Finnur Jónsson

Finnur Jónsson (May 29, 1858 – March 30, 1934) was an Icelandic philologist and Professor of Nordic Philology at the University of Copenhagen.

He graduated from Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík in 1878 and went to Denmark for further studies at the University of Copenhagen.

After retiring he continued work on his subject with new publications until the year he died.

His three most important works are Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning, an edition of the entire corpus of skaldic poetry in two parts – one which gives the text of the manuscripts with variants and one which gives a normalized text and a Danish translation.

A skilled polemicist, he defended his belief in the historical accuracy of the sagas and the antiquity of the Eddic poems in debates with other scholars.