Grímur Thomsen (May 15, 1820 – November 27, 1896),

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 poet and editor, was born in

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, ...

in 1820. He was the son of Þorgrímur Tómasson, a

goldsmith A goldsmith is a Metalworking, metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Nowadays they mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, goldsmiths have also made cutlery, silverware, platter (dishware), pl ...

. In 1837, he went to 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 ...

, where he studied

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

and

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 ...

, but he also became interested in

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

and

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

. He became an enthusiastic follower of the Pan-Scandinavian movement, although this was not generally favored by his countrymen. At the

, Thomsen wrote a dissertation on

Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

and received a master's degree. Because of the quality of his written dissertation, he received a scholarship to travel around Europe for two years. Eventually he would be awarded a doctoral degree for his written dissertation on

. In 1848, Thomsen entered the

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 ...

diplomatic service. In 1851, he returned to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, where he was appointed chief of the ministry of foreign affairs. He retired in 1866 and returned to Iceland. In Iceland, he became a member of parliament (

Alþing The Alþingi (''general meeting'' in Icelandic, , anglicised as ' or ') is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is one of the oldest surviving parliaments in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ("thing fields" or "assembly ...

) and a farmer in Bessastaðir. Thomsen died in 1896. Thomsen is considered one of Iceland's most important romantic era writers. In addition to being a poet (two separate collections, ''Reykjavik'', 1880, and ''Copenhagen'', 1895) he is also the author of numerous critical and historical essays in Icelandic and Danish. Thomsen was an admirer of Greek literature and translated a great number of poems from Greek into Icelandic.

References

External links

*
Grímur Thomsen at althingi.is
1820 births 1896 deaths Grimur Thomsen Grimur Thomsen Grimur Thomsen Grimur Thomsen 19th-century male writers {{Iceland-writer-stub