Nikulás Ottenson

Nikulás Ottenson (born Nikulás Össursson 18 November 1867 at Hvallátrar near Látrabjarg in Rauðasandshreppur on Barðaströnd; died 15 August 1955, Gysler Nursing Home, Winnipeg, Canada) was an Icelandic scholar who spent most of his life in Canada. His book collection is now the Nikulás Ottenson Collection of Icelandic Books and Manuscripts, Special Collections, Milton S. Eisenhower Library, The Johns Hopkins University.

Biography Nikulás's father was Össur Össursson (Sigurðsson) (1807-1874), a well-educated hreppstjóri and poet (who composed Rímur af Sörla hinum sterka), who was conversant with German as well as the Scandinavian languages. Nikulás's mother was Össur's second wife, Guðrún Snæbjarnardóttir, from Dufansdalur in Arnarfjörður. Her nephew Hákon Hákonarson was for a long time the member of parliament for Barðaströnd.

Nikulás learned to write from his father around the age of eight, and is the scribe of manuscript 28 in the Nikulás Ottensen Collection, a copy of Magnús í Magnússkógum's Rímur af Gretti Ásmundssyni which he made in 1915-16.

Book collection The first of the two archive boxes of manuscripts which comprise the Nikulás Ottenson collection of Icelandic manuscripts. Nikulás probably began collecting books as a youth, certainly bringing a copy of the Bible from his father's collection to Canada; he probably built up most of his collection in the first decade of the twentieth century, however (not least while visiting Iceland in 1909-10).

Publications Össur Össursson, Rímur af Sörla hinum sterka, ed. by Nikulás Ottensson (Gimli 1910) Nikulás Ottenson, Minni Nýja Íslands, formannatal frá landnámstíð til vorra daga (Winnipeg 1934)