur is a speaker in the poem, in which

Grýla In Icelandic folklore, Grýla is a monstrous entity who lives in the wilderness of Iceland. The name Grýla is first attested in medieval sources. However, the earliest unambiguous references to Grýla's gender and her association with Christmas ...

visits his home at at

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

and threatens to steal his young daughters, Valka (Valgerður) and Herdís. His have survived in several manuscripts, including AM 142 8vo, which is a copy of Ásgrímur's autograph manuscript.

References

1679 deaths 17th-century Icelandic poets Farmers {{Iceland-poet-stub