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.

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.

Christian Matras: Faroese Poet

While still little known to English language appreciators of Faroese literature, Christian Matras may be our most accessible Faroese poet, thanks to the efforts of Canadian poet and translator, George Johnston. English translations of Faroese poetry remain few, so discovering, say, one forty-five page work by a writer who has published extensively in the Faroese language is kind of like striking a gold mine.

Christian Matras's poetry was influenced, much like other Faroese writers, by J.H.O. "Janus" Djurhuus, the poet often credited with modernizing and breaking Faroese poetry away from the strictly traditional folk legends and songs. Matras, like Djurhuus, became increasingly influenced by continental philosophy and poetry after studying in Copenhagen. Universal themes would increasingly be explored, but the pastoral island life, the folk legends and the land and sea would never be forgotten. Bridging traditional forms, such as the influential Thomas Kingo's hymns turned twentieth century Faroese folk melodies, with moderns themes, Matras's poetry was somewhat lighter than the 'troll-darkness' that underscored so much of Djurhuus's work. In Djurhuus, darkness often overpowered light, but in the next generation of authors and poets, such as Matras and Heinesen, an earnest appreciation for the landscape and Faroese life, despite the long, dark winters, were guiding themes. In one poem about the island of Matras's birthplace, ''Viðoy'' leaves port in the fog, with the tall cliff, Enniberg, breaking waves at the bow, the island's mountains as its sails and masts, and the sheep and islanders as its cargo.

Unlike a few of his contemporaries, Matras chose to write in the Faroese language, promoting the language even if it meant obscurity on the international scene. But his obscurity did not last long, well, maybe not entirely. By the seventies, the poet and translator George Johnston, well known for his translations of the Icelandic Sagas and other Nordic literature, began collaborating with Matras on English translations of his poetry. By the early eighties, Johnston translated a collection of Faroese poetry, called 'Rocky Shores', that included writers such as Matras, Heinesen, and Karsten Hoydal. Seven years later, Johnston translated a collection of Matras's short poetry; the only such publication of Faroese poetry available to English-language readers today.

Matras's contributions to Faroese culture and arts go beyond his poetry. In the early twenties, Matras published the first modern Faroese-Danish dictionary in collaboration with M.A. Jacobsen. Matras was also a highly regarded translator, and helped repatriate Danish language works by Faroese authors, such as William Heinesen and Jørgen Frantz Jacobsen, to the Faroese language. Translations of Voltaire and Jonathan Swift, among others, helped expand the accessibility of continental works for Faroese readers, just as Djurhuus did for Dante and Homer in the decades before.

• 'So Deep, So Deep' and 'The Company of the Blind', were published in an August 1970 issue of Poetry Magazine, and are available online at the poetryfoundation.org. 
• A selection of Matras's poems, such as 'So, Deep, So Deep', 'Viðoy', and 'the Milkmaids' were included in a collection of Faroese poetry, 'Rocky Shores', collected and translated in 1981 by George Johnston. This collection is not in publication any more, so check the stacks at your public and university libraries.
• 'Seeing and Remembering: Strophes', translated by George Johnston, is published by Penumbra Press in 1988 and is still available on their website.
• Matras's poems have also been put to music by Agnar Ellebye on the album ''Páll fangi og bygd og hav''. The song ''Ein løta við brian og agnar'' is available for download on amazon and musicme. The complete album is available from tutl, the Faroese music store.

Faroese Literature

On my trip to the Faroe Islands in 2013, I had the joy of visiting Heðin Brú's home town of Skálavík, on the island of Sandoy. The bus driver on the route between Dalur and Sandur discussed Faroese politics and literature with me, and was pleased to mention that he was a descendant of the great Faroese poet, J.H.O Djurhuus. Many Faroese have the privilage of such a lineage. The population of the islands is under 50,000 and many Faroese are authors, poets, musicians or artists.

While the bookshelves are teaming with recent Faroese publications and translations of foreign works, finding some of the great classic works, such as those from J.H.O Djurhuus, is difficult; most are long out of publication, and a few may be long forgotten. Some of the classics can be found on abebooks and ebay, but these choices are often costly. A collection of Djurhuus's poems retailed for over 100 CAD, including shipping; not a bad price for a serious collector, but far out of range for the average student seeking to explore Faroese poetry. Current Faroese publications, often from the Faroe's largest publisher, Sprotin, are still moderately expensive when compared to books available on this side of the Atlantic.

During my 2013 trip to the Faroe Islands, I was fortunate enough to find a recently published, beautiful, hardback edition of Heðin Brú's Stuttsøgur (short stories) from Rit og Rak in Tórshavn. At about 50 CAD (and weighing a hefty 1.5 kilograms), the price was worth it, and I didn't mind carrying the weight as I hiked from bygd to bygd. I also found the Faroese language Fedgar á Ferð (The Old Man and His Sons) in both paperback and compact disc, only to later discover that both were available online as an e-book and downloadable mp3 for much cheaper.

Sprotin's e-books are often more than half the price of their printed versions. Pól F's collection of poetry, Heilsan Pól F., for example, retails at 249 DKK (about 50 CAD) for the printed version, while the e-book retails for 129 DKK (25 CAD). Join the bookclub and save an additional 20 percent on Sprotin's electronic and printed publications.

Translators of Faroese Literature

Farlit has been promoting Faroese literature on the international stage since 2011. And since 2014, they have been coordinating grants for publishers interested in translating selected Faroese works into Nordic languages. Numerous translations of Faroese works into Nordic languages are available, however, translations into English are still underrepresented.

What follows is a list of translators that have translated Faroese literature into English. This list will continue to expand as translators come to my attention, and as Faroese literature continues to be promoted and new and inspired writers take on the task of translation:

• Heðin Bronn translated a collection of Faroese short stories, which included works from the Faroese language by Heðin Brú and Karstyn Hoydal, and from the Danish language by William Heinesen. This was the first anthology of short Faroese literature.
• George Johnston is perhaps one of the greatest translators of Faroese literature into the English. He translated the anthology of Faroese Poetry, "Rocky Shores", which included poetry from Christian Matras, William Heinesen (from Danish), and Karstyn Hoydal, among others. This is the only anthology of Faroese poetry available. Johnston translated a small collection of Christian Matras short poems in a bilingual edition titled "Seeing and Remembering", the only bilingual poem collection available. Johnston also translated Jørgan Frantz Jacobsen's Barbara. 
• Glyn Jones has translated works by William Heinesen.
• Matthew Landrum has recently translated short stories by Sólrún Michelsen and poetry by Agnar Artúvertin. His poems have also been translated into Faroese.
• Annfinnur í Skála is the author of both the Faroese-English and English-Faroese dictionaries. 
• Reginald Spink, best known for translating Hans Christian Andersen, translated a small pamphlet with a short essay by Jørgan Frantz Jacobsen and a brief description of the Faroe Islands for travellers (1965).
• Marjun Stewart translated "Under Southern Stars" by Gunnar Hoydal. 
• Marita Thomsen has recently translated two children's books by Bárður Oskarsson.
• Randi Ward has recently translated Faroese poems for "Words Without Borders", a magazine celebrating and promoting international literature. Translations include works by both established and emerging poets.
• John F. West is best known for his translation of Heðin Brú's "The Old Man and His Sons". This is the only Faroese language novel set in the Faroe Islands that we have available today. 
• Vencil, the Faroese literary magazine, published a special English-language edition in 2011. Numerous translators are likely to be present (hopefully I can get my hands on a copy!)

I look forward to seeing the emergence of contemporary translators such as Matthew Landrum, Marita Thomsen, Marjun Stewart and Randi Ward. These translators will bring English speaking readers a little bit closer to the current Faroese literary scene.

Manor: Vampires and the Faroe Islands

The great Faroe Islands Podcast has turned me onto a German short story set in the Faroe Islands. The German author, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, who, despite never visiting the islands, manages the distinct Faroese landscape fairly well. "Manor" begins by describing the precarious position of the distant Faroe Islands with its unforgiving landscape, before a grim scene unfolds and dead bodies wash ashore.

Written over 130 years ago, the short story brings vampires and themes of homosexuality to the jagged shores of Vagar - quite ahead for a story of its time, calling some in the Faroese LGBT community to consider Ulrichs as a pioneer for gay rights.

There's much more to the story - and behind the story, including how the story resurfaced. The story of the story can be found at the Faroe Islands Podcast. Manor has been recently translated into Faroese by Birgir Kruse and Eiler Fagraklett and is available for sale at H N Jacobsens. Read the English translation of the short story for free, too.

Krossvatn, continued

This is a rough and very literal draft of Krossvatn. I will type out the early draft as it stands. We can see the similarities and differences between Faroese syntax and grammar.

Tað eru ikki nógv nýggjar, siðani eg var har norðuri. Hann hevði ligið lágt við áarføri 
It is not many years since I was there in the north. It had lied low with heavy rain

dagin fyri, so var hann malin upp til útnyrðingin um náttina, hevði   
the day before, when the north-west wind whirling up throughout the night had

klárað luftina og frysti í bein.
cleared the air and froze everything to bone.

Alt var avísað, eg fór av stað, svartakalkið lá sum ein glasskón um hvørja steinpirru, 
All was covered in ice, and I went along the thin layer of ice that laid a film of glass around a very small stone,

og hvørt keldufar botnfryst. Smáfossarnir norður gjørnum skorarnar hingu storknaðir
and around a little spring frozen to the bottom. The little cascades through the terraces in the north froze,

og glerpípur úr hvørjum lofti; tað barst mær fyri, sum roysningar skelktu út úr
and icicles hanging from under the cliff cracked before me, as walruses made faces out from the

fjallinum og vistu hesar øgiligu tøkutenninar.
mountain and showed their fierce fangs. 

Krossvatn

Over the past few weeks, when time allowed or when a break called for relaxing at the table, I would open up Lockwood's Modern Faroese and slowly translate Heðin Bru's 'Krossvatn'. For a short story of just three pages, I have only managed to work through about a quarter of it. But I'm not translating in such a way to quickly progress through the language. If I was, I'm clearly doing it the wrong way.

As I mentioned in a previous post, translating works like this is a very slow process. Learning a language in this way is similar to the Cambridge Latin Course, which immerses the student in readings and incorporates grammar as they progress through translating the works. The method de-emphasizes memorizing rules of grammar and syntax. Similar to older instruction, the method is used by people who prefer to jump into reading classics in their original language rather than wade through memorizing charts and tables of cases and out-of-context phrases. 'Modern Faroese' is very good at providing the necessary tools to begin a work in this way, but does not provide specific grammar references as you work through a reading, as the Cambridge Latin Course provides.  The grammar and syntax come slowly, but can be referenced in the previous sections, just as words are looked up in dictionaries. To be honest, I have learned more about grammar in these few weeks than I have in all my years in school.

The following is my translation of the first paragraph of Krossvatn. The translation is often very literal and some was easy to come by (see the first line) but plenty had to be made sense of, and these sections undergo constant revision. Some sections were very difficult and I had to make some assumptions about the meanings of what appear to be idiomatic phrases (see the italicized phrase below). Quite a few idioms are thankfully provided in Lockwood's glossary, however. If anyone has corrections or suggestions, I would be very grateful to hear them.

 - - -

Cross-lake is not really a lake, it is a pond in a bog, and nothing else. A river runs in and another out,—but Cross-lake becomes its calling and the story sings in older times that it was once a lake; but then they drained the water from it*. The river which runs out is a deep and straight ditch, so it was likely guided by the hand of man—yes, and so the water was drained, but it is almost like something in that wretched pond, after which having a certain nature, has the collection of all life in the old lake itself.  And why shall it not have the given name? You should be obliged not to laugh in scorn or mock, as you walk past you say, "Call that a lake, a mere hole!" No, let it have the name, it bears it with honour. 

"What life is here?"

"Don't ask, look, it is before our time. Now is a new year, don't bother about it—something stirs alive here all the same." 

- - -

Krossvatn er einki rættiligt vatn, tað er ein hylur í einum mórudiki, ikki er annað. Ein áin rennur í og onnur úr. -- Men Krossvatn verður tað rópt, og søgan sigur, at í eldri tíð var tað eitt vatn; men so veittu teir tað av. Áin, ið rennur frá, er eisini ein djúp grøv og jøvn so tað er líkt til, at har hevur mannahon verið.—Ja, og so er vatnið runnið burtur; men tað er mest, sum tann, neyðar hylurin, ið eftir er vorðin, hevur savnað alt lívið í tí gamla vatninum í seg. Og hví skal hann so ikki hava tað gamla navnið? Tú skalt ikki læa upp á háð, tú kemur framvið, og siga: "Hatta eita vatn, eitt glupsi!" Nei, lat hann hava navnið, hann ber tað við lit.

"Hvat lív er har?"

"Spyr ikki, hygg, tað er fyri hvønn mann. Nú er nýggjár, legg einki í tað, har bragdar kortini."


 *Thanks to Bart for this correction.

Reading in Faroese

It was only a few weeks after purchasing our tickets to Iceland sometime in June that we decided to add flights to Faroe. We couldn't resist, and thought, how could we be so close and not go? And, if life treats us well, we are hoping to visit the islands again next summer.

With school and life, it's been difficult to find the time to pick up the language, but the return to my favourite island nation this past summer rekindled that interest. I purchased a few books and an audio book during our visit to help me get in the spirit. I'm moving away from learning conversational Faroese and am focusing on reading literature. There is something about attempting to translate a short story. You learn so much about syntax, word usage and you get to see first hand how the language abounds with idiomatic expressions. It does take time, but I do it in the evenings now and I actually find it relaxing after a long day. I like learning conversational Faroese, but when I'm already studying for school, I need something a little more, well, like a puzzle and less like a lesson.

For those who enjoy this method of learning the language, Sprotin publishes the Faroese version of the "Old Man and His Sons", by Heðin Brú. Both paper, cd and electronic versions are available and the English version is readily available from Amazon or Book Depository. It is the only Faroese book that has all English, Faroese and audio versions available that I am aware of, but it is a little daunting due to its length, despite being a short novel. Other English translations of literature written in the Faroese language are not easily available, but you may be able to locate the rare "Faroese Short Stories" from the Library of Scandinavian Literature, published by Twayne Pub. and The American-Scandinavian Foundation. Even if you are not learning the language this way, it's a great book to bring you back to a favourite place that also gives you a peek into the development of earlier Faroese literature.

The Faroese short stories are filled with the landscape that I enjoy so much. Heðin Brú delivers some of the best and are among my personal favourites. From reading the handful of his stories available to me, I couldn't resist purchasing the newly published collection of his stories, despite being illiterate in Faroese. The collection of short stories stands as a monument to my time in Faroe this past summer, spending time on Sandoy, the island of his birth, and the long discussions of language, politics and literature with our bus driver who also happened to be a descendent from the poet Janus Djuurhus!

For now, I use a story written by Heðin Brú that I found in Lockwood's "Introduction to Modern Faroese". "Krossvatn" has no English translation, but that almost works to an advantage. It takes time, but the slow process allows you to soak in the grammar naturally. I'm still trying to make sense of the first paragraph, but I know the story is about a lake which is more of a pond, but despite its small stature, has something about it that's bigger than life -- or maybe it's deathly still but something is alive. Lockwood's text does a good job of providing some of the idiomatic expressions in the glossary.