SIGUR,ISSON, JON (1811-1879), Icelandic statesman and man of letters, was born in the west of Iceland in 1811. He received an excellent education. In 1830 he was secre tary to the bishop of Iceland, the learned Steingrimr Jonsson. In 1833 he went to Copenhagen to study Icelandic history and litera ture. His important works include : LOgsogumannatal og Log manna a Islandi ("Speakers of the Law and Law-men in Ice land") ; the edition of Landndma and other sagas in Islendinga Seigur, i.–ii. (Copenhagen, 1843-1847) the large collection of Icelandic laws edited by him and Oddgeir Stephensen ; and last, not least, the Diplomatarium Islandicum, which after his death was continued by others.
But although he was one of the greatest scholars Iceland has produced, he was still greater as a politician. The Danish rule had, during the centuries following the Reformation, gradually brought Iceland to the verge of economic ruin. Jon Sigurbsson began a hard struggle against the Danish government to obtain a reform. In 1854 the trade of Iceland was declared free to all nations. In 1840 the Althing was re-established as an advisory, not as a legislative body. But when Denmark got a free con stitution in 1848, which had no legal validity in Iceland, the island felt justified in demanding full home rule. To this the Danish government was vehemently opposed ; it convoked an Icelandic National Assembly in 1851, and brought before that body a bill granting Iceland small local liberties, but practically incorpor ating Iceland in Denmark. This bill was indignantly rejected,
and, instigated by Jon Sigurbsson, another was demanded of far more liberal tendencies. The Danish governor-general then dis solved the assembly, but Jon Sigur5sson and all the members with him protested to the king against these unlawful proceedings. The struggle continued with great bitterness on both sides, but gradu ally the Danish government was forced to grant many important reforms. (See ICELAND, History.) The grant of the constitution in 1874 was, in fact, the victory of Jon Sigurbsson, whose high personal qualities had rallied all the nation round him. He made Reykjavik not only the political, but the spiritual capital of Iceland by removing all the chief institu tions of learning to that city; he was the soul of many literary and political societies, and the chief editor of the Ny Felagsrit, which has done more than any other Icelandic periodical to pro mote the cause of civilization and progress in Iceland. Jon Sigurbsson lived the greater part of his life in Copenhagen, and died there in 1879; but his body, together with that of his wife, Ingibjorg Einarsdottir, whom he had married in 1845, and who survived him only a few days, was taken to Reykjavik and given a public funeral. On his monument was placed the inscription : "The beloved son of Iceland, her honour, sword and shield."