Jón Halldórsson Explained

Jón Halldórsson, OP (pronounced as /is/;  - 2 February 1339) was a Norwegian Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Iceland from 1322 to 1339. He previously served in the Diocese of Skálholt and was a member of the Dominican Order.

Halldórsson grew up in Norway and has been assumed to have been of Norwegian birth, though since his mother's name, Freygerðr, is unknown outside Iceland, he may in fact have been (half) Icelandic.^[1] He studied both theology in Paris and canon law in Bologna, and his learning is seen as remarkable in contemporary Icelandic sources; Laurentius saga has him as one of Iceland's two best Latinists at his time, as fluent in Latin as in his mother-tongue.^[2]

He was elected bishop following Grímr Skútuson and consecrated on 1 August 1322 but did not arrive in Iceland until the following year. He was noted for bringing the Icelandic Church more closely into line with canon law and for his skill as a preacher and storyteller; the introduction to Klári saga claims that it is based on a Latin romance discovered by Jón in France, and there is a strong case that Jón indeed produced the saga,^[3] while Jón's fame as a gatherer of stories is clear from Laurentius saga.^[4] He died in Norway on Candlemas 1339.

See also

• List of Skálholt bishops
• Jóns þáttr biskups Halldórssonar

References

• Aeventyri.; H. Gering, 1882, Vol. II Foreword (German; English translation available through Smashwords ebook purchase (see free sample preview, "translator's notes" for unpublished English translation of H. Gering's life of Jón Halldórsson).

Further reading

• Book: Dominican Resonances in Medieval Iceland: The Legacy of Bishop Jón Halldórsson of Skálholt . The Northern World . 91 . Gunnar . Harðarson . Karl-Gunnar . Johansson . 2021 . Brill.

Notes and References

1. Shaun F. D. Hughes, 'Klári saga as an Indigenous Romance', in Romance and Love in Late Medieval and Early Modern Iceland, ed. by Kirsten Wolf and Johanna Denzin, Islandica 54 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Library, 2008), pp. 135-164, at http://cip.cornell.edu/DPubS?service=UI&version=1.0&verb=Display&handle=cul.isl/1242914143.
2. Biskupa sögur, ed. Guðrún Ása Grímsdóttir et al., 3 vols., Íslensk fornrit 15–17 (Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1998–2000), I pp. 383, 405–6.
3. Shaun F. D. Hughes, 'Klári saga as an Indigenous Romance', in Romance and Love in Late Medieval and Early Modern Iceland, ed. by Kirsten Wolf and Johanna Denzin, Islandica, 54 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Library, 2008), pp. 135-64, at http://cip.cornell.edu/DPubS?service=UI&version=1.0&verb=Display&handle=cul.isl/1242914143; cf. Marianne Kalinke, Clári saga: A Case of Low German Infiltration', Scripta Islandica: Isländska sällskapets ärbok, 59 (2008), 5-25.
4. Biskupa sögur, ed. Guðrún Ása Grímsdóttir et al., 3 vols., Íslensk fornrit 15–17 (Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1998–2000), I p. 445.