A. R. Taylor

Arnold Rodgers Taylor (1913–1993) was a scholar of medieval English, Old Norse, and modern Icelandic.

Early life and education

Taylor was the youngest of the four children of Arthur Harry Taylor, from Burnham in Norfolk, and Elizabeth Rodgers, from Stockton, Norfolk. he spent the spring of 1933 as an exchange student in Iceland. In 1934 he took his MA at Manchester, writing on Droplaugarsona saga, and then spent a further year there gaining a teaching certificate.

After holding a substitute teaching position in Ashton under Lyne in 1937, Taylor went to Germany as an assistant professor of English at the University of Jena from 1937 to 1939, followed by a year of high-school teaching at Darlington. In 1941 he met Sigríður again, and they married in Reykjavík on 14 May 1942, both moving to England later that year. He became a senior lecturer in 1956 and retired in 1978

Death

Taylor died in England 30 May 1993. In accordance with his last wishes, he was granted burial in Icelandic soil beside his wife, at Blönduós.