Björn M. Ólsen

Björn M. Ólsen was born in Þingeyri. His parents were Magnús R. Ólsen (1810-1860), an Althing member from Þingeyri, and his wife Ingunn Jónsdóttir Ólsen (1817-1897).

Björn became a student from Reykjavík School in 1869. He then took a break from his studies due to chest illness, but went abroad in 1872, and received a master's degree in philology and history from the University of Copenhagen in the spring of 1877. Study trip to Italy and Greece in 1878 with a grant from public funds.

He became an adjunct at Reykjavík School in 1879 and became rector there in the summer of 1895. He was released from that position in the spring of 1904, then became professor emeritus and devoted himself mainly to research on Old Icelandic literature and history. This is the same year that home rule came to the country, and it is likely that this was seen as a step in building up domestic scholarly activity in these fields.

Björn was a royal-appointed Althing member in 1905 and 1907 for the Home Rule Party (Hannes Hafstein). He became professor of Icelandic at the University of Iceland upon its founding in 1911, and was also the first rector of the school in 1911-1912. He was released from his professorship in the summer of 1918, and died half a year later. He was unmarried.

He received his doctorate from the University of Copenhagen in 1883, honorary doctorate from the University of Christiania in 1911, and from the University of Iceland on June 17, 1918. President of the Icelandic Literary Society 1894-1900 and 1909-1918, and participated in the transfer of the Copenhagen branch to Reykjavík. He served on the award committee for the Jón Sigurðsson Prize 1895-1919. He was an honorary member of the Danish Academy of Sciences and several other scientific societies.

Björn M. Ólsen wrote numerous essays on Old Icelandic literature and history. Páll Eggert Ólason said of him: "A sharp man in understanding and one of the most clever teachers". Finnur Jónsson says in his obituary of Björn that his best works are the essay on Sturlunga saga in the Collection for the History of Iceland, and the essays on Settlement, which were published in the Yearbooks of the Archaeological Society. Of these latter he says that they are incredibly profound, and have great literary-historical significance, because they point out so much that people had not previously noticed. Among other notable essays, he mentions the work on Gunnlaugr's saga, 1911, and on Snorri as the author of Egil's saga, 1905.