Pétursson, Hallgrímur

views updated

Pétursson, Hallgrímur (1614–74) Icelandic poet. He led a chequered life in Iceland and Denmark, including periods as a blacksmith and a fisherman, before becoming a priest in 1651. His reputation rests on a single extended work, the Passiusálmar or The Passion Hymns of Iceland (1666), written after he contracted leprosy.