BRU, HEDIN

born Aug. 17, 1901, Skalevig, Faroe Islands, Den. died May 18, 1987, Trshavn, Faroe Islands original name Hans Jakob Jacobsen Faroese writer who helped to establish Faroese as a literary language. At the age of 14 Br worked as a fisherman. He spent much of the 1920s studying agriculture in Denmark, and from 1928 he was an agricultural adviser to the Faroese government. His first two novels, Longbr (1930; Mirage) and Fastatkur (1937; Firm Grip), dramatize the changing face of Faroese life as subsistence agriculture gave way to the fishing industry. A similar contrast between old and new is the main theme of his best work, Fedgar ferd (1940; The Old Man and His Sons). Br played a central role in cultural life as coeditor of the literary periodical Vardin and as a member of the Faroese Scientific Society and began to acquire an international reputation. He also produced Faroese translations of Hamlet and The Tempest and wrote a volume of memoirs.