Jón Thoroddsen (Reykhólar 1818 – Leirá 1868), considered the pioneer of the modern Icelandic novel, grew up in the country’s north-west. After law studies at the University of Copenhagen (1841-50) he served as sheriff in several Icelandic districts. He made his literary debut in the late 1840s with sentimental poems in various periodicals, most of them in the spirit of Danish and German late Romanticism (Biedermeier). As a university student, he was one of the editors of the literary and political journal Norðurfari (“North-traveller”, 1848-49) and the popular anthology of Icelandic poems Snót (“Maiden”, 1850), and gained fame for his lyrical and patriotic songs celebrating Iceland and its landscapes. A collection of his poems (Kvæði) was published in 1871.

Jón Thoroddsen’s most important works are, however, the two novels Piltur og stúlka (“Lad and lass”, 1850, considered the first full-length novel in Icelandic) and the posthumous Maður og kona (“Man and woman”, 1876); both of them set a benchmark for later authors. Similar in subject and form, they are concerned with innocent and virtuous lovers, thwarted at first by their relatives (who have other marriage plans in mind for them). The happy end (after various tribulations the lovers are united in a blissful wedding) follows a standard sentimental pattern, but the novels’ appeal lies in Thoroddsen’s comic and at times grotesque anti-heroes and Dickensian minor characters.

Jón Thoroddsen’s work was partly influenced by contemporary sentimental novels (Scott, Dickens) and partly by Icelandic sagas and folk tales. The national focus is especially clear in the unfinished magnum opus Maður og kona, intended as a “national epic” in the sense that it depicts on a wide canvas contemporary Icelandic local colour, characters, society, culture, folklore and religion. The novels also played an important role in revitalizing Icelandic prose; their language is clear and polished, but simple and close to the living vernacular. Noticeable departures from the register of everyday language are deliberate and intended for comic effect (exaggerating or distorting the Danish-influenced idiom of Reykjavík or the malapropisms of peasants referring to the Bible or to sagas).