NORDAL, SIGURDUR JHANNESSON

born Sept. 14, 1886, Eyjlfsstadir, Vatnsdalur, Hnavatnsssla, Iceland died Sept. 21, 1974, Reykjavk Icelandic philologist, critic, and writer in many genres, who played a central role in the cultural life of 20th-century Iceland. Nordal received his doctorate in Old Norse philology from the University of Copenhagen in 1914, with a thesis on the saga of Saint Olof. He studied philosophy in Berlin and at the University of Oxford. Upon his return to Iceland in 1918, Nordal was appointed professor of Icelandic Language and Literature at the University of Iceland. He lectured extensively there and abroad on Icelandic language, literature, and philology. From 1951 to 1957 he was Iceland's ambassador to Denmark, and later he taught at several universities in Europe and the United States. Nordal published fundamental studies of the Eddic poem Vlusp (192223) and many of the Icelandic sagas. He was instrumental in altering the critical approach to the sagas, showing by careful internal analysis that they are to be regarded more as literary works written by individual writers than as historically accurate products of an oral folk tradition. Nordal also wrote many notable historical works, including a life of the medieval writer Snorri Sturluson (1920) and slenzk menning (1942; Icelandic Culture). He also published essays, novels, short stories, and poems. His short-story collection Fornar stir (1919; Old Loves) played a significant role in the development of the modern Icelandic short story, and his Icelandic anthology, slenzk lestrarbk 14001900 (1924), was also influential.