The Seal Woman - A Legend Retold

I encountered the Faroese legend of seal women in the Toronto Reference Library's rare book stacks. While I copied poems from a Faroese anthology, Jane flipped through a book called The Farthest Shore.  Turning the pages, she described the tales of unmarried suicides who lured men to sea from the safety of the shore.

Published to inspire and inform travellers to the islands, The Farthest Shore has two distinct parts. Jørgan-Frantz Jacobsen introduces the Faroe Islands with the poetic and tragic legend of the seal woman. The legend was just one of many handed down by oral tradition and placed into the written form by one of the Faroe's greatest writers. In the second half, Niels Elkaer-Hansen describes the culture and customs of early 20th century Faroe. A boat buoyed below a bird cliff illustrates the cover and is one of many of Ib Spang Olsen’s pencil illustrations in the book.

While Hansen informed, Jacobsen inspired. Tucked inside Jacobsen’s essay was a poetic backdrop that fused the Faroese storytelling tradition with the people, the place, and the legends of the islands. In the poetic tale, Jacobsen informed travellers in a way no travel guide could. Beyond the dates, names and places, and beyond the monetary, political and legal customs imported from the Danish Crown, were the beliefs of the fledgling dependency and the lifeblood of their threatened language. With this infused spirit, Jacobsen lured readers from the safety of their homes to the inhospitable islands at the edge of the world.

Legends of creatures that swim in the sea and live in the hills abound in the Faroese tradition of storytelling. Heðin Brú and other notable writers from the mid 20th century wrote in the midst of a modernizing Faroe, fusing folk legend and modern elements into their works. But are the storytelling traditions and legends still incorporated into Faroese literature today? Are the legends still important?

The Seal Woman - a legend retold and explored is a reflection on the spoken language before the written word and the growth of the Faroese literary form. Authors, Enna Garðshorn Mikkelsen and Elsa Heinesen, explore how early islanders experienced the seal woman legend long before modern writers put it to paper in the 19th century. They go on to explain why oral legends and storytelling are still meaningful to the Faroese today.

The Seal Woman is available in print from Sprotin in both English and Faroese.

Tóroddur Poulsen, translations by Randi Ward

Randi Ward has translated five poems from the collection Fjalir by Faroese poet Tóroddur Poulsen. The original Faroese-language poem and woodcut print accompanies each translation. Click on the link above each poem set to view the woodcut.

The complete collection of Fjalir in Faroese is available online at HNJ's and Rit og Rak.

Anne Carson, translated by Oddfríður Marni Rasmussen

Canadian poet and classicist Anne Carson has been given the nod by Faroese poet Oddfríður Marni Rasmussen. The poem Býur apostlanna (Apostle Town) can be found online at Vencil. To compare with the original, along with the complete collection of The Life of Towns, visit North Dakota State University, or buy the collection of poetry and essays, Plainwater, online at amazon. 

Oddfríður has translated many English-language poets, playwrights and authors into Faroese, such as Samuel Beckett, Raymond Carver, and Jim Carroll. Interested readers can find some of his translations, including a handful of his original works in the Faroese literary magazine Vencil. A collection of 12 translations of Anne Carson's poetic works, along with many other translations can be found in the 6th edition.

Oddfríður's English language short story"Age Erases Itself" and poem "From the bottom of the chest" are included in Vencil's English Special Edition, published in 2011.

For a more complete list of his works, along with a few pieces of his poetry, check out his wordpress page. Find a listing of his works produced in the Faroese literature magazine at Vencil.

Bárdur Oskarsson: Children's Books in Translation

A dog and a rat find a rabbit sleeping in the middle of the road, but the road is no place to sleep. The Flat Rabbit, by Bárdur Oskarsson, tells the story of two friends who breathe life into our ideas of death by giving one last hurrah for a rabbit whose life abruptly ended. Marita Thomsen's translation is one of the easiest works of Faroese literature to find in English, and is becoming one of the most popular, too.

Read two reviews of The Flat Rabbit here and here at Kirkus Reviews.

In the Cage: Poetry in Music & Translation

The University of the Faroe Islands have a translation of Janus Djurhuus's í búri along with a centennial commemoration (1914-2014) of Djurhuus's collection of poems, Yrkingar. This is the first individual collection of Faroese poems ever published!

The poem, í búri (in the cage) is said to be translated in 1948 by N. S. Kiernan. I have not found any record of this translator or whether the poem was anthologized with other Faroese poems, but it appears that the poem may have been translated to accompany a collection of music. I have located a cd with the same title and authors at the Icelandic library, so when I visit this May, I'll check in on it. For now, read í búri in translation, or listen to Harkaliðið's folk rendition:

George Johnston: Poetry in Translation

George Johnston's English language translation of Christian Matras's poems is likely to be the only dual-language book of Faroese poetry or any Faroese literature available. 'Úr Sjón og Úr Minni, or Seeing and Remembering', is a small book of short verses, and one of the last collections of poetry written by Christian Matras.

Seeing and Remembering contains 20 short verses, between two and eight lines each, with the original Faroese poems facing Johnston's translation. The book may appear sparse and is quite a peculiar oddity, but for language learners and appreciators of Faroese-language literature, this is a great and an important discovery.

In the '70's, Johnston visited the Faroe Islands, befriending and working closely with Christian Matras to translate and publish a small collection of his poems in Poetry Foundation's magazine 'Poetry', and later in the Faroese poetry anthology 'Rocky Shores'. Seeing and Remembering was published in '86, but there is no mention of whether they worked together to translate Seeing and Remembering. Johnston did get a chance to visit the Faroe Islands and his friend Christian Matras in the summer of '88, four months before Christian Matras died.

In 'Inward of Poetry', a book of letters between Johnston and his close friend William Blissett, it's suggested that Matras became Johnston's favourite modern poet, and is likely the poet who had the greatest influence on Johnston's late poetry. With this in mind, it becomes a little clearer why this peculiar little book exists.

George Johnston also translated Jørgen-Frantz Jacobsen's 'Barbara' into English, a tradition handed down to him from Jacobsen's close friend Christian Matras. Matras translated Barbara from its original Danish into Faroese.

Randi Ward: Faroese Poetry in Translation

Writer and photographer Randi Ward has introduced us to the works of three Faroese poets: Sissi Kampmann, Vónbjørt Vang, and Tóroddur Poulsen. These poets, a mix of emerging and established talent, provide a glimpse into Faroese literature. Find the English translations and the poems in their original Faroese at words without borders, a magazine celebrating international literature. A biography of each poet accompanies each poem.

• Sissi Kampmann's the round table is the eye
• Vónbjørt Vang's on the bed
• Tóroddur Poulsen's The Expiration Date

Randi Ward also provides a great introduction to the contemporary Faroese literature, the writers working today, and the issues facing Faroese artists in her article "Rocking the Boat in the Faroe Islands".

Selections of Randi Ward's work can be found on her website with photography at broadzine.