Jakob Jakobsen
| Jákup Jakobsen | |
|---|---|
.jpg) |
|
| Born | 22 February 1864 Tórshavn, Faroe Islands |
| Died | 15 August 1918 (aged 54) |
| Nationality |
 Faroese
|
| Occupation | Philologist |
| Title | Doctor |
Dr. Jakob (properly Jákup) Jakobsen, (22 February 1864 — 15 August 1918), was a Faroese linguist as well as a scholar of literature. He was the first Faroese person to earn a doctoral degree. The subject of his doctoral thesis was the Norn language in Shetland.
Jakob Jakobsen's parents were Hans Nicolai Jacobsen from Tórshavn, and Johanne Marie Hansdatter from Sandoy. Jakob was the youngest of three children, having two older sisters. Their father, H. N. Jacobsen, earned his living as a bookbinder ran a bookshop in Tórshavn.
The original bookshop was in the old town, but H. N. Jacobsen moved the shop in 1918, to a central location further uptown, where it still stands today, retaining its traditional Faroese grass roof. Founded in 1865, H. N. Jacobsens Bókahandil is one of the oldest shops still in business in the Faroe Islands today.
Jakob Jakobsen went to the “realskolen” school in Torshavn, where he showed a natural talent for learning languages. At the age of thirteen he went to school in Denmark and finished college in Herlufsholm in 1883. In 1891 he graduated with Danish as his main subject and French and Latin as subsidiary subjects. In 1897 he earned a doctorate with his work “det norrøne sprog på Shetland” (the Norse language in Shetland).
Later in life, one of Jakobsen's sisters played a great role in her brother's life in Copenhagen; after his death, she translated his Shetland works into English, in accordance with Jakobsen's own plans.
J. Jakobsen’s work within the field of Faroese folklore and oral poetry played an important role in the rise of modern Faroese written literature. This is the case most of all with his collection of Faroese legends and folktales, Færøske Folkesagn og Æventyr. He looked upon folk tales as a kind of fictional literature, while the legends to him were a kind of source about early Faroese history. He also collected oral poetry, worked with Faroese place-names and created many neologisms. He was the first to point out some Celtic place-names in the Faroes, and is also responsible for the grammar section and texts-samples in the 1891 Færøsk Anthologi edited by V. U. Hammershaimb.
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