Thorarensen, Jakob

▪ Icelandic poet

born May 18, 1886, Húnavatnssýsla, Ice.

died 1972, Iceland

      Icelandic poet whose interest was in the daily heroism of the worker.

      Born in the barren country of the north, a kinsman of the Romantic nationalist poet Bjarni Thórarensen, Jakob worked on the farm and in fishing boats. When he was 19, he went to Reykjavík to be a carpenter and worked at the trade for many years before he could take up full-time writing. He had only a simple elementary education, but he read widely and built up a library of books in Icelandic and the Scandinavian languages.

      His first collection of verse, Snaeljós (1914; “Glare of the Snow”), interpreted the strength and self-sufficiency of the farmers and fishermen of Iceland. His short stories, published from 1929 to 1939, were in the same vein as his poetry and limned sharply drawn characters against a simple background.

* * *