Hermann Pálsson
Encyclopedia
Hermann Pálsson was an Iceland
ic language scholar.
Hermann Pálsson, Icelandic scholar and translator: born Sauðanes á Ásum, a farm near Blönduós in Iceland on the 26th May 1921; Lecturer in Icelandic Studies, Edinburgh University 1950-82, Professor of Icelandic Studies 1982-88 (Emeritus); married 1953 Stella Þorvarðardóttir (one daughter); died Bourgas, Bulgaria 11 August 2002.
If the 19th century saw the discovery by English-speaking readers of the great body of medieval Icelandic literature, no one did more than Hermann Pálsson to ensure that the late 20th century and beyond did not forget it. Sometimes alone, but more frequently with collaborators of the quality of Magnus Magnusson and Paul Edwards, Pálsson produced a stream of translations. It began with Njal's Saga in 1960 and over the following decades turned into a flood of 40-odd longer and shorter texts from all corners of the corpus.
Unlike many of his Victorian predecessors, Hermann was no fan of horned helmets and the Boy's Own view of the heroic north: his translations are characterised by common sense and accessibility – in the jargon of modern translation studies, he was a domesticator rather than a foreigniser.
To twist English so that it imitated Icelandic syntax, or to create a pseudo-English vocabulary in the manner of William Morris, seemed to him to be an exoticising distortion of the relationship between the text and its audience, something on which he would turn an only partially feigned humorous spleen. In his translations, as in the introductions and notes that accompanied them, he wanted his modern audience to understand and share the saga context with the original audience rather than perceive it as merely entertainingly alien.
Hermann Pálsson was, however, not only a translator, he was also one of the most distinguished scholars of Icelandic studies of his generation, though the scholar/translator distinction is almost certainly one he would not have made himself. Born on a farm near the Húnafjördur in the north of Iceland in 1921 as the sixth of 12 children, he grew up in far from affluent circumstances. Nevertheless he went on to take his first degree in Icelandic Studies at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik in 1947 and moved from there to take another honours degree, this time in Irish Studies, at the National University of Ireland in Dublin in 1950.
It was the Celtic side of his interests that led to his first books – a volume of ancient Irish tales, Irskar fornsögur (1953), and another of Gaelic poetry from the Hebrides, Söngvar frá Sudureyjum (1955), both translated into Icelandic – as well as to his 1996 book on the Celts and Celtic influence in Iceland, Keltar á Islandi. (He learned Welsh in the 1950s, too, and decades later was happy to tell Welshmen like myself of the sufferings of a loquacious and not utterly teetotal young Icelander "immersed" in a Calvinistic – and dry – village in Gwynedd.)
In 1950 Pálsson was appointed Lecturer in Icelandic in the Department of English Language, the traditional home for Icelandic studies in British universities, at Edinburgh University and there he remained until he retired in 1988, having been appointed to a personal chair in 1982. In retirement he became an Honorary Fellow of Scandinavian Studies at Edinburgh.
Perhaps the central theme in Hermann Pálsson's scholarly contributions was that which underlay his short and, he felt, undervalued book Art and Ethics in Hrafnkel's Saga (1971) in which he argued that "the Christian society of 13th-century Iceland . . . had a closer affinity with medieval European culture than with the pagan world of primitive heroism". The saga-writer's aim, Pálsson thought, was to teach his readers about themselves rather than about pagan forebears and therefore "the story has a serious moralistic purpose and must be interpreted in terms of medieval ethics".
Such an approach put him at odds with the "nativist" view that held that sagas were faithful accounts of pagan Iceland and fatalistic northern heroism. In this, as in his arguments for Celtic and Sami influences on Icelandic culture, his views were not uncontroversial.
Retirement is, of course, relative and in Hermann's case the flow of books, articles and editions – among them, important editions of the great Eddic poems Hávamál and Völuspá – continued undiminished to the end, as did his encouragement and support of younger scholars and of his subject here (in the U.K.) and abroad. His most recent book, Sólarljód og vitranir annarlegra heima, an edition of a 13th-century visionary poem, was published earlier this summer and his next, a study of Grettir's Saga, will appear in the autumn (2002). Plans for the future rather than past projects provided the staples of his conversation and it is typical that, even on the family holiday in Bulgaria where he died as the result of a tragic accident, he was working on a manuscript. Eighty-one he might have been, but he was cut off in full flow.
Hermann Pálsson was a companionable man. He loved talk, and his understated humour and slightly gruff charm made his company a joy. His conversation, marked by a strong Icelandic accent even after 50 years in Scotland, could range seamlessly from the ninth century to the 21st: he apparently had total recall of every incident and character in medieval literature and would weave them without distinction into his anecdotes along with – and usually to the disadvantage of – modern politicians and the personalities of today.
He himself was the least pompous of men and he had no time for pomposity, particularly its academic version, in others. What anger was in him, he reserved for injustice and inhumanity.
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
ic language scholar.
Hermann Pálsson, Icelandic scholar and translator: born Sauðanes á Ásum, a farm near Blönduós in Iceland on the 26th May 1921; Lecturer in Icelandic Studies, Edinburgh University 1950-82, Professor of Icelandic Studies 1982-88 (Emeritus); married 1953 Stella Þorvarðardóttir (one daughter); died Bourgas, Bulgaria 11 August 2002.
If the 19th century saw the discovery by English-speaking readers of the great body of medieval Icelandic literature, no one did more than Hermann Pálsson to ensure that the late 20th century and beyond did not forget it. Sometimes alone, but more frequently with collaborators of the quality of Magnus Magnusson and Paul Edwards, Pálsson produced a stream of translations. It began with Njal's Saga in 1960 and over the following decades turned into a flood of 40-odd longer and shorter texts from all corners of the corpus.
Unlike many of his Victorian predecessors, Hermann was no fan of horned helmets and the Boy's Own view of the heroic north: his translations are characterised by common sense and accessibility – in the jargon of modern translation studies, he was a domesticator rather than a foreigniser.
To twist English so that it imitated Icelandic syntax, or to create a pseudo-English vocabulary in the manner of William Morris, seemed to him to be an exoticising distortion of the relationship between the text and its audience, something on which he would turn an only partially feigned humorous spleen. In his translations, as in the introductions and notes that accompanied them, he wanted his modern audience to understand and share the saga context with the original audience rather than perceive it as merely entertainingly alien.
Hermann Pálsson was, however, not only a translator, he was also one of the most distinguished scholars of Icelandic studies of his generation, though the scholar/translator distinction is almost certainly one he would not have made himself. Born on a farm near the Húnafjördur in the north of Iceland in 1921 as the sixth of 12 children, he grew up in far from affluent circumstances. Nevertheless he went on to take his first degree in Icelandic Studies at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik in 1947 and moved from there to take another honours degree, this time in Irish Studies, at the National University of Ireland in Dublin in 1950.
It was the Celtic side of his interests that led to his first books – a volume of ancient Irish tales, Irskar fornsögur (1953), and another of Gaelic poetry from the Hebrides, Söngvar frá Sudureyjum (1955), both translated into Icelandic – as well as to his 1996 book on the Celts and Celtic influence in Iceland, Keltar á Islandi. (He learned Welsh in the 1950s, too, and decades later was happy to tell Welshmen like myself of the sufferings of a loquacious and not utterly teetotal young Icelander "immersed" in a Calvinistic – and dry – village in Gwynedd.)
In 1950 Pálsson was appointed Lecturer in Icelandic in the Department of English Language, the traditional home for Icelandic studies in British universities, at Edinburgh University and there he remained until he retired in 1988, having been appointed to a personal chair in 1982. In retirement he became an Honorary Fellow of Scandinavian Studies at Edinburgh.
Perhaps the central theme in Hermann Pálsson's scholarly contributions was that which underlay his short and, he felt, undervalued book Art and Ethics in Hrafnkel's Saga (1971) in which he argued that "the Christian society of 13th-century Iceland . . . had a closer affinity with medieval European culture than with the pagan world of primitive heroism". The saga-writer's aim, Pálsson thought, was to teach his readers about themselves rather than about pagan forebears and therefore "the story has a serious moralistic purpose and must be interpreted in terms of medieval ethics".
Such an approach put him at odds with the "nativist" view that held that sagas were faithful accounts of pagan Iceland and fatalistic northern heroism. In this, as in his arguments for Celtic and Sami influences on Icelandic culture, his views were not uncontroversial.
Retirement is, of course, relative and in Hermann's case the flow of books, articles and editions – among them, important editions of the great Eddic poems Hávamál and Völuspá – continued undiminished to the end, as did his encouragement and support of younger scholars and of his subject here (in the U.K.) and abroad. His most recent book, Sólarljód og vitranir annarlegra heima, an edition of a 13th-century visionary poem, was published earlier this summer and his next, a study of Grettir's Saga, will appear in the autumn (2002). Plans for the future rather than past projects provided the staples of his conversation and it is typical that, even on the family holiday in Bulgaria where he died as the result of a tragic accident, he was working on a manuscript. Eighty-one he might have been, but he was cut off in full flow.
Hermann Pálsson was a companionable man. He loved talk, and his understated humour and slightly gruff charm made his company a joy. His conversation, marked by a strong Icelandic accent even after 50 years in Scotland, could range seamlessly from the ninth century to the 21st: he apparently had total recall of every incident and character in medieval literature and would weave them without distinction into his anecdotes along with – and usually to the disadvantage of – modern politicians and the personalities of today.
He himself was the least pompous of men and he had no time for pomposity, particularly its academic version, in others. What anger was in him, he reserved for injustice and inhumanity.