lit a candle 2h agoMy cousin called me from Reykjavik this morning to tell me. I still have my copy of the 2002 Islensk ordabok, the big two volume one, he edited that. Didn't know the man but that book sat on my desk through grad school.
Their story
Mörður Árnason was an Icelandic linguist, dictionary editor, journalist and politician who spent much of his life working with the Icelandic language and much of the rest in left-wing politics. He sat in the Althingi for the Social Democratic Alliance (Samfylkingin) for Reykjavík South from 2003 to 2007 and for…
Mörður Árnason was an Icelandic linguist, dictionary editor, journalist and politician who spent much of his life working with the Icelandic language and much of the rest in left-wing politics. He sat in the Althingi for the Social Democratic Alliance (Samfylkingin) for Reykjavík South from 2003 to 2007 and for Reykjavík North from 2010 to 2013, chaired the parliament's environment committee, and is remembered by many Icelanders as the editor of the greatly expanded third edition of Íslensk orðabók, the Icelandic dictionary, published in 2002. He died on 10 November 2026 at the palliative care ward of Landspítali in Kópavogur, aged 73, after a long fight with cancer.
He was born in Reykjavík on 30 October 1953, the eldest child of Dr. Árni Björnsson, an ethnologist, scholar and writer, and Vilborg Harðardóttir, a journalist and press photographer who also sat for a time in the Althingi as a substitute member. He had three younger sisters, Ilmur, Dögg and Embla Ýr Bárudóttir. At Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík he was president of Framtíðin, the school's debating society, in the 1972 to 1973 school year, and he matriculated in 1973.
He studied Icelandic and linguistics at the University of Iceland and the University of Oslo, taking his BA in 1978, and then did postgraduate work in linguistics at the Sorbonne (Paris 7) from 1978 to 1981. Back in Iceland he worked at the University of Iceland's dictionary project, Orðabók Háskólans, from 1981 to 1984. He then became a journalist on the socialist daily Þjóðviljinn from 1984, and was one of its editors in 1988 and 1989. From 1989 to 1991 he was information officer to the Minister of Finance.
From 1991 to 2003 he was an editor at the publishers Mál og menning and later Edda. The high point of that work was the dictionary: he edited a revised electronic edition of Íslensk orðabók in 2000, the much enlarged third edition in two volumes in 2002, and a fourth, single volume edition in 2007. He also gave talks on the Icelandic language on the state broadcaster RÚV, later collected in the book Málkrókar, and journalists and writers long rang him for rulings on usage.
In politics he was a man of the left by conviction. In the 1990s he was among the founders of Þjóðvaki, the movement led by Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, stood for it in the 1995 general election and first entered the Althingi as a substitute member that November. He later joined the Social Democratic Alliance, was elected for Reykjavík South in 2003, and returned to parliament in 2010 for Reykjavík North, serving until 2013. He sat on the education, environment, transport, commerce and foreign affairs committees, chaired the environment committee in 2010 and 2011, and was a member of Iceland's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 2011 to 2013. In all he sat in 18 sessions of the Althingi between 1995 and 2015, nine as a full member and nine as a substitute. He also served for many years on the RÚV broadcasting council and board.
After leaving parliament he worked as a freelance scholar and editor. His 2015 edition of Hallgrímur Pétursson's Passion Hymns (Passíusálmar), with a guide to their content, was singled out for praise in the parliamentary tribute. He was a humanist who sat on the board of Siðmennt, the Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association, and campaigned for freedom of religion, and he volunteered for his football club, KR.
He married the poet Linda Vilhjálmsdóttir. He had a daughter, Ölrún Marðardóttir, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He had lived with cancer for twelve years but kept working and following public affairs closely until his final illness of about two months. On 11 November 2026 the Speaker of the Althingi, Þórunn Sveinbjarnardóttir, opened the day's sitting with words in his memory and members stood in silence.
Biography adapted from Morgunblaðið (mbl.is) 11 Nov 2026; Vísir 11 Nov 2026; Althingi memorial words 11 Nov 2026; Althingi CV; DV 11 Nov 2026; Árnastofnun; Wikipedia.
In their own words
“Siðmennt syrgir góðan félaga. Mörður var hjálpsamur, vitur, skýr og gagnrýninn í hugsun en jafnframt foringjahollur, framsýnn, barngóður og mikill gleðigjafi.”
Siðmennt, the Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association, in tribute, November 2026, as quoted by DV. In English: Siðmennt mourns a good comrade; Mörður was helpful, wise, clear and critical in thought, far-sighted, good with children and a great bringer of joy.
“Það var aldrei lognmolla í kringum Mörð!”
Tribute quoted in the DV headline, 11 November 2026. In English: There was never a dull moment around Mörður!
“Þegar ég gekk loks til liðs við Samfylkinguna var enginn faðmur jafn breiður og hans.”
Writer and former MP Margrét Tryggvadóttir, quoted by DV, November 2026. In English: When I finally joined the Social Democratic Alliance, no embrace was as wide as his.
Photos
1Mörður Árnason, former member of the Althingi
by People Forever
From social media
2Posts by Mörður, and posts about them, kept here so they are not lost.