Rix, Robert. Thomas Percy's Antiquarian Alternative to Ossian

• Author: Rix, Robert
• Title: Thomas Percy's Antiquarian Alternative to Ossian
• Published in: Journal of Folklore Research 46/2
• Year: 2009
• Pages: 197-229
• E-text:
• Reference: Rix, Robert. "Thomas Percy's Antiquarian Alternative to Ossian." Journal of Folklore Research 46/2 (2009): 197-229.

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• Key words: translation, poetry (þýðingar, kveðskapur)

Annotation

On Thomas Percy's Five Pieces of Runic Poetry Translated from the Islandic Language (1763). This anthology of Norse verse ("The Incantation of Hervor", "The Dying Ode of Regner Lodbrog", "The Ransome of Egill the Scald", "The Funeral Song of Hacon" and "The Complaint of Harold") has garnered less attention than Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765) but was "conceived as part of the same national project" (p. 197). The poems Percy translated from Old Icelandic were presented as representative of what Anglo-Saxon verse would have been, a custodian tradition compensating for a dearth of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts in England from which to draw. The anthology was written as a direct response to James Macpherson's Fragments of Ancient Poetry (1760), i.e., the Ossianic poems, which Macpherson claimed were based on oral materials. In his editing practices and presentation of the texts, Percy emphasises the written (and thus incontrovertibly authentic) nature of his sources.

Lýsing

Greinin fjallar um þýðingu Thomas Percy á norrænum dróttkvæðum , Five Pieces of Runic Poetry Translated from the Islandic Language sem út kom 1763. Þetta úrval, sem hefur að geyma "The Incantation of Hervor", "The Dying Ode of Regner Lodbrog", "The Ransome of Egill the Scald", "The Funeral Song of Hacon" og "The Complaint of Harold", hefur fengið minni athygli en annað hliðstætt verk, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry frá 1765 en það var þó gefið út í sama þjóðlega tilgangi. Gefið var til kynna að kvæðin sem Percy þýddi úr norrænni tungu gæfu vísbendingu um þann fornenska kveðskap sem glatast hafði með því að fornensk handrit fóru forgörðum og væru í raun eins konar uppbót fyrir hann. Útgáfa Percys stóð í beinu sambandi við útgáfu James Macpherson á Fragments of Ancient Poetry frá 1760, þ.e. á kvæðum Ossíans, sem Macpherson fullyrti að hefðu varðveist í munnlegri geymd. Umgjörð útgáfu Percys miðaði að því að leggja áherslu á kvæðin hefðu varðveist skriflega í handritum (og væru því óumdeilanlega ósvikin).

Links

• Written by: Katelin Parsons
• Icelandic translation: Jón Karl Helgason