Magnús Magnússon was the son of Magnús Magnússon and Sigríður Jónsdóttir. Magnús Jr’s paternal uncle was Eiríkur Magnússon, a scholar in Cambridge and he went to him in 1884. He grew up there, went to school and read Latin and Greek for a few years at Cambridge University. He felt at home in literature and Nordic studies. He went home to Iceland in 1898 and got a teaching job in Reykjavík. There he met Ásthildur. Shortly after the turn of the century, a new teaching position in Icelandic studies and the Icelandic language was established at Gustavus Adolphus University in St. Peter, Minnesota. It was originally founded by Swedish immigrants and in the last decades of the 19th century, Icelandic youths from the Icelandic settlements in Minnesota, N. Dakota, and Manitoba studied there. This probably resulted in the establishment of the teaching position in Icelandic and Icelandic studies. Magnús was hired and left in 1905. There was some optimism among the Nordic immigrants in America with this new position. Swedish, Norwegian and Danish scholars in the West were well aware of Icelandic cultural heritage and no doubt hoped that it would interest not only Icelandic students in the West, but also many from other backgrounds. But that was not the case and after a few years this position was abolished at the school.
English version by Thor group.
This is what Gustavus Adolphus School looked like when Magnús first arrived there.