Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin

Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin (1752-1829) was an Icelandic scholar, who became the National Archivist of Denmark and Professor of Antiquities at Copenhagen University.

In 1786 he travelled to England in order to search for documents relating to mediaeval Danish-English contacts. In 1787 he hired a copyist to transcribe the sole extant manuscript of the Old English epic poem "Beowulf" and made another copy himself. Using his own copy of this, in 1815 he published the poem, being commissioned to do so by the Danish government. He was also the first scholar to make a full translation of the poem.

The Thorkelin transcriptions are now an important textual source for "Beowulf", as the original manuscript's margins have suffered from deterioration during the 19th and 20th centuries. His early copies provide a record in many areas where the text would otherwise be lost forever.

Thorkelin is generally regarded as one of the pioneering figures in Nordic and Germanic studies. Moreover, his visit to Britain reinvigorated interest and appreciation in the island's Germanic past, in ways both scholarly and Romantic.

* G. J. Thorkelin, "De Danorum rebus gestis secul. III & IV : Poëma Danicum dialecto Anglosaxonica : ex Bibliotheca Cottoniana Musaei Britannici / edidit versione lat. et indicibus auxit Grim. Johnson Thorkelin", 1815.

]