A Jónas Hallgrímsson autograph manuscript. Jónas was a much-loved and influential romantic poet and prose writer of the early nineteenth century, and also a renowned naturalist. He is certainly the best-loved and most admired poet of modern Iceland: ástmögur þjóðarinnar ('the darling of the nation'). Jónas grew up in Iceland and later studied at the University of Copenhagen, graduating in 1838. Initially a student of law, Jónas soon became preoccupied with natural history. He published various poems during his lifetime, among them (in 1845) Ferðalok, which appeared in the journal Fjölnir; its previous draft titles had been 'Old story' and 'My Love'. The story goes that Jónas and Þóra, daughter of Rev. Gunnar Gunnarsson, priest at Laufás in Eyjafjörður, had travelled north together in the summer of 1828 and that the idea for the poem developed during that journey. Ferðalok has been called 'the most beautiful love poem in the Icelandic language'. Jónas died that same year at the age of 37.

Website about Jónas Hallgrímsson