writer commonly known as the father of the Icelandic novel.

Thoroddsen studied law in Copenhagen, but an unhappy love affair—which is reflected in his novels—led him to seek solace in literature. He did so in lively fashion, composing drinking songs as well as poetry. The novels of Sir Walter Scott (Scott, Sir Walter, 1st Baronet) caught his imagination and undoubtedly influenced him, as did those of Charles Dickens (Dickens, Charles).

Thoroddsen's Piltur og stúlka (1850; Lad and Lass), finished just before he went back to Iceland to become a district judge, is an unpretentious love story that reveals his gift for concise satirical sketches of people and places. (In it he included one of his best lyrics.) Lad and Lass was the first full-scale Icelandic novel. Thoroddsen's second novel, Madur og kona (1876; “Man and Woman”), was unfinished when he died. His two works are an unsurpassed picture of unsophisticated Icelandic society in his day.