Hallgrímur Pétursson

Hallgrímur Pétursson
Hallgrímur Pétursson
Born	1614 Gröf, Iceland
Died	October 27, 1674 Ferstikla, Iceland

Hallgrímur Pétursson (1614 – October 27, 1674) was one of Iceland's most famous poets and a minister at Hvalneskirkja and Saurbæ in Hvalfjörður. The Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavík and the Hallgrímskirkja in Saurbæ are named after him. He was one of the most influential pastors during the Age of Orthodoxy (1580–1713). Because of his contributions to Lutheran hymnody, he is sometimes called the Icelandic Paul Gerhardt.

Hallgrímur Pétursson was likely born at Gröf in Skagafjörður. He grew up at Hólar, where his father was the bell-ringer and his cousin Guðbrandur Þorláksson the resident bishop. As a young man, he left Hólar for unknown reasons and travelled to mainland Europe, possibly to learn the blacksmith trade. He ended in Copenhagen, where Brynjólfur Sveinsson sponsored him to attend the seminary at the Church of Our Lady. Brynjólfur had family connections to Hallgrímur, as his half-brother was married to Hallgrímur's aunt.

According to folk legend, Brynjólfur first encountered Hallgrímur by chance when travelling through Glückstadt in the Duchy of Schleswig (then under Danish rule). Hallgrímur's blacksmith employer mistreated the boy, and in passing Brynjólfur heard Hallgrímur curse his employer in Icelandic. Brynjólfur took pity on the young Icelander and saw to it that the boy was educated.

During his last year of study there, Hallgrímur was employed to re-educate a group of Icelanders who had been kidnapped by Barbary pirates in the Turkish Abductions in 1627 and ransomed. Among them was a woman, Guðríður Símonardóttir, sixteen years Hallgrímur's senior, with whom he fell in love. Guðríður was married to a man from the Westman Islands, who had not been captured in the raid. After Guðríður became pregnant by Hallgrímur, he left the seminary and returned with the group to Iceland. On their arrival it emerged that Guðríður's husband had died, leaving her a widow; she and Hallgrímur promptly married and he worked as a labourer for a number of years.