The University of Wisconsin Press

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Biography / Poetry / Scandinavian Studies / History of Science

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Bard of Iceland Jónas Hallgrímsson, Poet and Scientist Dick Ringler "Ringler’s work is simply groundbreaking. It makes the most important poet of Iceland available to readers of English throughout the world." —Sveinn Yngvi Egilsson, University of Iceland Bard of Iceland makes available for the first time in any language other than Icelandic an extensive selection of works by Jónas Hallgrímsson (1807–1845), the most important poet of modern Iceland. Jónas was also Iceland's first professionally trained geologist and an active contributor in a number of other scientific fields: geography, botany, zoology, and archaeology. He played a key role as well in Iceland's struggle to gain independence from Denmark. "Descriptive power and fullness of spirit were the hallmarks of his soul," wrote a contemporary admirer. Dick Ringler, one of the premier scholars of Icelandic literature in the world, offers a substantial biography of Jónas, a representative selection of his most important poems, and some of his prose work in science and belles lettres. Ringler also provides extended commentaries and an essay on Icelandic prosody. The poems are translated into English equivalents of their original complex meters in Icelandic and Danish. As a poet Jónas was intimately familiar with his nation's medieval literary inheritance—the sagas and eddas—and also with the groundbreaking work of contemporary German and Danish Romanticism (Chamisso, Heine, Oehlenschläger). A master of poetic form, Jónas not only exploited and enlarged the possibilities of traditional eddic and skaldic meters, but introduced the sonnet, triolet stanza, terza and ottava rima, and blank verse into the Icelandic metrical repertory. Dick Ringler is professor emeritus of English and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His many books include the third edition of Bright's Old English Grammar and Reader (with Frederic G. Cassidy) and Old English and New (with Joan Hall and Nick Doane). He has lived, studied, and taught intermittently in Iceland for more than three decades. Media & bookseller inquiries regarding review copies, events, and interviews can be directed to the publicity department at publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu or (608) 263-0734. (If you want to examine a book for possible course use, please see our Course Books page. If you want to examine a book for possible rights licensing, please see Rights & Permissions.)

July 2002 LC: 2001005831 PT 504 pp.   6 x 9   11 color photos, 17 b/w photos Cloth $45.00 s ISBN 978-0-299-17720-1 ADD TO CART   “A major undertaking brilliantly accomplished. The scholarship is massive, but worn lightly. Ringler has essentially created (for English-speakers) the field of modern Icelandic literature." —Joseph Harris, Harvard University

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