In 1946, the bones of Jónas Hallgrímsson were moved from Copenhagen to Iceland in a controversy known in Icelandic as the "beinamálið" ('bones question'). While ostensibly a national triumph, the reburial has been argued to have been an enormously problematic exercise in hegemony by Iceland's post-independence elites and “instead of uniting the nation, the episode uncovered a great divide within the people of Iceland.”', "Scandinavian-Canadian Studies/Études scandinaves au Canada", 20 (2011), 52-61 (p. 53), http://scancan.net/article.pdf?id=helgason_1_20 (PDF), http://scancan.net/article.htm?id=helgason_1_20 (XHTML). Cf. Jón Karl Helgason, "Ferðalok: Skýrsla handa akademíu" (Reykjavík: Bjartur, 2003).</ref> The main campaigner behind this was Sigurjón Pétursson, an admirer of Jónas who claimed to be in telepathic communication with the dead poet and wanted to re-bury his remains in Öxnadalur, where Jónas grew up.', "Scandinavian-Canadian Studies/Études scandinaves au Canada", 20 (2011), 52-61, http://scancan.net/article.pdf?id=helgason_1_20 (PDF), http://scancan.net/article.htm?id=helgason_1_20 (XHTML).</ref> Sigurjón came up against serious opposition from a number of the political élite, including Ólafur Thors, who was then Prime Minister of Iceland. The government informed him that Jónas' bones were state property, and would be buried at the national burial ground at Þingvellir, alongside the poet Einar Benediktsson.