Christian Matras (poet)
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Christian Matras (7 December 1900 – 16 October 1988) was a Faroese poet and academic. He was the founding professor of the
University of the Faroe Islands The University of the Faroe Islands () is a state-run university located in Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands. It consists of five faculties: Faculty of Faroese Language and Literature, Faculty of Social Sciences and History, Faculty of ...
. He is one of the most important poets in
Faroese literature Faroese literature, in the traditional sense of the word, has only really developed in the past two hundred years. This is mainly because of the islands' isolation, and also because the Faroese language was not written down in a standardised fo ...
.


Life

Christian Matras was born in the village
Viðareiði Viðareiði (, literally: ''Wood-Isthmus'', ) is the northernmost settlement in the Faroe Islands and lies on the Island of Viðoy, which belongs to the Norðoyar Region. Geography It lies on an isthmus with high mountains to both the north and s ...
,
Viðoy Viðoy (, ) is the northernmost island in the Faroe Islands, located east of Borðoy to which it is linked via a causeway. The name means ''wood island,'' despite the fact that no trees grow on the island; the name relates to the driftwood that f ...
, located at far northern end of the Faroe Islands. The surname Matras goes back to an immigrant from France. He attended primary school until he moved to
Tórshavn Tórshavn (; ; Danish language, Danish: ''Thorshavn''), usually locally referred to as simply Havn, is the capital and largest city of the Faroe Islands. It is located in the southern part on the east coast of Streymoy. To the northwest of th ...
in 1912, where he attended secondary school. He was in a class with
Jørgen-Frantz Jacobsen Jørgen-Frantz Jacobsen  (29 November 1900 – 24 March 1938) was a Faroese writer. He has a distinct place in Scandinavian literature, as he is the only Faroese writer to achieve international best-seller status. This status derives f ...
and
William Heinesen Andreas William Heinesen (15 January 1900 – 12 March 1991) was a poet, writer, composer and painter from the Faroe Islands. His writing The Faroese capital Tórshavn is always the centre of Heinesen's writing and he is famous for having onc ...
. In 1920, Matras moved to
Sorø Sorø () is a town in Sorø municipality on the island of Zealand (Denmark), Zealand in east Denmark with a population of 8,433 (2025).
,
Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
, where he completed his schooling After graduation, Matras studied
Scandinavian Studies Scandinavian studies or ''Scandinavistics'' is an interdisciplinary academic field of area studies, mainly in the United States and Germany, that primarily focuses on the Scandinavian languages (also known as North Germanic languages) and cultura ...
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. ...
. He also spent a semester in Norway, where he worked with Norwegian seals. In 1928, he obtained his MA in linguistics. In 1933 he took a doctor’s degree in
Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
from 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. ...
with his doctorate with a dissertation on the place name in the Faroe Islands. In 1936 Matras began working at the University of Copenhagen, becoming a professor of linguistics in 1952. He was the first Faroese person to become a professor, and until 2009 the only in Copenhagen. In 1965 he returned to the Faroe Islands to become the founding professor and head of the department of
Faroese language Faroese ( ; ) is a North Germanic languages, North Germanic language spoken as a first language by about 69,000 Faroe Islanders, of whom 21,000 reside mainly in Denmark and elsewhere. It is one of five languages descended from Old Norse#Old West ...
at the
University of the Faroe Islands The University of the Faroe Islands () is a state-run university located in Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands. It consists of five faculties: Faculty of Faroese Language and Literature, Faculty of Social Sciences and History, Faculty of ...
in
Tórshavn Tórshavn (; ; Danish language, Danish: ''Thorshavn''), usually locally referred to as simply Havn, is the capital and largest city of the Faroe Islands. It is located in the southern part on the east coast of Streymoy. To the northwest of th ...
. He produced an extensive body of work analyzing Faroese language, literature, and culture, until his retirement in 1971. Matras died on 16 October 1988. A few months earlier he was honored with a stamp by Postverk Føroya. In October 2006, his birthplace Viðareiði announced the street name Kristjansgøta ( "Christian Street").


Works

*1926 Gratt, Katt og hat: yrkingar (drawings by William Heinesen ) - 48 p (collection of poems) *1927-1928: Føroysk-donsk BETA = Færøsk-Français (Färöisch- Danish dictionary, along with Mads Andreas Jacobsen, S. 469, further expenditure: *1961, Supplement 1974, 1977, 1995) *1933 - HEIMUR og heima: yrkingar - 59 p (collection of poems) *1935 - Føroysk bókmentasøga - 104 S. (Faroese literary history) *1939 - Indledning til Svabo færøske visehaandskrifter - lxxxv S. (Introduction to Jens Christian Svabo folksongs manuscripts) *1941 - Jørgen-Frantz Jacobsen . Gyldendals julebog - 45 p (in Danish with texts by Jacobsen) *1957 - Drunnur - 33 P. *1970 - Bygd og hav: Myndir úr seglskipatíð (images from Ingálvur av Reyni ) - 16 P. *1972 - Á hellu e.g. Stod: gamalt og nýyrkt - 103 S. *1975 - Av Viðareiði: folk í huganum (pictures of Fridtjof Joensen ) - 14 P. *1978 - Úr Sjón og úr minni (yrkingar) - ( "From my own observation and memory" - poems) *1986 - Úr Sjón og úr minni - ørindi = Seeing and remembering - Shipping - 47 p (poetry, Faroese-English) *1980 - Ulf Zachariasen (ed.): Christian Matras: ritskrá í úrvali - 32 P. *1993 - Anne-Kari Skarðhamar (trans.): DICT fra Færøyene: et Utvalg dikt - 120 p (in Norwegian) *2000 - Martin Næs and Jóhan Hendrik W. Poulsen (ed.): Greinaval - málfrøðigreinir - 353 S. - (linguistic essays) *2002 - Turið Sigurðardóttir (ed.): Chr. Matras - aldarminning - 118 S. *2004 - Anne-Kari Skarðhamar (ed.): Chr.Matras - Yrkingar: heildarsavn við og yrkingum týðingum - 397 S. - (poetry collection)


References


Related reading

*Walter de Gruyter (2002) ''The Nordic Languages'' (Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft) {{DEFAULTSORT:Matras, Christian 1900 births 1988 deaths Faroese male poets Faroese-language poets Faroese Literature Prize recipients University of Copenhagen alumni Academic staff of the University of Copenhagen 20th-century Faroese poets 20th-century Danish male writers