Background
He was born at Reykhólar in western Iceland.
He was born at Reykhólar in western Iceland.
He studied law at the university of Copenhagen, entered the Danish army as volunteer in 1848 in the war against the insurgents of Schleswig-Holstein, who were aided by Prussia and the other German states (see First Schleswig War).
He went back to Iceland in 1850, became sheriff (Icelandic: sýslumaður) of Barðastrandarsýsla, and later in Borgarfjarðarsýsla, where he died in 1868. Lad and Lass, a Story of Life in Iceland, translations by Arthur Middleton Reeves, South. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, limited
