Magnús Jónsson or Magnús prúði (c. 1530 – 1591) was an Icelandic official and poet.

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Icelandic. (January 2022) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Icelandic Wikipedia article at [[:is:Magnús Jónsson prúði]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|is|Magnús Jónsson prúði}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

He was born to a well-off family and received his education in Iceland and Germany, probably Hamburg. Given his career, the curriculum must have included jurisprudence.

After a period as a farmer and landbroker, he held office as sýslumaður, or chief administrator in two counties in Iceland, first Þingeyjaþingssýsla and later Ísafjarðarsýsla, both now defunct as administrative units. He was a famous man in his time, but what has preserved his name for posterity are his writings or, to be specific, the first part of Pontus rímur, a rímur cycle about a Spanish prince. Pontus rímur are among the better ones of the genre and are based, as many of the rímur were, on a French romance transmitted to Iceland through a German translation.

Rímur are not widely read today, but Pontus rímur have secured themselves a special place in Icelandic literature by being a recurring theme in Íslandsklukkan by Halldór Laxness, where the protagonist of the story invariably alleviates boredom by chanting Pontus rímur the Elder. There are no such rímur, but since Pontus rímur have three authors, it is difficult to resist seeing it as a reference to the first part, composed by Magnús.

His nickname, prúði, can be variously interpreted as elegant or wise.

Of his eleven surviving children, Ari Magnússon is of particular note, being the man responsible for the last massacre in Icelandic history, the so-called Spánverjavígin of 1615.

• Grímur M. Helgason (ed.) (1961). Rit Rímnafélagins X : Pontus rímur. Rímnafélagið: Reykjavík.

Icelandic Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Magnús Jónsson