Magnús Jónsson or Magnús prúði (c. 1530 – 1591) was an Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

ic official and poet.

He was born to a well-off family and received his education in Iceland and Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, probably Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

. Given his career, the curriculum must have included jurisprudence.

After a period as a farmer and landbroker, he held office as sýslumaður, or chief administrator in two counties in Iceland, first Þingeyjaþingssýsla and later Ísafjarðarsýsla, both now defunct as administrative units. He was a famous man in his time, but what has preserved his name for posterity are his writings or, to be specific, the first part of Pontus rímur, a rímur

Rímur

In Icelandic literature, a ríma is an epic poem written in any of the so-called rímnahættir . They are rhymed, they alliterate and consist of two to four lines per stanza...

 cycle about a Spanish prince. Pontus rímur are among the better ones of the genre and are based, as many of the rímur were, on a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 romance transmitted to Iceland through a German translation.

Rímur are not widely read today, but Pontus rímur have secured themselves a special place in Icelandic literature by being a recurring theme in Íslandsklukkan by Halldór Laxness

Halldór Laxness

Halldór Kiljan Laxness was a twentieth-century Icelandic writer. Throughout his career Laxness wrote poetry, newspaper articles, plays, travelogues, short stories, and novels...

, where the protagonist of the story invariably alleviates boredom by chanting Pontus rímur the Elder. There are no such rímur, but since Pontus rímur have three authors, it is difficult to resist seeing it as a reference to the first part, composed by Magnús.

His nickname, prúði, can be variously interpreted as elegant or wise.

Of his eleven surviving children, Ari Magnússon is of particular note, being the man responsible for the last massacre in Icelandic history, the so-called Spánverjavígin

Spánverjavígin

Spánverjavígin also known as the "Spanish Killings" or "Slaying of the Spaniards" was an Icelandic massacre. Some Spanish Basque whalers went on a whaling expedition to Iceland and were killed after conflict with the people of Iceland in 1615 in the region of the Westfjords.- Background and history...

of 1615.