Introduction

Biography

Egilsson was the son of Eg­ill Svein­bjarn­ar­son, and hus­band of Hel­ga Grön­dal.

He taught Greek and his­to­ry. He was a re­cog­nized au­tho­ri­ty on ear­ly Ice­land­ic li­te­ra­ture, as wit­nessed by his work on the Prose Ed­da and his Lex­icon Po­et­icum (a dic­tion­ary of the vo­ca­bu­la­ry of skald­ic po­et­ry).

In ad­di­tion, he was a po­et and trans­lat­or, pro­duc­ing Ice­land­ic ver­sions of the Il­iad and Od­ys­sey that are still re­gard­ed as class­ics.