Theodóra Friðrika Guðmundsdóttir Thoroddsen (1 July 1863 – 23 February 1954) was an Icelandic poet, folktale collector, translator, and sewing and textile artist.
[1] They lived in Ísafjörður in the West fjords region of Iceland, where Skúli served as sýslumaðr, before moving to Bessastaðir in 1899 and to Reykjavík in 1908.
In her work, together with the work of fellow Icelandic poets Ólöf Sigurðardóttir and Unnur Benediktsdóttir Bjarklind, Theodóra helped to develop and popularize a new form of þulur derived from older traditions of "oral litany characterized by fantasy, rhapsodic structure, and fragments of nursery rhymes and other kinds of folk poetry.
[9] She was also the subject of drawing by Swedish artist Siri Derkert, which is now a part of Moderna Museet's permanent collection in Stockholm.
The title of the novel alludes to the house in Reykjavík at Vonarstræti 12 where Theodóra and Skúli lived, which remains an important literary landmark.