Björg Carítas Þorláksdóttir

Björg Carítas Þorláksson was an Icelandic scholar and teacher. After earning her teaching certificate in Ytriey she taught for three years and studied in Denmark, before applying to the Reykjavík Junior College to further her education. Refused admittance, she moved back to Copenhagen and earned a Danish teaching degree. She studied at the Athens Classes to learn Greek and Latin and was admitted to graduate study at the University of Copenhagen. After her marriage, she abandoned her studies to work on the preparation of an Icelandic-Danish Dictionary, for the next two decades with her husband. When the dictionary was completed, his work was recognized and hers was not. Divorcing, she moved to Paris and attained a PhD, the first woman in Iceland to attain the distinction. Suffering from ill-health, she published until her death from breast cancer.