Guðbrandur Vigfússon, known in English asGudbrand Vigfusson, (13 March 1827 – 31 January 1889[1]) was one of the foremostScandinavian scholars of the 19th century.
He was born into anIcelandic family inBreiðafjörður. He was brought up, until he went to a tutor's, by his kinswoman Kristín Vigfússdóttir, to whom, he records, he owed not only that he became a man of letters but almost everything. He was sent to the oldschool at Bessastaðir and (when it moved there) atReykjavík. In 1849, already a fair scholar, he came toCopenhagen University in theRegense College,[2] where as an Icelander, he received four-years free boarding under the Garðsvist system.[3]
After his student course, he was appointedstipendiarius by the Arna-Magnaean trustees, and worked for fourteen years in theArna-Magnaean Library. He later said that he knew every scrap of oldvellum and of Icelandic written paper in that whole collection.[2]
In 1866, he settled inOxford, which he made his home for the rest of his life. He held theoffice of Reader in Scandinavian at Oxford University, a post created for him, from 1884 until his death. He was made aJubilee Doctor ofUppsala in 1877, and received the DanishOrder of the Dannebrog in 1885.[2]
Guðbrandur died ofcancer on 31 January 1889. He was buried inSt. Sepulchre's Cemetery, Oxford, on 3 February 1889.[2]
He was an excellent judge of literature, reading most European languages well and being acquainted with their classics. His memory was remarkable, and if theEddic poems had ever been lost, he could have written them all down from memory. He spoke English well, with a strong Icelandic accent. He wrote a beautiful, distinctive and clear hand, in spite of (or because of) the thousands of lines of manuscript copying he had done in his early life.[2]
HisTímatal (written between October 1854 and April 1855) laid the foundations for the chronology of Icelandic history. His editions of Icelandic classics (1858–1868),Biskupa sögur,Bárðar Saga,Fornsögur (withMobius),Eyrbyggia Saga andFlateyjarbók (withCarl Rikard Unger) opened a new era of Icelandic scholarship. They can be compared to theRolls Series editions of chronicles byWilliam Stubbs, for the interest and value of their prefaces and texts.[2]
He spent the seven years 1866–1873 on theOxford Icelandic-English Dictionary,[4] often denoted by the shorthand "Cleasby-Vigfusson",[5] the best guide to classic Icelandic, and a monumental example of single-handed work.[2] The end-product was more a product of Guðbrandur Vigfússon's undertaking than Cleasby's,[6] and is characterized as his most important legacy.[7]
His later series of editions (1874–1885) includedOrkneyinga Saga andHákonar Saga, the great and complex mass of Icelandic historical sagas known asSturlunga, and theCorpus Poeticum Boreale, in which he edited the entire body of classic Scandinavian poetry. As an introduction to theSturlunga, he wrote a complete, concise history of the classic Northern literature and its sources. In the introduction to the Corpus, he laid the foundations of a critical history of the Eddic poetry and Court poetry of the North in a series of well-supported theories.[2]
His littleIcelandic Prose Reader (withF. York Powell) (1879) furnishes a path to a sound knowledge of Icelandic. TheGrimm Centenary (1886) gives good examples of the range of his historic work, while his Appendix onIcelandic currency toSir G. W. Dasent'sBurnt Njal is a methodical investigation into an intricate subject.[2]
As a writer in his own tongue, he once gained a high position by hisRelations of Travel in Norway and South Germany. In English, as hisVisit to Grimm and his powerful letters toThe Times show, he had attained no mean skill. His life is mainly a record of well-directed and efficient labor in Denmark and Oxford.[2]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Powell, Frederick York (1911). "Vígfússon, Gúdbrandr". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 59.
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