Jónas Kristjánsson (10 April 1924 – 7 June 2014) 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 ...

scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

, and one-time director of the

Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies ( ; abbreviated to ) is a university-level institute, which operates on an independent budget under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture, Innovation and Higher Education. The institute fost ...

. In this position, he played a crucial role in the return of Icelandic manuscripts to Iceland from Denmark, representing Iceland in negotiations with the Danish authorities from 1972-86.R ryW. McT rk 'Jónas Kristjánsson 10 April 1924-7 June 2014', ''Saga-Book'', 38 (2014), 113-15 (at 114).

Career

Jónas was a teacher at the Samvinnuskóli from 1952–55, archivist at the National Archives of Iceland from 1957–63, and the director of the

from 1972-94 (from which position he retired upon reaching the age limit).Fjársjóður Íslands Jónas Kristjánsson er að láta af störfum forstöðumanns
''

Morgunblaðið ''Morgunblaðið'' (, ''The Morning Paper'') is an Icelandic daily newspaper. ''Morgunblaðið''s website, mbl.is, is the most popular website in Iceland. It is currently the country's only daily printed newspaper and the newspaper of record. Hi ...

'' (in Icelandic), August 7, 1994 (long article on his career); R ryW. McT rk 'Jónas Kristjánsson 10 April 1924-7 June 2014', ''Saga-Book'', 38 (2014), 113-15 (at 114). He spent 1978-79 in the UK. Jónas was also a member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick University in Christiania was establis ...

. On 31 May 1991 he received an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

from the Faculty of Humanities at

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially fou ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Works

Jónas was best known for his works on

Icelandic sagas The sagas of Icelanders (, ), also known as family sagas, are a subgenre, or text group, of Icelandic sagas. They are prose narratives primarily based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the ninth, tenth, and early elev ...

, laying emphasis on their literary nature and working on several stylistic and syntactic problems.Davies, Karin
Iceland works to preserve its own folk tales
''

Lawrence Journal-World The ''Lawrence Journal-World'' is a daily newspaper published in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, by Ogden Newspapers. History Though the ''Journal-World'' title came into existence in 1911, the paper dates itself to 1858, according to the ...

'' (

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

), November 17, 1991Second Viking site sought
''

The Record (Kitchener, Ontario) The ''Waterloo Region Record'' (formerly ''The Record'') is the daily newspaper covering Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada, including the cities of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge, as well as the surrounding area. Since December 1998, the ''R ...

'', November 12, 2001 ("Prof Jonas Kristjansson an expert on the Norse sagas")New Clues Emerge on the Vikings' Voyage
''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'', February 4, 2000 ("Jonas Kristjansson one of Iceland's foremost scholars of the sagas") His 1972 doctoral thesis, ''Um fóstbræðra sögu'' presented new arguments about the dating of '' Fóstbræðra saga'' (arguing that it was not, as had previously been thought, relatively archaic, but relatively late). Jónas was an important editor of Icelandic texts, namely '' Dínus saga drambláta'', '' Viktors saga ok Blávus'', and a number of sagas for the

Íslenzk fornrit Hið íslenzka fornritafélag (), or The Old Icelandic Text Society is a text publication society. It is the standard publisher of Old Icelandic texts (such as the Sagas of Icelanders, Kings' sagas and bishops' sagas) with thorough introductions a ...

series, on whose editorial board he sat from 1979, including '' Svarfdæla saga'', overseeing the editions of the '' biskupa sögur'' with Þórður Ingi Guðjónsson,''Biskupa sögur'', Íslenzk fornrit, 15-17 (Reykjavík: Hið Íslenzka Fornritafélag, 2002-3) and co-editing the 2014 edition of the

Poetic Edda The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems in alliterative verse. It is distinct from the closely related ''Prose Edda'', although both works are seminal to the study of Old Norse ...

with Vésteinn Ólason. Jónas wrote two historical novels, one of which, ''The Wide World'', is set in Viking age North America, and he translated Will Durant's ''The Life of Greece'' and Arthur Miller's ''

Death of a Salesman ''Death of a Salesman'' is a 1949 stage play written by the American playwright Arthur Miller. The play premiered on Broadway in February 1949, running for 742 performances. It is a two-act tragedy set in late 1940s Brooklyn told through a ...

'' into Icelandic.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jonas Kristjansson Kristjansson, Jonas Kristjansson, Jonas 20th-century Icelandic novelists Icelandic scholars Icelandic male novelists Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters