biography
| name: |
Thorarensen, Bjarni Vigfusson
|
pronunciation:
[thaw(r)ah(r)nsn]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1786–1841)
|
| biography:
| Romantic poet and jurist, born in Brautarholt, W Iceland. A precociously brilliant student, he went to Copenhagen University at the age of 15 to study law. After government service in Denmark, he was appointed a deputy justice in Reykjavik (1811), and justice of the Supreme Court (1817), and in 1833 he became Governor of North and East Iceland. As a lyric poet he celebrated Icelandic nature and nationalism, using the metres of classical heroic poetry. His poem ‘Eldgamla Isafold’ (Ancient Iceland) was regarded as an unofficial national anthem, set to the music of ‘God Save the Queen’. |
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