Iceland’s parliament pays tribute to former MP Mörður Árnason

Iceland’s parliament paid tribute to former MP and Icelandic-language scholar Mörður Árnason, who died aged 73, mbl.is reported on Wednesday. Speaker Þórunn Sveinbjarnardóttir opened the parliamentary session by recalling his political and professional career and asking MPs to stand in his memory.

Árnason was elected to parliament for the Social Democratic Alliance in Reykjavík South from 2003 to 2007 and returned in 2010, serving until the end of that term. He also served as an alternate MP, including after his time as a full member. From 1995 to 2015, he took part in nine parliamentary sessions as a full member and nine as a substitute.

He was among the founders of Þjóðvaki, a political movement, and stood for the party in the 1995 parliamentary election. He was a committed left-wing politician and took a strong interest in environmental issues, serving for a time as chair of parliament’s environment committee.

Árnason studied Icelandic and linguistics at the University of Iceland, graduating in 1978, and also studied linguistics at the University of Oslo and the Sorbonne in Paris. His career included work at the University of Iceland’s dictionary project, journalism and an editorship at the newspaper Þjóðviljinn, as well as more than a decade as an editor at Máls og menningar and Edda publishing houses.

He edited the third edition of the Icelandic dictionary in 2002. After leaving politics, he worked as an editor and specialist on a range of publications. His 2015 edition of Hallgrímur Pétursson’s Passion Hymns, with guidance to their contents, was praised in the tribute.

Tags: Iceland, Alþingi, Mörður Árnason