Egill Þórhallason (1734-1789) was a missionary, priest and assistant dean in Greenland from 1765 to 1775. Egill’s visitation books from Greenland are remarkable sources of Greenland and Greenlanders in the 18th century. After his stay in Greenland, Egill returned to Denmark where he had completed his studies and after that he served as a priest and a dean for the rest of his life. Egill wrote about Greenlandic issues in Danish and Icelandic and translated and published the book that appears here, Tuksiutit sabbatit ulloinnut napertorsaket, containing prayers and hymns in Greenlandic. Poul Egede, principal of the Greenlandic Missionary School in Copenhagen, writes an introduction and Egill writes a preface. The book was published in 1776. There one can find the psalm “Kavseenik tammartartongo” which Egill wrote originally in Greenlandic and a travel hymn that Egill probably also wrote originally in Greenlandic; as well as his Greenlandic translation of poetry by Laurentius Petri and Paul Gerhardt and Egill’s Greenlandic translation of the psalm „Ó, herra Guð ég þakka þér“ (Oh, Lord God I thank you) by Rev. Sigurður Jónsson in Presthólar (about 1590-1661). The following year (1777), Egill published in Greenlandic the book Katekismus (Catechism – a pamphlet in Christianity), especially for children. There was not much publishing in Greenlandic around this time, as Greenlandic writing had only existed for a few decades when the book was published.
Here you can view the book Tuksiutit sabbatit ulloinnut napertorsaket on baekur.is