HALLGRIMSSON, JONAS (1807-1844), the chief lyrical poet of Iceland, was born in 1807 at Steinsstabir in Eyjaf in the north of that island, and educated at the famous school of Bessastabr and at. the University of Copenhagen. He went to Iceland on a geological mission (1837-42) from the Dan ish Government ; and made many interesting scientific observa tions. But his fame rests on his Icelandic poems and short stories. The study of the German masters and the old classical writers of Iceland opened his eyes to the corrupt state of Icelandic poetry. The misuse of the Eddic metaphors made the lyrical and epical poetry of the day hardly intelligible, and the language of the poets was mixed up with words of German and Danish origin. The great Danish philologist and friend of Iceland, Rasmus Rask, and the poet Bjarni Thorarensen had done much to purify the language, but Jonas Hallgrimsson completed their work by his poems and tales, in a purer language than ever had been written in Iceland since the days of Snorri Sturlason. The excesses of Icelandic poetry were specially seen in the so-called rimer, ballads of heroes, etc., which were fiercely attacked by Jonas Hallgrims son, who at last succeeded in converting the educated to his view. Most of the principal poems, tales and essays of Jonas Hall grimsson appeared in the periodical Fjolnir, which he began publishing at Copenhagen in 1835, together with Konrad Gislason, and the patriotic Thomas Saemundsson. When Fjolnir at last ceased, its programme and spirit still lived in Ny Felagsrit and other patriotic periodicals which took its place. Jonas Hallgrims son, who died in 1844, is the father of a separate school in Icelandic lyric poetry. He introduced foreign thoughts and metres, but at the same time revived the metres of the Icelandic classical poets. Although his poetical works are all comprised in one small volume, he strikes every string of the old harp of Iceland.