Vigfusson, Gudbrandr (1828-1889), the foremost Scandinavian scholar of the 19th century, was born of a good and old Icelandic family in Breibafjord in 1828.
Just as the change of law gave the death-blow to an already perishing commonwealth, so the rush of medieval influence, which followed the union with Norway, completed a process which had been in force since the end of the 11th century, when it overthrew the old Icelandic poetry in favour of the rimur.
Other distinguished philologists are his successor as head of the Latin school, Bjorn Magnusson Olsen (Researches on Sturlunga, Ari the Wise, The Runes in the Old Icelandic Literature - the last two works in Danish); Finnur Jonsson, professor at the University of Copenhagen (History of the Old Norwegian and Icelandic Literature, in Danish, and excellent editions of many old Icelandic classical works); and Valtyr Guc?mundsson, lecturer at the University of Copenhagen (several works on the old architecture of Scandinavia) and editor of the influential Icelandic literary and political review, Eimre151n (" The Locomotive ").
