author
Grímur Jónsson Thorkelín
An Icelandic-Danish scholar and pioneering editor of Old English literature, he is best known for preserving and publishing the first complete edition of Beowulf. His remarkable career combined archival work, philology, and a lifelong fascination with the medieval North.
1 Audiobook
An essay on the slave trade
by Grímur Jónsson Thorkelín
About the author
Born on October 8, 1752, in Iceland, Grímur Jónsson Thorkelín studied law in Copenhagen before turning his attention to Old Norse and medieval texts. He joined the Danish royal archives in 1780 and later became a leading archivist and antiquarian.
During a research journey through Britain in the 1780s, Thorkelín located the unique surviving manuscript of Beowulf. He commissioned one transcription and made another himself, creating records that became increasingly valuable as the manuscript deteriorated. His work was nearly destroyed when his home burned during the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807, but he reconstructed the project and published the first edition of Beowulf in 1815, including a Latin translation.
Thorkelín also edited and translated Icelandic and Scandinavian legal and historical works. He was elected an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1790 and died in Copenhagen on March 4, 1829.