Studia Islandica - 01.06.1957, Blaðsíða 22

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Stephensen (1762—1833), an influential cultural leader
of the day and an avowed champion of the Enlighten-
ment Movement. In accordance with his rationalistic ten-
dency of thought and his eagerness to reform literary
taste, Stephensen had undertaken the publication of a
new hymnal, to which Þorláksson, at the urging of a
friend, had contributed both original hymns and transla-
tions. To suit his religious and literary taste, Stephensen,
who also tried his hand at writing poetry, did not hesitate
to change the hymns, and not always for the better, with-
out consulting the author or translator. Þorláksson re-
fused to submit to such treatment and his reaction found
expression in a number of satires, not all of the most re-
fined type, his darts, tipped with venom, seldom missing
their target. Fortunately, the two later became reconciled.
A far more pleasant side of the poet is revealed in
“Tittlingsminning” (In Memory of a Sparrow), written
about the death of a small bird, whose errand to Iceland,
we are told, was “to please others and then to die.” The
tone of the poem makes it clear that the writer sincerely
mourns the death of his little winged friend.
While this poem, in a sense, is symbolic, and contains
a strain of irony, one may say that Þorláksson, in the
selection and general treatment of his theme, here writes
in the spirit of Romanticism, a fundamental characteris-
tic of which was deep sympathy for animals no less than
human beings. In this connection it may be recalled that
the poems of Tullin, which Þorláksson had translated
into Icelandic, were written directly under the influence
of the precursors of the Romantic Movement in Eng-
land, Young and Thomson. Þorláksson’s love of animals
finds expression in several other poems of his. Like many
an Icelandic poet, past and present, he was very fond of
horses, and wrote numerous verses about them; a very
natural thing, indeed, in a country where the horse has