Olafur Davidsson (26 January 1862 – 6 September 1903), Icelandic: ''Ólafur Davíðsson'', was an Icelandic

natural scientist Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

ethnographer Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

and folklore collector.

Biography

Davidsson was born on 26 January 1862 at

Fell A fell (from Old Norse ''fell'', ''fjall'', "mountain"Falk and Torp (2006:161).) is a high and barren landscape feature, such as a mountain or Moorland, moor-covered hill. The term is most often employed in Fennoscandia, Iceland, the Isle of M ...

in Sléttuhlíð. He was a student at The Learned School in

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

from 1874 to 1882 and kept a diary of his last year of study there. Davidsson studied natural sciences at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

but then immediately turned to ethnology, working at the

Arnamagnæan Institute The Arnamagnæan Institute (, formerly ) is a teaching and research institute established in 1956 to further the study of the manuscripts in the Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection, the collection bequeathed by the Icelandic scholar and antiquarian ...

. In 1897, Davidsson returned to Iceland and was a part-time teacher at Möðruvellir in Hörgárdal, where he also engaged in folklore collecting and other scholarly work. Ólafur drowned in Hörgá, single and childless, on 6 September 1903.

Works

* ''Íslenskar gátur, skemtanir, vikivakar og þulur: safnað hafa J. Árnason og Ó. Davíðsson'' ("Icelandic Riddles, Entertainment, Weekends and Rhymes: collected by J Arnason and O. Davidsson"), 1–4, Kaupmannahöfn, Bókmenntafélagið, 1887-1903 * ''Galdur og galdramál á Íslandi'' ("Magic and Sorcery in Iceland"), 1–3, Reykjavík, Sögufélag, 1941-1943 * ''Ég læt allt fjúka: sendibréf og dagbókarbrot frá skólaárunum'' ("I let Everything Blow: Letters and Diary Extracts from the School Years"), Reykjavík, Ísafoldarprentsmiðja, 1955 * ''Íslenskar þjóðsögur'', 1–4, Reykjavík, Þjóðsaga, 1978-1980 *''Hundakæti: Dagbækur Ólafs Davíðssonar 1881-1884.'' ("Hundakaeti: the Diaries of Olaf Davidsson, 1881-1884"). Reykjavík, Mál & menning, 2018

References

External links

Grímseyjarför
comedy letter by Olafur Davidsson written 8.8.1898, published in ''Lesbók Morgunblaðsins'', 23rd Issue, (08.06.1941), p. 193 {{DEFAULTSORT:Davidsson, Olafur 1862 births 1903 deaths Olafur Davidsson Olafur Davidsson Olafur Davidsson 19th-century memoirists