Jóhann Sigurjónsson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an Icelandic name. The last name is a patronymic, not a family name; this person is properly referred to by the given name Jóhann.

Jóhann Sigurjónsson (June 19, 1880 – August 31, 1919) was an Icelandic playwright and poet. Atypically, Jóhann wrote plays and poetry in both his native Icelandic and in Danish.

Jóhann was the son of an Icelandic farmer and was born in Laxamýri, Iceland. In 1899 he emigrated to Denmark to study at The Royal Danish Veterinary and Agricultural University, but abandoned his studies in 1902 to devote himself to literature. During this period, he came under the influence of the Danish writer Georg Brandes and the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.

He is probably best known for his play Fjalla-Eyvindur (Danish: Bjærg-Ejvind og hans hustru, English: Eyvindur of the Mountains), which was first published in 1911. The play was a success in Germany and Scandinavia and was also produced in the United States. It was cinematised by Victor Sjöström in 1918 as The Outlaw and His Wife. The play is based on an Icelandic folk tale about a notorious outlaw.

He also wrote a Nietzchean-Faustian tragedy called Galdra-Loftur (Danish: Ønsket, English: The Wish or Loftur the Sorcerer). It tells the story of an ambitious young scholar who dabbles in sorcery to acquire knowledge and power.

Jóhann died of tuberculosis in Copenhagen at the age of 39.

External links

The WIsh or Galdra-Loftur, by Jóhann Sigurjónsson English translation from Danish and Icelandic by Einar Haugen

Authority control	VIAF: 61708643 ISNI: 0000 0001 2135 8675 GND: 132716135 BNF: cb13539038x

Persondata
Name	Sigurjonsson, Johann
Alternative names
Short description	Icelandic writer
Date of birth	June 19, 1880
Place of birth
Date of death	August 31, 1919
Place of death

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.