Ólafía Jóhannsdóttir

Ólafía Jóhannsdóttir (22 October 1863 – 21 June 1924) was an Icelandic teacher and temperance worker. She traveled and lectured in different countries on behalf of the International Organisation of Good Templars (IOGT) and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), being proficient in English, Danish, Norwegian and German, in addition to her native Icelandic. She was an author, magazine editor, and textbook translator. It was Olafia's ambition to bring the women of Iceland to a position of equality with men. She founded the first White Ribbon Union in that country, in 1898. During the period of 1895–1900, Olafia traveled through the greater part of Iceland while riding her pony, holding public meetings and working as a representative of the same temperance orders. At the World's WCTU Convention held in Geneva, in 1903, she was appointed world missionary. Ólafía was also a delegate from Iceland to the World's Temperance Congress at London in 1900.

In 1899, after Ingibjörg Skaptadóttir retired from managing the monthly women's magazine Framsókn with her mother Sigríður Þorsteinsdóttir, Ingibjörg left her magazine to Ólafía and Jarþrúður Jónsdóttir. In 1916, Ólafía published a book entitled De ulykkeligste (The Miserables), dealing with the social issues of alcohol consumption, and showing the part played by alcohol in the production of these "miserables". The book had a wide circulation.

Selected works De ulykkeligste (The Miserables) (1916) The waiting shadow; the romantic and tragic story of a lovely Norwegian girl whose life was darkened by the consequences of one unguarded hour, by Sister Olafia Johannsdottir. Translated from the Icelandic by Charles Venn Pilcher; introduction by Victoria Booth-Clibborn Demarest (1927)