Jón Helgason (June 30, 1899 – January 19, 1986) was an

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

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 strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

and poet. He was head of the Danish Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies from 1927 to 1972 and professor of Icelandic studies at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

from 1929 to 1969. He made significant contributions to his field. As a poet, he was not prolific but noted for his highly polished and effective traditional poetry. His best-known poems are ''Áfangar'' and ''Í Árnasafni''. One of his discoveries at the institute is the pair of glossaries that are the only documentation on

Basque–Icelandic pidgin The Basque–Icelandic pidgin (; ) was a Basque language, Basque-based pidgin spoken in Iceland during the 17th century. It consisted of Basque language, Basque, Germanic languages, Germanic, and Romance languages, Romance words. Basque whale ...

. In 1923, he married Þórunn Ástriður Björnsdóttir (1895–1966) and in 1975 married Agnete Loth (1921-1990).

References

Höfundur: Jón Helgason
Helgason, Jon Helgason, Jon Icelandic male poets 20th-century Icelandic poets 20th-century Icelandic male writers {{Iceland-writer-stub