Nineteenth-Century Translation of Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and the Politics of Language

Lecture by Ciaran McDonough,University of Iceland.

This talk examines the motivations and rationale behind translations of Old Norse-Icelandic literature which were published in the nineteenth century. Focusing on the activities of Icelandic and Danish scholars, I explore the idea of language politics around the translation of medieval literature.

Translation is the presentation of material in a certain way and in accordance with the translator’s values. Even if we purport to be neutral and objective, our worldviews still creep in and influence the way we perceive things, which is reflected in word choice in translations. Thus, the nineteenth-century text can be seen as an original production and artefact in itself, encoding information about the social, political, and historical environment in which it was produced. 

As Old Norse-Icelandic was understood to be the predecessor to Modern Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish, research into language in the nineteenth century was often involved in nation-building endeavours. This talk investigates how the language was politicised in the production of these translation.